A caroling we went!
A group of 20 of us gathered in the Youth and Family Room to warm up our voices and then head out into homes to add some pre-Christmas cheer. We originally had 5 homes of homebound parishioners scheduled, but two of them had to cancel. We added a few homes of those of us present that were close to our route, so ended up visiting a total of six homes.
We began by getting to know everyone as there were quite a few relatively new faces from people who had been away at college. We had some gourmet hot chocolate (it was made in an espresso machine) and Mexican ponche (a Mexican tea like beverage) to warm our throats and candy canes to sweeten our tongues.
Daniella and Mayra had done a lot of pre-caroling work by compiling a list of carols in English and Spanish (most of the homes spoke Spanish, so we all had to be bilingual. There was no way to know how well all of the voices would meld together beforehand (few if any had ever sung anything together before), but as you can see in the video from our warm up, it turned out to be not so bad at all.
We began by getting to know everyone as there were quite a few relatively new faces from people who had been away at college. We had some gourmet hot chocolate (it was made in an espresso machine) and Mexican ponche (a Mexican tea like beverage) to warm our throats and candy canes to sweeten our tongues.
Daniella and Mayra had done a lot of pre-caroling work by compiling a list of carols in English and Spanish (most of the homes spoke Spanish, so we all had to be bilingual. There was no way to know how well all of the voices would meld together beforehand (few if any had ever sung anything together before), but as you can see in the video from our warm up, it turned out to be not so bad at all.
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After some adjustments to make sure that everyone knew where to stand, we divided into five different carloads. As past experience showed (read about our day feeding the homeless), we needed to make sure of the following before leaving:
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The first house ended up being a pretty moving experience, perhaps the most moving of the evening. The couple seemed very touched by our singing, the elderly man clapping his hands to our beat and the woman with a big smile and a moving expression of joy on her face. The next video is from one of the songs. |
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If we thought that looking at the expressions of the two people were moving, they were truly nothing compared to the verbal thanks that we were given. The woman said that she had to express how grateful she was that we had come to their home. It became even more meaningful when we learned later, that unbeknownst to all involved, the couple were the grandparents of two of the young women that had joined us for earlier events. The next video is a snippet of what she said. You have to listen close, but it made us all cry.
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Next we moved to the house of a woman that was bedridden. Somehow all 20 of us were able to pack into her room around her bed and sing to her. Her daughter shared that she didn't think that her mom could even here us, but she was very grateful that we had gone by to bring a little cheer to her household. The next video includes a couple of the songs that we sang.
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The next house we drove to was down the street from one of the carolers. That worked out really well, as we got no response when we rang the doorbell at the house we were scheduled to sing at. We weren't expected, but being family, there wasn't a problem. Again, we piled into the house and started singing. As you can see from the video, we had a slightly younger audience this time.
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Next we moved to the house of our instigator, Richard. His son, Nico, had decided not to sing with us, so Richard wanted to surprise him by serenading him. It turned out that there were surprises all around as Nico wasn't alone at home, Richard's wife, Maria, was there as well, having gotten back from a wedding reception. Richard was able to sneak all 20 of us into the living room and leave all of the lights off. He then went to Nico's room to call him to the living room to "clean up the mess that he had left." Nico was more than a little surprised to see that the mess wasn't a mess, but rather all of us.
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Our last stop of the evening was at the house of Tyson's mother. Tyson had started the evening with us, but had rushed off to his mother's house as soon as we arrived at Richard's house. It turns out that someone had tried to break into their house. Everyone was fine, but their nerves will on edge, so a little caroling helped ease them. No videos or pictures from their, but both Tyson's mother and younger half-brother were happy to see us. We had planned to go to Christmas Tree Lane after finishing singing, but since it was already after 10 PM, most of us ended up leaving for home. It was still a VERY fun evening. It you weren't able to join us, we invite you to think about it for next year.