The Christmas Spirit.

I've only been to the HB stake Christmas fireside once before, and that was something of an unpleasant experience. I had agreed to participate in the choir, ignorant to the fact that musical productions in the stake are not about having fun and sharing good will. These productions are all about getting bossed around, and micromanaged. That was four years ago, and although I've been recruited every year since to come participate I haven't quite shaken the memory of the wardrobe inspection I was subjected to the last time I volunteered to participate. So again this year I declined the invitation, but decided at the last minute to attend the fireside and kind of see if things have changed. They have not. One of the choir conductors told me prior to the performance that one of her altos received a phone call earlier in the weekend telling her that she had missed too many practices (the conductor estimated she had missed 2, possibly 3 out of the dozen or so, and for very legitimate reasons), and was asked not to participate.

I have to admit, the performance was excellent, and all of the adult women wore their red tops with black skirts, and the men, youth, and children were all wearing their issued uniforms. I think there must be someone in the stake that has an unfulfilled dream of being in MoTab.

As a side note, I decided not to go home after church and then come back and deal with parking for the fireside, so I was hanging around waiting for things to get going when I spotted a guy from my fantasy league. I decided to wander over and find out if anyone ever smoothed things over with Double G (who announced that he's quitting the league after his brother accused him of altering league rules) and figured out who actually made it to the playoffs. While I was over there discussing this a member of the stake presidency told me that I would make a perfect greeter, handed me a stack of programs and asked me if I wouldn't mind. Which I really didn't. However, it turns out someone had already been assigned to be a greeter handing out programs, so when he saw the sp counselor handing me programs he hustled up to claim his job. The counselor took one look at him and actually told him to his face "No, I don't want you doing this job. I'd rather have an attractive young lady at the door with the programs. I'd like you to be an usher for me." I kind of felt bad for the guy. He asked me at least three times if I was managing okay, and since it really just consisted of standing there, smiling and handing someone a program as they walked through the door, I can only assume that he was really just making feeble attempts to regain his original position as greeter.