Christmas in Reverse - August Retreat

Sorry I'm just now getting around to posting these pictures from our Christmas in Reverse retreat that took place last weekend. We had a really good time. There were close to 60 kids there, and over the weekend we listened to and worked on every song in the musical except one. Wow! The kids did a great job staying focused. I think the idea of doing a Christmas musical really caught their attention, and they seemed pretty excited about it.

Some of my favorite parts of the weekend (in no particular order):

• Singing The Twelve Days of Choir - "On the first day of choir, Miss Genny gave to me..." Sharon was very creative in putting this together.


• Seeing a lot of kids that I missed while I was in Scotland, and getting to be "Miss Barb" again.


• Seeing the kids get so excited and want to keep singing "Vobis Hodie Salvator." Who knew they would enjoy a LATIN song so much?!


• Reindeer games - we did a giftwrapping relay, a jingle bell relay, and a "Santa hat" relay (where the kids had to put on a santa hat, scarf, and gloves).


• Sharon reading the Christmas story to the kids by candlelight.


• Decorating the sanctuary for Christmas in August!


• Being back with the "Fab Four" (now expanded from King of the Jungle to include other choir directors as well)


• Seeing how many kids were willing to commit the musical and audition for speaking, singing, and non-speaking roles.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. They aren't great, but they're all I have. I can't believe I didn't get any of the kids actually singing, but I guess that makes sense, since I was DIRECTING during that time. Oh well.