Sunday, December 21, 2014

When I’m crafting Christmas gifts I like to listen to my Christmas music; I have so much of it that it takes a long time to play through it all. Although I started work on Christmas gifts in July, I didn’t start the Christmas music until November. The Guild Christmas party really didn’t leave me with a warm feeling, and we missed the party last night, so I felt in need of some Christmas cheer. The Patricia Theatre was having a Christmas sing-along this afternoon so I decided to go.

The theatre has been restored after suffering major water damage from a broken sprinkler head a few months ago. It looks wonderful, although there are still signs of construction on some of the side aisles. The murals look amazing and I assumed they had been cleaned and repaired. That wasn’t the case though; some of the electrical wiring had failed in the past and never been repaired, but this time things were taken apart enough that they have fixed a number of lights around the murals. The ceiling has been restored to a lovely blue colour; until the restoration started they hadn’t known what the original ceiling colour had been. Entry to the event today was by donation, with the donations going to the Friends of the Patricia fund that helps with the cost of upkeep and repairs. A very worthy cause.

I went with every intention of listening as opposed to singing, but by the end of the afternoon I was joining in on all the songs. They had printed song sheets and members of the audience just called out what song they wanted next and we sang it. The gentleman at the piano, Jim, usually plays the organ before our art film series but he was on the piano today. He played the whole time without any music. Granted we were singing well known songs, but still!

I’m definitely feeling more festive tonight!