Candlelight 09

It is that time of year again. The first weekend of December I always fly home, not just to go home because I love being home... but to also perform in Candlelight Carol at Disneyland. This was my 13th year and it has truly become one of my favorite Christmas traditions that I do with my old High School Alumni Choir and I am lucky enough that my mom goes with me every year as well. Usually Jamie goes too, but since she just had a baby... that didn't happen this year. And there was one year that Kristy came with us too. THAT was a treat. :o) I did a post about Candlelight last year, but I wanted to write more about how much I love it.

Every year it is exciting to see which celebrity they get to narrate for the program. This year they had Jon Voight. I didn't know too much about him, I mean... I just knew a few movies he

has been in and that he is Angelina Jolie's dad and they did not get along. So I was not that excited for him as a narrator. During our rehearsal with him behind the scene's of Disneyland I was pleasantly surprised. He is actually a really decent guy (which is probably why he doesn't get along with Angelina Jolie). He is one of the first narrator's that I have seen in my 13 years of performing in this program that really understood the meaning of the program. He was not just doing it because he was being paid and had nothing else going on, you could tell that Christmas actually means something to him. In fact... during the rehearsal he got teary eyed telling us all what a special gift we were giving to everyone at Disneyland and that celebrating Christ is the true meaning of Christmas. After this there was a loud "Amen" from one of the choir members and everyone clapped. It was great. It is a really neat experience for me to be in a 1,000 voice choir that is made up of different High School choir's, alumni choirs, and different church choirs that all audition and make it to Candlelight. I am surrounded by people of all different faiths and different backgrounds than I am, but we all come together and when we start singing

about Christ and you hear how powerful the music is (1,000 voice choir + Disneyland Orchestra + Fanfare Trumpets + hand bell choir + soloist's = AMAZING) it is a very spiritual experience. Every year I am touched to the point where tears start to come and I remember why I

make the trip back every year. I am blessed and thankful that I have that opportunity.

Our Director, Nancy

The Soloist's

The Hand bell Choir

After the two performances, we get to go back in the park for a couple hours. We can't wear our robes back into Disneyland, and so they tell us we need to take them back to our car before going back into the park. Well... Jamie, my mom and I decided years ago that is too much effort and takes too long. So we figured out a better solution. We roll our robes up and we hide them in the bushes. The first year we did it, I was nervous that they would not be there when we got back. When we found that nobody discovered our robes, we have done that every year since.

We then met up with Kirsten and Maren (who came down from Vegas to play with Kirsten in the park while we were rehearsing all day). We watched the amazing Christmas firework show (Disneyland really knows how to make things magical... they even make it snow at the end of the fireworks while playing I'm dreaming of a white Christmas). Then we went on Indiana Jones, which happens to be my favorite ride in the park. Then we watched Fantasmic, which happens to be my favorite show at Disneyland (I believe that the guy that orchestrated Candlelight also did Fantasmic which makes him that much more awesome in my book). If I could have one job at Disneyland, it would be to perform as a monkey in Fantasmic... just saying. I have too many Disneyland pictures that I want to post... because I brought my super awesome camera... so I think I will leave this one for just Candlelight and do another post for Disneyland pics. Stay tuned.