how many days 'till Christmas?

I normally like to stick to the December 1st rule for Christmas stuff. No decorating, no music, no nothing until December. This year I was forced to break that rule. Last post I mentioned the Christmas program I'm doing. Well I'm right in the thick of it, and it is a LOT of work. Being myself, I never seem to choose the easy way out. Rather than beg, borrow and steal as I was told to do, I decided to start from scratch and create the entire thing myself. So I wrote the play (all rhyming in the style of "T'was the Night Before Christmas") and then took regular old Christmas songs, and re-wrote the words to fit. I thought this was all fine and dandy (though admittedly, a lot of work) until the question of accompaniment came up. Since there weren't any piano players banging down my door to help, I decided to scour the internet for background tracks - the songs without words. This proved to be a very difficult task as most of them were karaoke style with the most cheesy, fake instruments you can imagine. After hours of searching (thank goodness for iTunes) I did manage to find suitable versions for each one. I am now officially sick of Christmas music (and it's not even December!).

So yesterday the whole thing (script, songs, music) went out to the teachers. This will be the moment of truth! I hope they like it. Of course it's all in their hands from now on, since they have to get their classes together to perform. Fingers are crossed!

The last part of my job is the choir. We had our first practice last week, which went really well. A LOT of kids came out and were really well behaved. This afternoon is our second practice where we'll actually do some singing. I'm nervous, but I think it's going to be tons of fun! I sure hope at least a few of them can carry a tune!! Eek...

In other news, as of yesterday I have handed in all of the required paper work to be officially added to the Occasional Teachers (supply teachers) List! I'm finally going to be payed for doing what I do! Yay. So, now all I have to do is sit by the phone and wait for it to ring! If only it were that easy... Needless to say I'm very glad I've been spending these past couple months volunteering - I feel like I've got at least a few good connections made to teachers/principals who will call me when they need someone...