SPEAKER_00: Well, good evening.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome everyone, one and all, to our second annual St.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas the Apostle Christmas Concert.
SPEAKER_00: It is such a blessing to be able to gather here this evening with family, friends, in our community.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Colin O'Neill, I'm the head of school here.
SPEAKER_00: And I was talking to one of our grandparents the other day, and she made a very poignant comment that, you know, Christmas isn't really Christmas until I have heard children sing.
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: And so tonight we can officially kick off the Christmas season if you haven't already with our Christmas concert.
SPEAKER_00: We have a lovely program prepared for you.
SPEAKER_00: Our kids, your kids, have been working so incredibly hard for several months to get ready for tonight's event.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to start with our preschool students, our tiny humans, coming up and singing and signing Keep Christmas with you.
SPEAKER_00: After they're done, we're going to lead them into the Narthex and you can collect your child there and bring them back to your seat to enjoy the rest of the show.
SPEAKER_00: So after the preschoolers, you will get to hear a selection from our uh award-winning Celestial Voices Choir.
SPEAKER_00: That is our competitive children's choir.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be doing a selection of songs for you, followed by a wonderful uh musical interlude by our very own Lynn Mitchell, who is both a parent of a current student, a parent of an alumni student, and on the board of trustees.
SPEAKER_00: And she will be accompanied by our amazingly talented fine arts director, Michaela Ingram.
SPEAKER_00: And then we will have all of our students up here, kindergarten through fifth grade, performing a rendition of the Christmas Messiah for Young Voices, culminating in, of course, the infamous Hallelujah chorus.
SPEAKER_00: Now I have, I'm gonna give you some instructions that I wish someone had given me.
SPEAKER_00: Because when the when I first heard the school practice, it was the first time right before Thanksgiving, the whole school came in and they were practicing for the first time as a group.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting in here and I'm watching, and it's just my mind is blown at how amazingly talented your children are.
SPEAKER_00: They did a great job.
SPEAKER_00: And they sang hallelujah, and it got to the end, and then it went silent, and I said, Yeah! And I was the only one in the room who made a noise because I did not know that there is what is called a grand pause.
SPEAKER_00: Right before the actual final hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna let you know that's coming.
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be about 20 solid minutes of music and then it's gonna stop.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not really the end.
SPEAKER_00: So you want to hold your applause, and then it tears, they'll say hallelujah one more time, and then you'll know it's the right time to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Um with that being said, now is a great time to check that your cell phone is off.
SPEAKER_00: I had to check mine before I walked in because the one thing we don't want to have happen is to get to that pause, and besides the head of school yelling out an embarrassing hurrah, we don't want your jingle bell rock ringtone to go off at that exact moment.
SPEAKER_00: So, let's all check.
SPEAKER_00: We're good.
SPEAKER_00: Um, again, welcome.
SPEAKER_00: It is so lovely to see you here tonight.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're just about to begin.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, afterwards, I will have a few more words for you before we dismiss, but I just want to say for one more time, thank you all for giving us the gift of your children and sharing them with us so that we may cultivate their talents and they can share them with our community and family.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you all for being here.
SPEAKER_00: It's a blessing to see you, and let's let the program begin.
unknown: Sweet peas.
SPEAKER_09: We send this all in the star in the star.
SPEAKER_02: And everywhere, go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born, while shepherds keep them watching for silent flock by hold throughout the heavens the shunning.
SPEAKER_02: Go tell it on the mountain over the hills and everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: And when they had sinned, they all bowed down and prayed, they traveled on together to where it on the mountain over the hills and ever tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is.
SPEAKER_09: I shouldn't I see what's the child I should pass the job is fool and she was a sunny skin I took us a sun is given and the love shall be a bunch of love and shall be a bunch of show and his baby shall be but there were shepherds whining in the field, keeping watch over the fox pine eye.
SPEAKER_06: And now the angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord should run about them and they were so afraid and the angel said unto them, fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.
SPEAKER_01: For unto you is born this day in the city of David, our Savior, which is Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_08: Oh ye that be later, and he will give you rest upon you and of him, for he is me company upon and he shall find rest, and he shall find rest unto your soul take his yoke upon you and of him, for ye is becoming upon and he shall dress and he shall be able to get a lot of people.
SPEAKER_00: Boys and girls, you did an amazing, fabulous job.
SPEAKER_00: Let's give our children and our orchestra and our arts director one more big round of applause.
SPEAKER_00: So a couple of final notes before we dismiss this evening.
SPEAKER_00: And there was an art contest amongst all the grade levels to see who could design a great program cover.
SPEAKER_00: We selected nine different winners.
SPEAKER_00: You can collect them all.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have the Nova or the Ethan or the Donovan.
SPEAKER_00: It's a collector's item, so try to get the whole set if you can.
SPEAKER_00: There are extras outside.
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed that, and you enjoyed that quite a lot, and you really like to see our children sing, then Miss Ingram and I would also like to invite you to our musical in the spring.
SPEAKER_00: This will be our second annual musical performance.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a big reveal.
SPEAKER_00: We've been keeping the title of the musical a secret until tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And so I am proud to announce that in early May we would like to invite you to see our school's rendition of The Wizard of Oz.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, before we leave tonight, we would like to invite you to join us in Christ Hall.
SPEAKER_00: The doors are about to Late April.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Late April.
SPEAKER_00: We would like to invite you to join us in Christ Hall for a reception provided by Chesapeake Bay luxury active living community.
SPEAKER_00: This is the second time they have sponsored and supported our school for this amazing reception.
SPEAKER_00: So please join us for some light refreshments and uh good holiday cheer in just a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: You may collect your children.
SPEAKER_00: Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for coming out, and we'll see you in a few minutes.