The Lutheran Von Trapps

Recall that meterologists predicted that we'd experience two successive blasts of nasty winter weather this weekend . . . and that the first one didn't really come to pass. Well, the second one surely did! It's nasty outside and getting nastier by the minute. Our electricity has been off and on throughout the day with a 90-minute stretch of no power over noon. Throughout the region roads are closing, and no travel is advised.

But that wasn't enough to cancel an event for which our family had been asked to perform today, so we didn't get to stay inside! We just got back from singing at the St. Cecelia Music Club 19th Annual Serenade and Tea, held at a local church. The St. Cecelia Club has been around for 90 years and promotes musicianship by offering area students scholarships to attend music camps and university programs. Today's event was a fundraiser to support those scholarships, and scholarship recipients were among those performing.

And our family performed because the president of the club asked us to! We were the penultimate act, right before a string ensemble from the university. We sang two songs: all five of us on "Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying" by Ken Medema and the four ladies on "Come to Jesus" by Chris Rice (and I accompanied on the piano for both). Both numbers went well despite a subpar sound system in the church (all the microphones were different brands of varying quality, and at least one speaker went out midway through one of our songs).

I suppose we can be grateful that the power didn't go out while we were singing, as it has been going out in various parts of town throughout the day (and in various parts of the region the past several days; some people have been without power since Wednesday). We stayed afterwards long enough to visit and enjoy cookies, coffee, and punch (note: I didn't see any tea being offered at this Tea . . .) and then got the heck back home. The intersections are snow-packed, and visibility is low even in town--and it's supposed to get worse throughout the night. Let's hope the power stays on in our home tonight!