The Blizzard That Wasn't (But Was Close Enough)

Schnikeys! What a nasty weekend! The weather reports warned of super-terrible storms and wind chills, so people in the area started pre-emptorily canceling weekend events as early as Friday. As it turns out, things didn't get so bad in Dickinson as predicted (nor so bad as they turned out across the rest of ND), so most everything here could have gone on as scheduled, and we die-hard Nor' Dakotans would have just gone out a few minutes earlier to warm up the car and driven through the snow drifts to get there anyway.

Susan went to the grocery store yesterday morning to buy up all their baking ingredients so that she and the girls could spend all day yesterday and today doing The Christmas Baking. It was certainly much nicer for them to be inside all day baking and staying warm involved together in a family Christmas activity. I braved the weather yesterday to head to the office to work on some student evaluations due Monday, but I didn't go back to campus today, instead sequestering myself in our home office to finish the evaluations while the ladies kept the house filled with the scents of baked goods.

Our church's Sunday school Christmas program, scheduled for this morning, was postponed until next weekend; however, the hand bell choir, scheduled to play for this morning's services, fulfilled its obligations, so we had to have Suzanna at church for that by 7:30 A.M.! I bundled up in the dark of early morn and went out into the bitter cold to snow blow the driveway so that Susan could get Suzanna to church on time, and then I delivered Abigail and Hillary to the church in time for them to join Susan and Suzanna. Then I returned home to finish the snow removal and then come in to thaw. We were supposed to have a Sons of Norway meeting and Christmas supper today (remember?), but that was canceled due to the weather. Down side: we were planning to take along Susan's grandma, Laura, and she had really been looking forward to it. Up side: once everyone was back from church, we hunkered down and didn't have to go out into the cold again all day long.

While out and about yesterday before the worst of the snow and cold descended upon us, I stocked up on firewood. It was a delight both last night and this evening to have a fire crackling in the fireplace while we gathered to light the Advent candles and read our nightly Advent devotions. The girls like to snuggle in and read by the light of the fireplace. Last night after devotions, they laid down with a Christmas music book and sang a capella while roasting their li'l' chestnuts by the open fire. Wanna hear what we heard?

Tennessee in Dickinson, ND

Tonight Susan and I saw a great production of the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire at Dickinson State University. It was held in the Backstage Theater, which is literally set up in the backstage area of the main theater. It's a great space for smaller productions that call for a more intimate setting. For tonight's show, we audience members were led through the set to our seats; we walked along a brick sidewalk past buildings on a New Orleans street. It was a fun way to "buy into" the setting and experience the atmosphere of the locale; and when we later watched the characters walking down that same sidewalk and in and out of those same buildings, the reality of the place was heightened all the more.

The set featured cut-away walls to expose the interior of the main characters' apartment, each room furnished with items authentic to the period and decorated in consistent colors that supported the mood of the plot. The costumes and props seemed as carefully selected, too, so there was an overall unity of tone that worked in harmony with the plot. Susan and I were impressed, too, with the fine acting and directing. We saw actors do excellent work who, in other productions, did not impress us. And I couldn't keep from admiring how well the director used the entire space, having characters inhabit each area of the set at one time or another and move naturally and seem really to live there.

We had excellent seats just a few feet from the actors, and our proximity to them enhanced my willingness to let myself get involved in their plight--to feel connected to them and want sometimes to tell them what to do or what not to do. And, although I spent time analyzing the various elements of the production, the overall experience was really seamless; audience members without a theatre background probably noticed not the specifics but instead the whole, and I commend everyone involved for working so well together to create a unified theatrical experience that had the audience singing its praise at the end of the night.

Marsupial Hillary

The 4th- and 5th-graders at our girls' elementary school already had their annual music program (remember?), and tonight was the 2nd- and 3rd-graders' turn. The theme: Christmas in Australia (inspired by a visit to the school last year by two Australians touring the U.S. as artists-in-residence at schools, teaching children about Australian arts and culture through music and crafts)--thus the title of the program (as posted on the gymnasium wall in the photo above). Hillary, dressed in gray and wearing long gray ears, was a kangaroo:


She was featured in a song called "Kangaroo Hop." Here she is performing in a dance break with her friend and classmate Lexie (they're doing "the hop"):


And here's the number in its entirety. You may not be able to pick out Hillary's voice in particular, but you can enjoy her dancing on the left side of the stage (the right side of the video clip):

P.S. This semester I have a student from Australia, and he reminded me that winter in North America is summer in Australia, so Christmas for him means going to the beach, having a picnic, and shooting fireworks. I can just imagine the looks he'll get when deplaning in Australia wearing his ND parka!