Esther’s Experiential Christmas Part 2

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to Part 2 of … drum rolls, please… ESTHER’S EXPERIENTIAL CHRISTMASSS!!!!

A few days after my friend and I went for the play, I went to the Alberta Ballet with another friend to watch the Nutcracker Ballet. I have gone for this once in 2019 before COVID, and I enjoyed it. Being able to see it again was refreshing and it seemed shorter to me this time even though it was the same duration of almost 2 hours, including the intermission. In the performance, they tell the Christmas story of the Nutcracker through ballet dancing and there is no talking.

Images by Paul McGrath from https://www.albertaballetplaybills.com/nutcracker

There are no words in the performance, only orchestra instrumentals. I love to dress up, so I did that for the ballet, which added to the excitement of the evening for me. Because it was ridiculously cold that night (it was at least -20C that night), I carried a bag with my winter boots in case I had to stand outside because I could not walk in the increasing snow in my heels, or have my toes freeze.

That weekend at church we had our Christmas Carol Service and it was more than what I had expected. the church choir had been rehearsing and practising for the carol, and they over delivered during the carol. Their performances were so good and left me in awe. There were also performances from other groups in the church, and those were good too. I also took one of the bible readings for the evening.

On Sunday evening the youth group of my church which I am a part of had a Christmas party as best as the COVID restrictions could permit. It was a fun time spent with friends and acquaintances, and there was so much food. It was a potluck, so many of us volunteered to bring things based on the list we were sent. I made meat pies of course, and they were so cute. I tried a new size for the pies and also recently acquired a packing tray that made the presentation nicer. We played a couple games before we ate, and it was a lovely experience. There was also a secret Santa gift exchange portion that some of us signed up for, and it was really nice to see how people got creative with the gifts based on the pdfs of likes sent about their partners and the price limit that had been set.

This post would not be complete if I did not watch Marvel at the cinema. I went to watch Marvel’s Spiderman: No Way Home with a friend and the movie was what I expected and more. I had so many reactions that I had to stifle though because the other cinema viewers were so quiet.

There were so many parts of the movie that when they came on screen I wanted to clap or shout or something but I had to scream into my scarf because every other person was so silent. I was beyond impressed and I was so excited when I saw some characters in the movie. I would wait for Spiderman to come to DisneyPlus and rewatch it and redo all my reactions for my benefit. Now I have to wait for Dr Strange and the Multiverse of Madness to know what next is coming my way. Sigh.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading! Stay tuned for the final part!

Merry Christmas!