More Christmas programs

On Christmas eve, as I walked to my car to go to church Christmas Eve service I was aware of the full moon.  I heard the call of geese and when I looked up I saw two wavy vs of geese their wings touched by the light of the full moon.

Christmas service.

The lights are extinguished and the candles are lighted by passing the flame from one to the other.  We sing Silent Night.  I usually have tears in my eyes, not this time.  I look at the flame and remember the Methodist Church in Lyons, Nebraska where I heard Silent night more than a few times during the holiday season.  These memories continued to other church services with candles and Silent Night. 

Then the three country schools came to mind.  Yes, we did sing Silent Night in those days.  First was Jefferson School, the same school our mother attended and where  her elder sister taught.  I was in first grade.  The program, similar to the one Sue described, was in the basement.  I remember rehearsal upstairs singing Up on the House Top Click, Click, Click and probably saying a memorized poem.  Then there was Wilson School probable two or three programs there.  I remember one when I lost my individual piece before I had memorized it all and was sure everyone knew it was unfinished.  At Edgington School, one year the teacher and students wrote the play and performed it.  I don't remember which teacher.  I think that might have been the same year we learned to sing Oh Come All Ye Faithful in Latin.  I saw all that while we sang all the verses to Silent Night.