2nd Pause in Advent 2011

Good afternoon

Well the festive build up has crept up a notch - the biggest thing I've noticed is amount of brass engagements my 2 players have entered onto the calendar. This weekend there have been 3 - fortunately due to sharing them between the other players in their section they've only had to do 2 each. With this in mind, my theme for this weeks pause is Christmas Music;

For my 2 players - Christmas music starts being played the first practise after their Remembrance parade and concert. This means that by December 1st they've played rather a lot of carols plus started practising for their big concert the week before Christmas.

^^^ Those pictures were taken yesterday at the Christmas Fair in town - the band walked through the streets with Father Christmas to draw people to the bottom of the high street where stalls, games and fairground rides awaited them.

Yesterday was a bit chilly and the ground was damp so it didn't feel as festive as some years. Sometimes the ground is frozen and there's a sprinkling of snow;

Christmas 2010

and other years they've struggled through the snow to get to the same engagement at Snape Maltings;

 By the time Christmas Eve comes I think MrVV never wants to hear another carol - not quite the same for Little Son, he's still full of youthful enthusiasm - wonder if he'll feel the same after 30 years of playing (yep MrVV has played in the same band since he was Little Son's age!!).

Do you have a favourite piece of Christmas music? I'm torn between two - Once in Royal Davids City or Hark the Herald Angels Sing. When either of these get played - especially at the open air carol service on Christmas Eve, you'll find me singing along :)

See you later in the week - I've been to the most wonderful Cool Yule Christmas Market this morning with Dawn at Snape Maltings. We've both bought lovely things, had a good catch up over coffee and bumped into another blogger too :)

See you soon

xxx Vicki xxx