{"id":2840,"date":"2013-12-24T22:54:40","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T06:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2840"},"modified":"2013-12-24T22:54:40","modified_gmt":"2013-12-25T06:54:40","slug":"welcome-christmas-at-sea-12242013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=2840","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Christmas \u2013 At Sea \u2013 [12\/24\/2013]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"christmas_fairy_subir_jap\"<\/a>If a poor rehearsal is the omen of a good show, I should have known that tonight\u2019s Christmas Concert would go spectacularly \u2013 because honestly our rehearsal (which took place at nearly midnight yesterday evening) was one of the most disorganized and frustrating events many of us had ever attended\u2026<\/p>\n

But the show?<\/p>\n

The show went beautifully.<\/p>\n

Traditionally the shipboard Christmas concerts follow exactly the same staging format, I think it\u2019s actually scripted somewhere. While we kept the standard songs, we threw the staging script out \u2013 brought the piano to the fore of the proscenium, and staged the entire thing like an old-fashioned carolling session. All relaxed curved lines and perching on stairs. And we interspersed the traditional choirs (of which there are three: International, Filipino and Indonesian), with solos and duets with the cast members (one of the classiest versions of Baby It\u2019s Cold Outside<\/i> that I\u2019ve seen thus far.)<\/p>\n

In a twist of fate I honestly didn\u2019t expect, about five minutes before the curtain came up, one of the girls from the cast \u2013 whom I barely know on this ship \u2013 tugged me down from the riser I\u2019ve been originally placed on (cast always goes in front nearest the mics, everyone else stands behind). I looked at her in surprise, and she tugs my wrist again<\/p>\n

You stand down here, you can sing!<\/i><\/p>\n

I\u2019m\u2026not really a hundred precent sure how she knew that. I mean the cast knows that I dance<\/i> because we\u2019ve had brief discussions about it \u2013 but I don\u2019t remember mentioning that I sang<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So I ended up in the front row\u2026with the F1s and F2s that I\u2019m\u2026so not used to standing with.<\/p>\n

Despite one unfortunate interruption by one of the guests who\u2019d likely just had a bit too much champagne, the final number brought a tear to everyone\u2019s eye (though, as an aside: it\u2019s really very difficult to walk down a darkened theatre aisle, while holding a candle and singing, in a long dress<\/i> without looking down OR tripping\u2026but somehow all of us girls managed it).<\/p>\n

And after the show was over, it was time for wine and cheese and Christmas cookies and deep fried apples (don\u2019t laugh, they\u2019re yummy!) and old bridges were rebuilt and old friendships rekindled, and the occasional whisper of forgiveness that\u2019s been a long while in coming reached the right ears.<\/p>\n

And finally finally<\/i>\u2026just as the clock struck midnight\u2026it started to feel<\/i> like Christmas again\u2026<\/p>\n

And for those of you who aren’t here – who bloody well should<\/em> be – know that each and every one of you is in my heart, so…you’re not really all that absent after all…<\/p>\n

Oh, and we\u2019re tracking Santa from our bridge radar \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If a poor rehearsal is the omen of a good show, I should have known that tonight\u2019s Christmas Concert would go spectacularly \u2013 because honestly our rehearsal (which took place at nearly midnight yesterday evening) was one of the most … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[73,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-holiday-cruises-2013","category-theme-events"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-JO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2840"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2842,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2840\/revisions\/2842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}