Xmas 2023. Not as advertised.

 Christmas this year was a bit of a surprise.  

What a wonderful year.  I got 8 days of holidays. A straight week and a day.  This is very uncharacteristic of our company and I thought that it'd be hard to stay away from work but I'm doing a great job of not worrying about work.

This is a photo of the kids making a "ginger bread dungeon".  In dungeons and dragons fashion, instead of making a gingerbread house, the ginger bread is cut so that it can be made into a D&D map on the table.  the icing sugar, jellies, and other candies weren't always used on the board.  You can see that Alice used the frosting not only to glue parts together... this was the 23rd or the 24th.

On christmas morning, we opened lots of presents at 2423 before going down to Miranda's parents for present opening.  this is a photo of alice opening the lava lamp.  I'm enjoying a lavalamp being in her room while I put kids to bed.

This is a photo of Betty being surprised.

Renter Steve.

Just me and Miranda

The kids.

Michael.

Alice and Betty.

Again.

My beautiful mother in law.

My father in law.

My beautiful michael.

My beautiful wife.

A onezie sleepewr that has a bottom that says moose caboose.

Betty's new fox onezie.

Grandma Joan.

Trying the new guitar.

Aunt Pauline.

Great grandma Joan and Miranda.

One hpoto of xmas dinner.

Steve at the kiddie table.

The kitchen.  Only Kerri and rons backs.  They're wonderful.

We visited Kelvin the day after xmas dinner to deliver leftover of the dinner.  We tried to get him but he was sick for hte xmas dinner.  Oh well.

Photo of us getting 'up our nose' photo.

Nutty

I'm re-loading the three videos that I took.  Sometimes the links aren't the best way to upload videos.  The videos of kids reading Catherines letter are my most cherished part of this event.

Reflecting on Dracula (who of course throws no reflection...)

One of the highlights of 2022 for me was plunging back into the world of community theatre!  Here in Victoria, we have a local society called LOST (Lawyers on Stage Theatre).  It puts on a production (most years), with the proceeds going to different local charities.

Several years back, Duncan and I went to see them do a version of Treasure Island (my friends Gillian Calder and Sara Ramshaw were both actors in it!).  It was so much fun.  And then COVID hit.   The next year, they adapted and staged a 'radio play' version of Frankenstein. This meant the actors could stand apart from each other at different mikes, working off the script.   Again, we went to watch Gillian and Sara.  It was amazing to listen and watch. They also had a "foley crew" on stage.

Basically, the foley are the people who do the sound effects for radio or film.  For example, they would use coconuts to make the sound of horses (images of Monty Python's Holy Grail!), and had a huge metal sheet hung from the roof, which, when shook would sound like rolling thunder.   

This year, LOST announced that they were going to do another radio play, this time a version of Dracula!   I was hooked.   I mean, come on!  Dracula?!  As I young kid, I made my dad sit up with me to watch the Friday night horror movie every week.  I am sure I watched every vampire movie that came along.  And haven't I spent the last 30 or so years listening to jokes about blood-sucking lawyers?!  I decided to audition (comforted in the knowledge that if I got a part, I would be able to work off the script, rather than having to memorize lines).  And.... success!   I got a part! (well... given the relatively small number of people who tried out, we all got parts lol!)  

The gender numbers being what they were, I was cast in the role of a non-binary Van Helsing!  Yea!  Here is my photo/bio from the program (using a photo taken by Arta):

The version we worked with is the 1938 radio play version put together by Orson Welles, which is in public domain, thus no fee to use it (practicalities!) If you want to listen to the original, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLqrBzQBG8k.

Our version had some fabulous additions to the script, including an introductory interview with vampire-ologist Peter Golz (who has been teaching a course on vampires at UVic for the past 25 years), and hysterical musical ads celebrating local sponsors.   So much fun!  Here is one write up of the show: https://www.vancouverislandfreedaily.com/entertainment/greater-victoria-law-community-stage-dracula-for-charity/

It was a riot to work with such a fabulous group of people.  Karrie Wolfe did inspired lighting design for it.  Here are some photos of us on stage (program follows)!

Foley crew, Nurse Ratschid, Renfield, and Dr Seward

 

Dracula and Jonathan Harker (and the foley crew)

Jonathan Harker and the Vampire Brides

Dr Seward and Lucy Westenra

Dr Seward and Dr Van Helsing

Lucy Westenra and Dr Van Helsing (just before Lucy gets 'staked'!)

 

Near the end of the play, chasing after Dracula

Ruari on the telegraph

Phil the foley master

Irene doing the train whistle

Horses about to start galloping

Dracula, Spectacula!

The fabulous "Mellow Dees", mid commercial break with Andrew Pirie

Alex "the Knife" Fyfe on the keyboards

And finally, the program!

Like I said.... a perfect way to end off 2022!  Feeling grateful to all the folks who came to see us strut our vocal chords across the stage, putting their money to two great charities!