When we found out that a Lei Shower and reception were going to be held on my last Sunday, needless to say our biggest disappointment was that my husband, Carl, would not be there because of his commitment to sing with the St. Andrew’s Cathedral choir.

So you can imagine my delight and surprise when my former organ student, Joey Fala, showed up! Joey is now in his third year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and is home for Christmas. As he put it so poignantly on his FaceBook page, “Attended my former teacher Katherine Crosier‘s last Sunday on the bench at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu where she’s served as organist for 35 years–a bittersweet ending to this chapter in the life of such an amazing mentor, inspiration and friend who’s watched me grow up like a second mother.” So having Joey there softened the blow of not having Carl in attendance. I’m grateful that Joey brought his trusty camera with him, and you must know that his skills as a photographer are equal to his virtuosity on the organ. A photo album of Joey’s pictures can be found by clicking here.

I also wanted to share some pictures that Jean Lilley took of yesterday’s service. She took the picture above, as well as this great picture of Keane Ishii with the big “gorilla” bell which we used for my setting of “Veni Emmanuel”. If you look very closely (click the picture to see an enlarged view), you can see Keane shown with the cover of the anthem (you can see my name there) — everyone else is looking at the inside of the music. I wonder what Keane was looking at?

As if yesterday’s Sunday morning service and tributes were not enough to fill the day, immediately following a reception in the courtyard with a special cake, I went back into the nave for a short rehearsal. This was a soloists rehearsal for the Christmas Eve service tonight where the featured work will be Bach’s Cantata 63, Christen, atzet diesen Tag. 

After lunch, we immediately went home to start preparing for the party for the St. Andrew’s Cathedral choir, whose concert was this afternoon at 5:30. Carl went off to rehearsal while I and two helpers (Rudy Riingen from LCH, and my neighbor, Kelly) worked on the pupus. St. Andrew’s Cathedral was absolutely packed for this beautiful concert (I saw a number of people from LCH there!), and immediately afterwards, we hosted a party at our condo for the St. Andrew’s choir and their significant others. 21 people in all. We didn’t finish washing the dishes until well after 11 pm, so all in all, it had been a huge day.

But no rest for the wicked — I have two services today, Christmas Eve, at 5:00 and 10:30 pm. I’m especially looking forward to 5:00 pm service this afternoon and the Stark family rendition of “Little Drummer Boy,” for violin, snare drum and two voices (I’m assuming Georgine and her daughter are the voices). Other musical highlights will be the FROGS choir and instruments plus April Smith will play “O holy night” on the flute. My organ student, Jordan McCreary, will play during communion (“Still, still, still” by Paul Manz) and the postlude, “God rest ye merry, gentlemen” by Wilbur Held. All I will be playing is the liturgical music and the hymns.

I hope Jordan remembers to hit the Zimbelstern!