It’s been awhile since I bought an iPad to substitute for all the paper I’m burning through as an organist at two different churches, but as of now, I’ve been too afraid to use the iPad in the service. Instead, I’ve relied on all my paper copies of the sheet music, being that I don’t have to turn the pages so often, and frequently I just tape sheets of paper together to avoid turning the pages altogether.

I feel absolutely comfortable in using my iPad during rehearsals but services are definitely another step up in terms of stress level, so I use paper.

Today, though, because my postlude at St. Mark’s was five pages long, I asked someone to at least help me slide the pages over. In the end, I used my iPad for the entire service at Nuuanu Congregational Church and for the postlude at St, Mark’s. I still asked for help in turning the pages since I’ve yet to be successful using face gestures successfully or reliably.

Here’s how that worked at Nuuanu Congregational Church: What’s weird was that the music kept turning back to the previous selection — and I’m going to have to figure out what the problem is, because it happened not only in the morning, but in the evening carol service as well.

I was pleased that things went pretty well, except for the page turning back.

I had asked Yoko Kokuni Kessner, the queen of selfies, to take pictures of my iPad debut, so here they are:

By the way, this is my view of the chancel from the organ loft:

And here is my performance of Bach’s Fugue on the Magnificat, BWV 733, in my debut using the iPad! Truth be told, I had not played this piece in over 10 years, and I had only three days to practice it before playing it today for the postlude.

Right after the morning service at St. Mark’s, I rushed home to prepare our Christmas dinner, Ina Garten’s panko-crusted salmon, rice pilaf and baked brie with cranberry sauce and pecans. My guests brought the salad, appetizers, foie gras and for dessert we had molten lava cake made from organist Jonathan Dimmock’s recipe. It was all yummy!

We’ve had rain all week and this afternoon I finally had the chance of taking a photo of my Christmas table where there was a bit of sunshine. As you can see in the slideshow below, I collect nativity sets from all over the world including Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Norway, and Java. You’ll also see my carved angel orchestra from Germany, each angel with a different musical instrument, including a pipe organ (which is actually a music box and plays “Silent Night.”)

Tonight in the midnight mass, I made one of those awful boo-boos in which I had a hard time recovering. You see all my hymn registrations are on level “K” (for Kathy!) and when I presumably pressed level “L” where the Nativity Mass was store, I mistakenly pushed the button twice and it went to level “M” (where all my Messiaen settings were!) Horrors! Not what I intended!

But it’s late — nearly 2:00 am now, and I’m being driven to the airport at 7:30 am later today. Hope I can sleep!