Return of the Sis

Lisa came back a few hours ago from her choir trip, her first trip outside Canada. She had a blast, and I’m so happy she got the chance to go this year. She’s only in grade 9, so she wouldn’t qualify to be part of the Concert Choir at St Pat’s, but she auditioned successfully to join the Chamber Choir, which usually only allows grade 10+ but makes a few rare exceptions sometimes.

They were at the Festival of Gold, a US national choral competition, in San Francisco and apparently both choirs were amazing. I believe it – I remember when I went to Utah with the choir for the same festival (there are multiple locations) and the amount of passion we had in our singing, because of our director’s amazing ability to energize people like that. Apparently he pulled it off again, bringing most of the choir to tears with a story right before their adjudicated performance. And of course a choir sings best with that kind of emotional power.

The Chamber Choir placed 2nd and the Concert Choir placed 8th. Those are amazing feats, and go to show that the St Pats choral program is just as good, if not better, than it was when I had my 16th birthday in Utah with the Concert Choir.

In addition to stories and a big smile, Lisa also brought home a present for me. It’s very special and so I decided to show it on here. It was hand-painted by a guy who specializes in this type of painting, and if you look carefully you can see all sorts of birds, fish, sunset, waterfalls, etc. I love it.