Christmas Snow

This was the morning view in Greenwood on December 26th.

Greenwood Festival Chorale

Thanks to John Eichelberger for accompanying me to this concert Tuesday night at Lander University. Christmas Around the World featured 64 voices celebrating the season with lullabies from Spain and eastern Europe, carols and hymns from Latvia, France and Haiti, and traditional songs like Silent Night, Feliz Navidad, Jingle Bells and White Christmas.

Kudos to my new friend from bells, Nickie Murphy, for her excellent soprano solos. Bravo to the instrumentalists, who were a big part of the "entertainment," especially the duet and 5-hand piano pieces.

I've already marked my calendar for the Chorale's next performance - March 6th at 4pm at First Presbyterian Church.

The Arts Center

Wow! I had a chance today to pop into the old Federal Building in Uptown Greenwood today and check it out. NICE addition to Uptown. Can't wait to go back.

Connie Maxwell Christmas

Alan and I enjoyed being part of our new community on Friday night. We took in the Christmas lights, music and other events at Connie Maxwell Children's Home. CM has been serving children and families for 85 years and for the last 11 has invited the community "on campus" to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas - the birth of Christ and the possibility of peace on Earth - with musical presentations, a petting zoo, and the ever popular horse-drawn wagon tours. It was a beautiful, crisp night and many were out with their children, enjoying the free hot chocolate while waiting to ride or to touch the steer, donkey, goats, bunnies, llama, and several baby goats born only 6 days ago. The children of Connie Maxwell played tone bells to several carols inside a packed Connie Maxwell Baptist Church, followed by 4 songs performed by the Emerald Bells, a community handbell choir.

We caught a late dinner at the local Outback Steakhouse, and I must comment on this chain because of the excellent service and new menu items we had. Greenwood was chosen along with two large market (maybe Cincinnati & St. Louis) Outbacks to test some new dishes. We really liked the size and taste of the Chicken Artichoke flatbread appetizer. Jamie was manager for the night and shared this news with us. Katie, our server, is a senior at Lander in biology and a Greenwood native, and she had a great attitude. So did the hostesses, who were scrambling with pagers that kept resetting just at the end of their busiest time. Everyone had a smile and made our visit terrific. I'm not a huge fans of steakhouses, generally, but I really enjoyed our time at dinner Friday.

Hydro One

What's great in Greenwood today is shopping locally - for your SPORTS DRINK! Yep, Hydro One is based right here in Greenwood, with a cross-border, Georgia connection (although production is in Upstate New York, I heard). I taste-tested their Green Tea, and orange-mango and pomegranate-raspberry sports drinks this afternoon. Best sports drink I ever had. Really.

Of course, I'm not a big sports drink fan. Usually too sweet or too salty for me. These were more like real juice drinks, just a bit watered down. Oh, and hyped up on vitamins. Can't wait to try more, including the women's, heart, memory, and joint health drinks.

REV, TRUE, and Bode - all natural, low calorie, sugar free, and nutrient-enriched. I might just give up water.

And I missed it

Apparently what was great in Greenwood this week was a performance by the Vienna Boys' Choir. Sadly now, I must confess that I did not go. I learned of it late (despite good adequate advertising), the tickets were right pricey (though completely worth it I heard afterwards), and we had a terrible storm that night, including tornado sirens. Still everyone I've talked with who went said it was great. Interestingly, many also reminisced about previous times they had seen the choir, so I'm sure I missed a memorable evening.

Even though I didn't partake this time, I am happy to live in a place that appreciates the arts and culture and supports it with attendance. The Choir performed as part of the Greenwood Lander Performing Arts series , which also presented the Choir in 2006. I'll definitely catch their next performance here.