Bruce is Packing Heat

All right? Who gave Bruce a gun? Company Management. Boy, will they regret that move! I enjoyed shooting anything and everything that the suction cups would stick to. Merry Christmas!

A Tale of Two Cookies

You have been waiting all season for my cooking disasters. I didn't want to disappoint so it happened Saturday night.

When I got home from the theatre after doing 4 shows, all I wanted was a cookie so I tried a cooking experiment. You know this is going to end poorly. I wanted to see if I could make a cookie in the microwave because our hotel rooms don’t have ovens. I took some cookie dough I had in the fridge and put it on a plate. I put the plate in the microwave and set it to cook for five minutes. I figured that was safe since it takes about 10-12 minutes in the oven to bake a cookie. After two minutes, I looked up and there was smoke billowing out of the microwave. I was like, “Oh crap!” I grabbed the handle and yanked open the door. More smoke came billowing out. Then I thought, “I hope the smoke alarm doesn’t go off!” It was past 10:15 PM and the other hotel guests would not be very happy with me. I opened the hotel door to the hallway and fanned the smoke out there. It was VERY smoky! My room stunk so badly! Of course, a member of the cast went past my room while I was airing it out. He asked me what happened so I told him the story. He just laughed at me and suggested I open a window. I don't know why I didn't think of that! I tried to open the window after he left but the windows were sealed. I guess the hotel didn't want the liability of someone falling out the third floor windows. After a few more hours of the door open the following morning, the smell finally left the room. Life lesson learned: Do NOT try to bake a cookie in the microwave. Heed the warnings on the label.

If I would have waited just one more night, I would have all the baked cookies I had wanted. Company Management organized a cookie decorating party at the hotel after our shows on Sunday. I rolled out some dough; I used cookie cutters in the shapes of a candy cane, gingerbread man, reindeer, bell, and snowman; and then I decorated the cookies once they came out of the oven with frosting and sprinkles.

Me, Leann, Pancho, and Alice

O Christmas Tree

Here is the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree in our dressing room. We are trying to do a whole Charle Brown Christmas theme in the dressing room. One of the stage hands made this sad little tree for us. Since I don't do anything but make inappropriate comments during the first act, I was given the awesome responsibility of decorating this beauty. Ta-da! There you have it! All of my hard work during the first act. That is pretty much the extent of my Christmas decorating this year. I do have a very small stocking hanging under my TV here in my hotel room. I'm hoping Santa will slip a big fat check into it on Christmas Eve! I have been a very good girl this year. Okay, so I've TRIED to be a very good girl this year. It's always nice to have good intentions.

Mrs McGavock Is Having Some Fun

Mrs. McGavock owns the property where the Grand Ole Opry was built. She has been dead for quite a while but apparently she wasn't too happy with the building of the Opry. The legends at the Opry says that she has been known to cause problems at the Theatre. I believe she has quite a bit of fun with us from time to time. Whenever something goes a little crazy at the Opry, we always blame Mrs. McGavock.

A few weeks ago, the funniest thing happened while I was on stage. My fellow elf, Pancho, and I were flinging porridge at one another during the workshop scene. He flings porridge at me. I react and wipe it off. Then I fling porridge at him. He reacts by putting his head back and wiping off the porridge. When Pancho put his head back, his hat fell off. He was the only elf whose wig is not attached to his hat. His hat fell backwards and his wig fell forward. He exclaimed, “Oh sh**!” Luckily our microphones were turned off. He was sitting on the stage with all the lights shining on him with just his wig cap on his head. I saw the whole thing happen and was laughing my head off! He hurried to grab his hat and put it back on. He thought he fixed everything. Then he looked down in his lap and saw his wig! He didn’t have a pocket so he just stuffed the wig up his vest where he kept it until the number was over. After the elves all got off stage, we laughed and laughed! It was the funniest thing I had ever witnessed on stage! Funny Mrs. McGavock! Here is Pancho messing around with his wig. He really doesn't have a mohawk. (At least, he shouldn't!)

The other crazy thing that happened occurred a few weeks later. We call this the Great Hold of 2009. The second show was going well. We were all looking forward to getting out of the theater an hour earlier than usual because the show started at 7 PM instead of 8 PM. After the Nutcracker scene in the first act, the show stopped. They put the curtain down and told everyone to wait. Backstage they told us they had stopped the show because they were having lighting issues. They were going to try to fix it and continue with the show. In the dressing room, Leann, Mike, Laura, and I played Phase 10. We played for quite a while. Some of us even got to Phase 5. After almost an hour, the show finally resumed. The first two numbers were done with work lights which was just white lights shining down from the ceiling. The spotlights were also working. The show looked really bad! I felt bad for those people that paid so much to see it! We had a ten minute intermission instead of fifteen minutes. The lighting looked a lot better after intermission but not all the lights were working. Our scene probably looked okay. It was good for me because I could see all the way into the house because the really bright lights weren’t working. I could see the audience in the balcony. It was nice for a change but I was grateful they fixed the lights during our day off. During the Great Hold of 2009, the Rockettes were in their soldier pants waiting for the show to resume. These pants are starched HEAVILY so they couldn't sit down. Here's a picture of one of them waiting and waiting and waiting...

Bugs in the Nativity?

I attended the Methodist's Children's Christmas Pageant last week. Here is a little snapshot of the cute kids in their costumes. As you can see, there were shepherds and the three kings. There were also angels. They were the normal characters you would find at a nativity. Then the young children (around 2-3 years old) entered the room. They were dressed as various insects and animals. There were caterpillars, lady bugs, cats, birds, dogs, zebras, lions, tigers, alligators, turtles, etc. Who knew that all those animals were in the stable at the time of Jesus' birth? It must have been VERY crowded. (I think they also use these costumes when they portray Noah and the ark. They have dual purpose.) It was a very cute (and thankfully short) program. They sang tunes such as Mary Had A Little Lamb, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with the words changed to fit the occasion. Then they ended with a rendition of Happy Birthday to You for Jesus. It was a fun evening and only a handful of kids had to be hauled off by their parents because it was such a traumatic experience for them. Oh yeah, and the back drop only threatened to fall on the children one time. With everyone saying Oh!, it pushed the cardboard back up to its proper position.

Visiting Hours Are Almost Over

I have had some great visitors here in Nashville this year. My first visitors were my Uncle Larry and Aunt Margo. They came East to visit my cousin Vanessa and her family for Thanksgiving. They spent a day and a half in Nashville. One of their stops was of course to the Christmas Spectacular. They wanted to know why I miss the family Christmas party every year. After seeing the show, they have excused me from every future Christmas party if, and only if, I am in the Christmas Spectacular. They really liked the show. Sorry, I didn't get a picture of them.

My second visitor was Liz. I worked with Liz at the Canyons School District this past year. She took a well deserved break from work and her husband and kids and ventured to Nashville for a quick weekend. Her #1 attraction was the Christmas Spectacular. She was not disappointed. I enjoyed visiting with her over some treats after the performance.

My third group of visitors were Laura and her friend Kelsi. They came for a weekend and experienced all that Nashville has to offer this time of year. They had an action-packed crazy busy weekend. I spent a day with them and was exhausted! We started the day by doing some work in the Nashville Temple. Then we went to Ice which was featuring a Charlie Brown Christmas. Then I went off to the theatre to do two shows and they went shopping. They attended the second show that night and received a backstage tour afterwards.

I hope all the visitors had a great time! I enjoyed sharing with them a little of what I do out here. My most favorite visitor is yet to come...Mom! Yea! She is going to help me close down the show this year and load out.

The Abbreviated Picture Day

I decided to be a half team player this year on Picture Day. I was only willing to be in the big group picture. I didn't want to take the time to take individual pictures with people in our costumes. Plus many people didn't stay to picture day. Here is the group shot of the cast who stayed to picture day.

As you can see, only three of the six elves stayed for picture day. Can you say party poopers? All of the Rockettes are there. They know how to team play. Here's a picture of just the Rockettes. Beautiful Ladies! (Thanks Charlie for the picture!)