Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Birthday(s) Coffee House

As the semester winds down the number of birthdays has actually picked up in the last several weeks.

December 1st was a day of mixed emotions. Sara Barrett, our wonderful Program Administrator finished her two-and-a-half years with CCSP and returned to the States (Stewart the lamb-turned-sheep misses her terribly, as do the rest of us), however it was also the birthday of not one but TWO loved members of our community.

Jess St. John (Staff) turned 24

And Curtis Davenport (Westmont, Dec ’09) turned 22.

Without these two friends of ours the convent would not have had nearly as much music this semester, and our community would have been sadly lacking without their laid back, free spirited presences. So to celebrate them both we decided to throw the best coffee house possible.

We decorated the dinning room, moved in the couches, set up some appropriate mood lighting, filled vases with flowers from the garden, and made coffee.

It’s hard to describe the incredible wonderfulness of that night. At one point several people were concerned that their hearts might actually burst with happiness (seriously, this sentiment was verbally expressed by more than one person).

Following some stellar musical acts and a magic show like none we had ever seen, the whole group took a break to eat ice cream, cookie bars and a guitar-shaped chocolate cake made by Mike Whitner (Messiah ’12) and Kellsie Ebbeling (Messiah ’12) while admiring artwork by Julia Johnson (Westmont ’11) and Allie (SLC). The evening continued with more music, violin solos and guitar performances by both the birthday boy and girl.

Curtis sang “O My Sweet Carolina” with Kayti Christianson (Westmont ’11) to the joy of everyone who really likes that song. And Jess sang an absolutely beautiful song, which several members of the audience decided on the spot they would purchase off itunes. However, when asked whom the song was by at the end of her performance, Jess answered “By me,” and we were all blown away.

The evening ended with an impromptu carol sing and some of us half expected to see snow falling outside the windows.

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