Christmas!

I hope that everyone had the happiest of Christmases. We certainly had a good time. It was the first Christmas I spent away from my own family so it was a little sad. But we had a good time here in our little one bedroom Christmas Wonderland. If I knew where the camera was in this mess of a place I would post some pictures. But there are gifts and decorations and candies of all varieties in different vessels strewn about making the search near impossible. I hope that Logan took it with him to Regina. My hubby joined the convoy and drove home today with his parents and Andrea. (Let's try this again, they have all asked for their names to come up in the blog: Janet Kotlar, Lorne Kotlar, Andrea Kotlar.)

We had a fantastic time! I hope you all did too! I can't wait to hear all of your tales of Christmas!

The day that we have waited and planned for is upon us.

It's a very busy time of year.

Well, we have set up the tree. We were actually setting it up when we got the call from the police. So it went from us setting up the tree, to me setting up the tree. That is okay, he was busy talking to everyone we know on the phone.

I like our tree. It is live. It smells great. Sitting right beside it makes me feel Christmas-y.

On our first Christmas, just last year, we decided that we would start our very first Christmas tradition. And that would be that every year we would buy ourselves a new ornament. Something nice, something special. So last year, we bought ourselves one and each of our parents bought us one. I like this tradition. We will be able to have a tree of beautiful ornaments later on that all mean a little something.

And when our kids get older they can look at the ornaments and say "2006, you guys are old. That was sooooooo many years ago!"

This is the ornament we bought for ourselves.

This is the ornament from my parent's for our 1st.

And from the Kotlar's.

And the one that we bought for this year. The little sleighs each say our names.

HUGE NEWS!!!

I am sorry that I am telling so many important people in our lives this fantastic news over my blog. But we have been on the phone all day giving the news.

Logan has made it through selection

he has been hired by the Calgary Police

and begins training on January 8th!!!

We are so happy. This has been a year long process to apply. And Logan has been working toward this for so many years! Const. Kotlar very soon!

A much better review in the Fast Forward

There is a paper here very similar to the Prairie Dog back home called the Fast Forward (which has a much wider distribution). They had a very pleasant review of our little ditty. I will search for it and add the link once I find it. It was very positive about the story telling and all around a good review. The link to the review is Fast Forward Review

The show is going well. Now that we are opened and we don't have to rehearse before or after shows I have a little time. I even got a chance to ice the sugar cookies I made the other day. But I made way to much icing (not really my fault, the food colouring exploded as I tried to open it and instead of adding a few drop of blue to deepen the hot pink into something closer to red I got screaming purple. Who needs purple icing for Christmas cookies.)

My brother Matt is in town this weekend. He turned 18 on the 21st. He is here to celebrate at the legal drinking age. We went to the pub Limerick's last night. I'm not sure where tonight. But I have two shows, so I will have to catch up.

Christmas Carol Review

Well, the show has opened. It has been a long haul. But for the foreseeable future we don't anticipate any more rehearsals. Just show calls. And that is such a relief. Eight shows , six days and 40 hours a week now. Sounds like a great deal after all of the work that I have put in.

The show was reviewed by a couple of mediums. The ones that I have located are from the paper. The Sun and Herald. They are interesting. The show that I last saw in rehearsal is very different now. It is full of pretty pictures - but I have been wondering about the story. The real emotion. I find that these reviews are a little different in opinion. Here are some of the highlights. I have also included links to the full reviews.

The Herald Review
Remaking a Christmas classic; Why Theatre Calgary risked giving Scrooge an entirely new look

The Sun Review
'Christmas Carol' a visual feast

The consistent talk about the size, scale and wow of the set.

Theatre Calgary's new version of A Christmas Carol is a world-class visual
spectacle... Magnificent sets are a joy to behold and even more
awe-inspiring when they begin to move. -The Sun

Sets, costumes, music, and script -- most everything about the company's
$600,000 production of A Christmas Carol promises to cast the immortal Scrooge
and his journey from dark loneliness to epiphany in a brand new light. - The Herald

The cityscape of Victorian London is a panoramic old photograph with
panels that glide out to become the interiors of homes. Scrooge's office
descends from the ceiling while his bedroom rises from the floor. The
ghost of Christmas Past (Christian Goutsis) appears in an alcove above
Scrooge's fireplace which opens up to allow a beautiful old sled to glide in
during a flashback moment. The jovial ghost of Christmas Present
(Kevin Rothery) rises up through the bed while the eerie ghost of Christmas
Future (Gerald Matthews) is part of the massive city clock suspended above
the stage. - The Sun

The Script

"Patch manages to tell the story in a more accessible way than hitherto," says director Dennis Garnhum. "He doesn't twist things too much, but makes everything clearer. - The Herald

Stephen Hair, taking on the role of his 13th consecutive Scrooge for Theatre Calgary: "I love this script. Yes, I come with a whole provenance of stuff from so many directors and so many different scripts about who Scrooge is. But I've always been trying to find the humanity of the man -- the real person." - The Herald

The SunThe production is not without its problems, most of which are rooted in Jerry Patch's bleak, pretentious adaptation. It is not particularly kind to
either Scrooge (Stephen Hair) or Tiny Tim (Sam Duke), the crippled boy whose
plight does most to soften Scrooge's heart. Until Scrooge's experiences at
his nephew's party, Hair seems more an observer than a participant in Scrooge's
visions and Tiny Tim isn't given nearly enough focus even in the scene at the
Cratchit family dinner. - The Sun

The Story

The energetic Garnhum says, obviously warming to his subject -- "I feel a great
responsibility to the children, and the fact that for many of them this is
going to be the first thing that they see in their lives. - The Herlad

"A Christmas Carol is a funny piece because it works on two levels," Garnhum points out. "First, there's the spectacle of the storytelling that the children in the audience, and the child within all of us, connect to. But it's also really the story of a man going through a mid-life crisis, and that's why adults connect to it. And I think it's important that I direct it for both audiences." - The Herald

The Sun The adaptation ... fails to realize this is a tale for children and the child in all of us. It plays more to adults and prides itself in having a preachy academic veneer. Theatre Calgary's A Christmas Carol needs to dazzle the heart and funny bone as much as it does the eyes. - The Sun