Early Christmas Eve

Religion is not something that I tend to speak about in my blog, and this post is not about that.  However, this evening my friend and I went to a service called Christmas at the Arena.  There were neighbor friends who graciously offered to give us a ride.  This service is in lieu of the service that they may have had on Christmas Eve and thousands of people seemed to have attended.  There was a band playing when we arrived.  They performed some Christmas songs as well as a non-Christmas one and were basically the opening act.  Following that there were some other performers, including dancers and then a brief break before the music became stand-up-and-sing-with-us carols. 

The service itself was about a half hour long and included balloons.  I had a brief flashback to many Christmases ago when I went to a performance at the Crystal Cathedral in California.  This service was not like that.  For one thing, it was free.  There was an envelope for donations but no basket for collections and only the briefest mention as to where and how to make donations.  The service was uplifting, the familiar music helped a lot, and is my happy for today.  I'm not sure if I will attend again, but I am glad I went.

Some pictures in random order.

☮🎈☮