Christmas Traditions - Jim Smith on Piano in Drawing Room

Time is counting down and there is only one more day of the Christmas Traditions theme at Kingwood Center.    Last night was a lot of fun volunteering in the house.  Kathy M and Mary Lou M (my neighbor cross the street) were both there with me.  Same crew as day after Christmas.  Unfortunately is was slow from 5:30 to 6:00, but that gave the three of us time for a fun visit.  Once visitors come, we place ourselves one upstairs (me), one in the assembly room (Mary Lou) and Kathy was the greeter - money/ticket taker.   Sometimes the hostesses switch shifts on the hour, but this system worked for us last time, so we stuck with it.  

Well, while I had abandoned my post upstairs, it turns out the Grinch came and took just one light from the Christmas tree in the Drawing Room.  Of course that made the whole strand go out.  John Makley put Doug McCraken to work on it as the guest entertainer  Jim Smith was fixin to play the piano for our musical enjoyment right there in the drawing room.  This room gave me my second scare of the season, just like at the Christmas party.  As I was talking to Jim, I saw movement at behind the tree and almost screamed as at first I overlooked Doug  as a manikin.  First Jim and I played the game what is wrong with this tree.  Jim got it first, I had to be told.  Then I blinded Doug M with my picture flash.  After that, Doug M went back to work.  Tree issue was resolved,  visitors started to arrive, and Jim started to play. 


The music was lovely and Jim took requests from the visitors.  Everyone commented on how much they enjoyed his playing.  I was lucky to have been scheduled to volunteer during his performance as it was rescheduled from December 12, cancelled due to ice.  Here is a link to his web site.  I looked it up this morning and copied this part as I found it interesting.


  Jim Smith

Jim recently released an album, under the pen name of Brandon St. James (www.brandonstjames.com) which features 12 of his original compositions. The recording, “Only Dreamers Understand” covers such a wide variety of musical styles (pop, folk, ballads, jazz) that it’s hard to narrow down into a description of just one musical style. A multi-instrumentalist and experienced session musician, Jim plays all of the instruments on the recording (except for drums on 4 of the selections), and covers all of the vocal parts – including the backing harmonies.

Christmas Traditions - Home for the Holidays in Drawing Room

Decorated by Late Bloomers Garden Club.  During the open house, we had the pleasure of hearing Charles Applegate play.  Though I couldn't get a picture then, he played twice more and so, I was able to get a snapshot.  The piano isn't an original, but what a nice addition for times like this.  The decoration of this room must have been a collaborative effort because of the businesses thanked for lending many of the posed family members from places about town.

So this is how I think this must play out, here is a little girl looking out at the deer looking in.  It must have been a reindeer checking things out because when I went back Rudolph was looking in the window.

As I hostessed in the house, I saw how much the little ones really loved this room.  It depicted a traditional family Christmas, which showcased some of their favorite things about the season.  They squealed when they would see the deer looking in and one little boy came up to me so very excited that he saw Santa's legs in the fireplace.  He wanted to make sure that I knew Santa was there.  And I guess Santa was checking to see and deemed me nice this year since my membership card came to me laminated.