It was the first joint rehearsal of the adult and children’s choir for their songs at the Christmas Eve service, and it had slowly spiraled out of control. It had started with everyone sitting quietly in seats, but that was an hour ago. Now the kids were running all over, and the adults were split into six or seven groups, conversing about everything from sports to children’s costumes for the yearly pageant, which would be happening on this coming Sunday evening. Jessica, who had been nominated as the organizer for the Christmas choir, was desperately trying to line the bigger kids up for their recitation of the nativity account in the Gospel of Luke. Lydia had been annoyed at first, since she liked things to run efficiently and quickly, but now she was closer to laughing. Ellie was up with the bigger kids, waiting quietly in line as she’d been instructed. Since she was all by herself and Jessica was trying to round up the rest of the kids, Lydia walked over to stand next to the girl.
