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I have neighbors who are having a difficult time this Christmas. I have a friend whose employer is requiring him to be on the job today, Christmas Eve, and the day after Christmas, Thursday the 26th, in order for him to have a paid holiday for Wednesday (25th), so they're not letting their employees off an hour or two early but say they have to work until 5 pm or else their day doesn't count for working Christmas Eve, and then they won't be paid for Christmas Day ........ I know a choir where they have a new organist who's having health problems all of a sudden, and can't keep up with the demands of the music program. They were going to sing the Alleluia Chorus from Handel's Messiah, but he's making too many mistakes in the demanding organ part because of his dripping nose, or something, even though he's trying his best to keep up. The choir director thinks this is a "choir crisis". Then there's another choir that had to cancel rehearsal for several reasons, so they're going to sing Christmas carols without any warm-up, with polyphony they haven't sung for a year. That usually is asking for trouble.
There seems to be a lot of problems with this Christmas, 2013.
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