My family, being the unkempt mess that we are, arrived late for Christmas service at church. We had to sit in two groups: my mom, my dad and my younger sis near the front, and me and my other sister (my favorite of the two) near the back.
Now, in all modesty, my sister and I got the talent in the family. We're the ones who find school really interesting and easy, who never study and usually get As, I'm the one who practically owned the local theatre community in high school, she's a clarinet prodigy, I've won awards for my poetry, she's drum major for the city's all-star high school band, I was allowed to teach a few classes in high school under the supervision of a real teacher, she has the greatest fashion sense of pretty much anyone I know, and we both had solos in choral performances more often than not.
And, between the two of us, we've been in every single Christmas choir production known to man. Choir, plays, caroling, you name it, we've done it. Between the two of us, we've done more harmonies for "Silent Night" than times you've even heard the damn song. As a result, we both really fucking hate Christmas. When you spend your childhood involved in every single school choir, Christmas play, and usually a local boys/girls choir, you pretty much learn to grit your teeth when December rolls around and learn to hate Christmas music, and any tidings the season may bring.
My sister and I sitting in the back row unsupervised was probably not a good idea. As I've mentioned, both of us grew up doing musical theatre and choir, and we can really belt out a number. And so when we both decide to go for broke during the service, and harmonize our asses off, it makes a big difference. Big enough to turn a crowd of mostly-decent at singing church-goers into a big "Away in a Manger" mess. We sounded good. It's just that everyone else couldn't keep the melody against our elaborate vocal stylings.
Which of course, made us start laughing. And so we sang louder, grinning litle shit-eating grins. We toned it down after the first two songs, as I think people were starting to figure out it was us creating those loud, yet beautiful, harmonies.
And no, we didn't get coal in our stockings. Surprisingly.
