{"id":7448,"date":"2010-01-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/7448-a-christmas-view-from-the-overflow-msias-family-christmas-eve"},"modified":"2010-01-04T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T08:00:00","slug":"a-christmas-view-from-the-overflow-msias-family-christmas-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/7448-a-christmas-view-from-the-overflow-msias-family-christmas-eve","title":{"rendered":"A Christmas View From The Overflow \u2014 MSIA’s Family Christmas Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Article Click here to view a photo slideshow by David Sand from An MSIA Family Christmas Eve with John Morton December 24th, 2009<\/a><\/b>.<\/p>\n

This season of the Light was unlike any in recent memory for me, and for many of my friends. It began early in December, and it hasn’t stopped yet. As I went about my various holiday tasks, I found that the FM radio station inside my head was constantly tuned to Christmas carols, both ancient and modern. There were sleigh bells in my heart, and drifts of gentle snowflakes, in the full (if chilly) sunshine of Southern California.<\/p>\n

Christmas Eve at the 2101 Building in Santa Monica was no exception. I imagine that there were some who experienced anxiety or nervousness, or a sense of whatever negative emotion applies. But for the most part there were smiling faces, gentle ease, and gracious touches of Spirit all through the day and evening.<\/p>\n

Carolers joyfully proclaimed the season in the upstairs lobby. The giant tree, which filled a quarter of the stage in the Brentwood Room, was dressed in elegant green and silver, and was almost understated. Friends and families greeted, hugged, smiled, laughed and hugged some more.<\/p>\n

The program featured a number of performers, and music abounded. A special treat was hearing all the “youngsters” (old Souls in fresh bodies) offering up their talents for the occasion. From the HUGS children’s group to the semi-professionals and professionals, there was not a sour note.<\/p>\n

John Morton also did two baby blessings, for the twins of Ana Maria and Jeff McCombs, that were delightful.<\/p>\n

Just steps away from the Brentwood Room, I was an assistant in the Overflow Room, where the lights were low, the chairs were comfortable, and the laughter and applause were just as genuinely heartfelt. The Spirit of Christmas pervaded the building. This may have been due in part to the fact that John-Roger (and his posse) were in the house (always a gift); and it just may have been that this was the sweetest Christmas ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MSIA’s Family Christmas Eve with John Morton, and attended by John-Roger, at the 2101 Building in Santa Monica was magical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":87581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[114],"class_list":["post-7448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ndh-archives","tag-christmas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}