The outstanding Chelsea House Orchestra had its annual Hometown Show.

Before we get into the show itself, I have to share with you this photo:

That’s how they had the curtain lit early in the show, and when I spotted it I thought it would make a cool photo. Uh…yeah, it did.

Anyway. On to the music!

The show started with the middle school musicians getting all musical and such.

Next up was CrossBow, a celtic group featuring students from Grand Valley State University. How’d they end up on stage in Chelsea? Several of the band’s members are former CHO members.

When they were done, CHO took the stage.

Later in the show, they invited the fifth grade musicians to join them on stage for a couple songs. It brought back memories of my (rightly) short-lived career as a violinist in sixth grade. But unlike me, these kids did a great job.

They got high fives from the director on their way off the stage.

If you’ve never been to the CHO Hometown Show, you’re missing out — the shows are a lot of fun. I mean, I’d encourage you to catch any one of their shows, but the Hometown Show is especially fun.

The two Chelsea elementary schools — North School and South School, and don’t let anyone tell you they have different names, because they’re wrong — have a friendly competition to see which school can eat more servings of fruits and vegetables. At the end of the competition, the students are rewarded with the Wacky Winter Olympics, in which the teachers compete against each other in a collection of games that are — as the title suggests — wacky.

The Wacky Winter Olympics bring the entire Chelsea elementary school population together in one gym. Chelsea is a small town, but it still has a lot of kids.

When you pack that many kids into a small gym and get them excited about a competition, there’s one inevitable result: NOISE. After enduring last year’s bedlam I told myself I’d bring earplugs next time. This was next time. Guess what I forgot?

The kids made signs to support their schools.

This particular sign was my favorite:

It says “Go North Creek, Helho South Metos, Get a tayst of us.” Were that a sign written by a high schooler, it would be sad. But since it’s a sign written by a young elementary school student, it’s just plain wonderful.

(If case you’re having trouble with the lexicon of youth, here’s the deciphered sign: “Go North Creek, Hello South Meadows, Get a taste of us.” North Creek and South Meadows are the names some would insist applying to the schools. However, as with the Methodist Home and the old high school, we longtime Chelsea residents know better.)

If you doubt the noise level in the gym that day, the student at the bottom left of this photo should convince you:

The wackiness began with a beanbag toss.

The students were ecstatic when the North teachers won the first event.

The next event involved a basketball and plenty of intensity.

After that came my personal favorite. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it involves one teacher pushing another on small carts.

This event also featured plenty of intensity.

Every time I see that photo, I hear Braveheart’s “FREEDOM!” in my mind. Except She’s a teacher, so maybe she’d be yelling “LEARNING!” or something.

That’s my brother doing the pushing in the above photo.

The next event had teachers catching footballs in laundry baskets.

Then the teachers found a fascinating way to carry balloons.

Between events, the Beach Middle School principal helped get the wave started.

Then the teachers started dragging each other around on blankets.

Here’s my brother again:

Hey, I reserve the right to exercise nepotism. If you have a problem with it, I’ll take unflattering pictures of you.

Since this was the fruit and veggie challenge, it seemed appropriate that at least one of the events involve fruit or veggies. How about bowling with cantaloupes? Yeah, that works.

The final event featuring all the teachers was the ever-popular tug of war.

To conclude the Wacky Winter Olympics, the principals and PE teachers teamed up for a few challenges. To make it more fun, they dressed up as fruits and veggies.

One of the challenges involved stacking cups as high as possible within the time limit. The grape team created an impressively high wall of cups.

South ended up with more servings of fruits and veggies, but North ended up winning the olympics.

With the Wacky Winter Olympics concluded, the teachers got their sportsmanship on with a handshake line.

If you’ve driven down Main Street in Chelsea, you might have noticed a decaying factory building just south of downtown. For decades that factory housed Federal Screw Works, but in 2005 the company shut it down. It’s been maxin’ and relaxin’ ever since, taking up space and looking all hip and run-down like that weird guy at that too-cool-for-school coffeeshop. (However, redeveloping that guy would be a lot easier than redeveloping the old factory site.)

One Sunday afternoon my editor called and wondered if I was free to join her at FSW. She said the University of Michigan was putting on some sort of event there, but she couldn’t really explain it over the phone. I don’t know about you, but I don’t get invited to abandoned warehouses very often — probably because my name isn’t Horatio Caine — so I said I’d be there.

When I arrived, I realized why she couldn’t really explain it over the phone. Here’s an excerpt from the brochure that accompanied the event:

In the collective optic, oscillating between fetishism and lament, ubiquity and monumentality, engagement and distanciation, a state of being and coming undone, the ruin has resurfaced as a site of symbolic appropriation, chimerical exploration, material contestation, and fabricated desire. Welcome to Federal Screw Works.

Later:

Can the self-reflexive cultivation of enthusiasm for the ruin help build support for its transformation; can the pluralistic reimaging of ruin help concerned constituents speculate about alternative futures for a derelict site? In consideration of these questions, Federal Screw staged an event and collective exploration, a first step in a forthcoming master plan for Chelsea Common.

Make of that what you will. To this decidedly non-academic layperson it appeared to be an art exhibition housed in a crumbling factory. It might hold more meaning to all y’all in the academic or art worlds, but I’m just a guy in the taking pictures for money world. I don’t fly in that stratosphere.

When I walked into the factory I was greeted by raucous percussion echoing through the cavernous main room. The source of that percussion? Santa. No, seriously. Santa was playing the drums. What, you don’t believe me? Here’s a picture.

You can get a sense for the level of decay the factory has suffered by the standing water on the floor. The roof, the roof, the roof doesn’t do its job very well anymore.

Here’s the whole scene. If the wall on the right side appears to be a bit newer, that’s because it is. It was hastily constructed after the original wall suddenly collapsed a few years ago.

Okay, fine, that wasn’t actually Santa playing the drums. How do I know this? Primarily because Santa is a jolly old fraud,* but also because his name was in the brochure. His name is Leo Denoyer.

*(Hey, if your Santa-believing child is reading this blog, he’s old enough to know better.)

On the left side of the above photo you can see a low wall. On the other side of that wall was a display of balloons.

This had nothing to do with barrage balloons in World War II, though that would have been a nifty historical reference. The brochure lists the balloon display as “Phytoremediation forest doppelgänger“.

A couple rooms away was a mildly disorienting display that involved optical illusions and disposable shoe covers. (The shoe covers weren’t part of the display. They actually were for covering shoes.)

When I sent the photos to my editor, I provided the following caption for the above photo: “Optical illusions: fraud for your eyes.”

There were people wandering around with cameras, but I have a sneaking suspicion I was the only oddball getting paid to take photos. Here’s one of those other camera people taking a picture of the mildly disorienting display.

The FSW factory is a very large building, and the gentleman in charge indicated they had a very limited budget for the project. This meant most of the building was simply left in its naturally dilapidated state, as seen here:

Though I may not be able to explain the event that was taking place in the building, I can tell you that I was excited to see the interior of the old FSW building. Having lived in Chelsea for 30 years now, and having watched the building slowly decay over the past six years, I’ve long been curious to see the interior of FSW. Now I’ve seen it.

…And, like few others, I’ve seen Santa playing the drums in it.

(In case you’re curious, here’s the article my editor wrote. She did a much better job of making sense of it all.)

Youth Dance Theatre of Michigan presents several performances of The Nutcracker throughout the Hometown Holidays weekend.

YDT’s production has a distinct local touch: old CHS marching band uniforms.

Area kids got to descend on a downtown Chelsea church to make gingerbread houses on Saturday. It was a popular event. Also, it was serious work.

It may have been serious work, but the serious workers still were festive.

The front of his house was as festive as his hat.

When the sun went down, a crowd lined Main Street for the light parade.

Do you know what’s in a light parade? LIGHTS!

Do you know what else? MORE LIGHTS!

What would a light parade be without an entry from Chelsea Light & Power? It wouldn’t be much of a light parade, that’s for sure.

Oh, and do you know what else is in a light parade? A MARCHING BAND!

(Hey, some of the musicians were wearing lights.)

The parade ended at the Chelsea Teddy Bear Company, where there was food and live music.

As part of the party, the company invited several kids to run through the factory and collect as many bears as they could hold. One participant collected almost more than she could carry!

Those bears were then boxed so they could be donated to area children’s hospitals for Christmas.

Up next: the Nutcracker, and…no, just the Nutcracker.

Each year in early December, Chelsea has a weekend packed full of Christmas-related festivities. No, wait: “packed full” isn’t a strong enough phrase for the weekend’s schedule. Clowns in a Smart Car? Commuters on a New York City subway at rush hour? Pixels on an 18mp APS-C sensor? They have acres of space compared to the schedule for Chelsea’s Hometown Holidays weekend. There are events on top of events on top of events on top of Christmas cheer.

Like previous years, I was tasked to photograph a sampling of events from the weekend. Unlike previous years, I had to photograph the hectic weekend immediately after returning from my 10-day trip to Albuquerque. So yeah, I was a little ragged, but it still was a fun weekend.

The weekend always begins with the tree lighting in Pierce Park.

The past couple tree lighting ceremonies took place on frigid cold nights during snowstorms, but this year’s ceremony occurred on a surprisingly mild evening. That weather attracted an even better crowd than usual.

(No, wise guy, that’s not the whole crowd.)

The Chelsea Fair Queen showed up to help Santa flip the switch to light the tree.

The park looked much more festive after the ceremony.

Afterwards, Pam from The Office showed up at the Chelsea Farmer’s Supply to read books to kids.

No, no, I’m just kidding. That’s actually Robin, a librarian from the Chelsea library. Despite plenty of distractions and noise, she did a good job of staying focused on the book.

Speaking of the library, there was a live nativity not far from the library.

Hey! Put down the phone. Relax. Don’t call your lawyer. The nativity wasn’t at the library. It was by a church.

However, the library did host a concert by the Common Chords handbell choir.

And for those who were hungry for a little food and a little music, Back to the Roots had live music.

Up next: gingerbread houses, Christmas lights and teddy bears.

If you’re in the Chelsea area, you’re probably familiar with the Kersch Ray story. If not, let me catch you up:

Back in early September, the Chelsea High School cross country team was out on an early morning run when two runners were hit by a car. One of the runners — Kersch Ray — suffered two broken legs and a closed head injury and spent ten days in a coma. He woke up, began rehab, and started speaking again. And then, just over two months after the accident, he went home to continue his recovery.

With the family supporting Kersch in his recovery, the community of Chelsea stepped up to support the family. On the 25th of October, a variety of local businesses and individuals gathered together and put on a spaghetti dinner and silent auction at CHS.

It was very well-attended.

There was an abundance of silent auction items around the room.

There was one particular donation that was extremely well-received:

No, I didn’t partake. I was working.

The spaghetti dinner was provided by the folks at one of Chelsea’s most legendary restaurants: Thompson’s Pizzeria. What’s that? You haven’t eaten at Thompson’s? GO. GO NOW. If you’re in southeastern Michigan and you haven’t had Thompson’s pizza, you’re missing out. It’s delicious.

The Ray family was grateful for the support from the community.

Every year, the Chelsea Area Fire Authority opens up the fire station to allow local kids to check out the firefighting equipment. It’s a great event that’s been happening for years — I remember visiting the fire station when I was a kid — and once again this year it was well-attended.

Yes, CAFA has a hovercraft. CAFA is that cool. A while back I asked a firefighter about the hovercraft, and he told me it’s great for rescues on the ice. There are a number of lakes around Chelsea, so it’s a useful tool. And it’s also really, really cool.

The fire station is in the shadow of the famous Jiffy Mixes silos:

Behind the station — back near the silos — they had a firefighter with a hose set up for kids to try. That’s what I most clearly remember from my visit to the station as a kid. It’s fun.

As usual, it was a popular attraction.

This little guy was very intent on his task:

If you didn’t make it to the open house this year, be sure to make it next year. Your kids will have a great time checking out the trucks, and you’ll get a chance to meet our local firefighters and to let them know you appreciate the work they do.