File photo of the Turtle Creek Chorale at Christmas

Damn you Sean Baugh. I just left Moody Performance Hall. I’m back in my office and I’m still crying.

I cried when I first saw the list of my friends who’ve died in the program. Then then curtain goes up and there’s the poinsettia Christmas trees honoring all our friends. But then when you listed the names of the 13 Chorale members who passed away this year and 13 poinsettias slowly ascended to heaven including one for my friend Michael Doughman… .

And damn you again Sean Baugh for your choice of Hanukah song. Were you trying to be up to the minute with current news? “Not in Our Town” tells the story of how the city of Billings fought off an anti-Semitic attack in the 1990s. When the Klan visited during Hanukah to scare the few Jewish families that lived there, a pastor in a local church said “not in our town,” printed paper menorahs and distributed them to every family in town.

Now, I know you pick your music months in advance, but did you somehow know you’d be singing the song the week Trump signed an executive order declaring Jews a nationality so we’re no longer Americans in his eyes? The week two extremists killed four people in a kosher butcher? And the day after Congregation Beth El Binah here in Dallas was sent anti-Semitic screeds inferring our rabbi should leave the country?

Damn you, Sean Baugh for making the music fraught with emotion.

Now, I really don’t want to give the impression the Turtle Creek Chorale’s Christmas concert was a downer. I laughed as much as I cried.

Michael Brown, you’re the most beautiful Suzy snowflake who’s ever graced a stage. Or the lobby.

And the monks? Well, your opening of the show, along with Katrina Glaze and Thane Isaac, created the most magnificent entrance the Chorale has ever made onto a stage. And Hallelujah for your — what should I call it — closed captioning?

The guest performers were up to your usual standard. Expect to hear a lot more from Chloe Agnew of Celtic Women. Denise Lee — well what can we say other than we love Denise Lee. And a standing ovation for first act closer Timbercreek High School Marching Percussion from Keller.

And I don’t want to give anything away, but the sugar plum fairies were like something right out of, how can I describe it? The Bolshoi Ballet visits the Hidden Door? Grace. Beauty. Charm. Bears. And tutus. Maybe fourfours. I’d like to see them do the entire ballet.

And I even learned the words to Silent Night so I could sing along this year. The chorale signing along with Don Jones? Heavenly. Peace.

— David Taffet