I took my niece with me to the Manti pageant last night because she’s staying with us for a few weeks, is fourteen, and has never seen it. To be fair, my sister’s family hasn’t been in the country at this time of years since my niece was eight or nine, so I can’t complain that her education has been neglected (which so completely wouldn’t be true anyway, but that’s beside the point).

Can I say Holey Moley, what a spectacle? I mean that in the best possible way, of course. Now, you have to understand that I’ve seen the pageant at least ten times, but not in the past twelve years. This year’s pageant was bigger –900 actors, 200 of which were under the age of ten, and over 400 MORE of which were under the age of eighteen. (Just the thought of trying to organize that many kids and get them all where they need to be, when they need to be there, boggles my mind).

The scenery has had a major face lift since I attended last, and I have to say I was totally impressed. The props were so numerous it must take an army just to make sure everything gets where it’s supposed to be (oh yeah, cast of 900, I guess they have an army). The costumes were great, and the special effects were completely impressive.

I don’t know if I was just naive and simple last time I saw it, or if the production has really gotten that much bigger, but there must have been thousands of hours of work that went into this show. And the emotional impact of the story was amazing, as always. It was simply spectacular.

If you haven’t been in a while, it runs through Saturday night and starts about 9:30 p.m. Plan for a very late night, but do go (oh, and take extra blankets and bug spray, because you’ll need them.)

Now, for yesterday’s winners in my drawing using Random.org!

Shawna Williams wins The Sister Pact!

And Miss Mae wins Running on Empty!

Congratulations ladies! More prizes to come over the next few days. If you haven’t entered yet, pop over to Monday’s post and find out how to enter!