Thankfully, other than Elf, our December evenings weren't too crazy. Rachel had her orchestra concert during the first week (and had to go straight from her Elf rehearsal to the school). I'm so impressed with their progress since the beginning of school.
Michael wanted to take off as soon as the concert was over, and I said that was fine as long as he took his brother, congratulated his sister, and took a selfie. He immediately went to go track her down.
Then, we found her for our selfie.
And we gave her a ride home, don't worry.
The following Saturday (Dec 6), Gabe and Rachel had a piano recital. They both have a new teacher this school year. Gabe played Fur Elise and Jingle Bell Classic. He did a great job, and that was the softest, most beautiful touch I'd ever heard from him.
Janessa is also a violinist and teaches Rachel violin lessons as well. However, since Rachel was super excited about the song she was learning for Christmas (the Piano Guys' version of O Come, O Come Emmanuel), she mostly did piano lessons leading up to Christmas, and she didn't perform on her violin at the recital. She did a beautiful job.
After the recital, we went to go get dinner at Mi Ranchitos. We had to wait 30 minutes for a table, but the food was great. Chelsea came down to see us and met us just in time for dinner at the restaurant. After we were all finished eating, we sent the kids home with Michael in the car. He really likes showing off his keys.
They gave hugs and then were on their way, and all us adults stayed at the restaurant for maybe another 30-60 minutes just talking.
On December 12, we went to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. We couldn't leave until Rachel finished her show, so we were already headed to Salt Lake later than we normally did, and we hit the worst traffic all the way. We found out that there was a hockey game at the Delta Center at the same time (and the Delta Center is only a few blocks away from Temple Square). My mom, Rachel, Gabe, and I decided to start walking since Brian was stuck. I told Gabe and Rachel to keep walking with Grandma, and then I made it about half a block when Brian called and said, "You have the key in your pocket!" So, I ran back to where he was (he'd made it half a block from where he was and away from where I'd been heading.) Michael jumped out to run get the key from me and then ran it back to Brian. Brian insisted he stay with me to walk to the Conference Center. I kept checking Rachel's location on Life 360, and we slowly progressed to where they were. We met up at the southwest corner of Temple Square (which takes up an entire block), and made our way to the North end of Temple Square together, and then into the Conference Center.
By this point, the concert was about to start, and thankfully, Kirt and Julie had saved us all seats. There was a communication snafu about where they were saving seats (our tickets were in the Terrace, and Kirt and Julie saved seats in the Plaza), but eventually we found them and got to catch our breath and enjoy the concert.
Meanwhile, Brian finally found a place to park, ran into a friend from college in the same lot, and then he ran with her and her husband all the way to the Conference Center. The concert was really good, and we had quite the adventure to get there! I predict it will be our most talked about concert ever.
We're so grateful for Nana and Papa getting us tickets and saving seats for us! We would have had to split up otherwise!
The last "recital" was the Christmas Sing at the elementary school. Gabe was really excited that he got to pretend to play the electric guitar for his class's first song.
It was a little weird to only have one kid participating in the Christmas sing this year. We only have two more left.
I suppose I should mention that Brian and I are in our ward choir--he sings and I am the accompanist, and we performed one number on December 14 (one of our core families in the choir wasn't going to be there on the 21st and wanted to perform one of the numbers we'd been practicing), and 2 numbers on December 21, our Christmas service. I also accompanied the Young Women Choir and the Primary children. Rachel played "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" as well. It was a beautiful service of the sacrament and music.
I love the Christmas songs. My songs that hit home the most were "What Child is This?" which our ward choir sang (I got choked up on "Nails, spear shall pierce Him through, the cross be born for me, for you,"), and "Angels in the Realms of Glory" by the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, their guest artists, the Gabriel's Trumpeters, and the Bells at Temple Square. I think I will be very upset if they ever decide to stop closing their concerts with this number. It is so powerful! I'm so grateful for my Savior, and powerful music that brings me closer to Him.
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