Some December Fun

December is only half over and look at me, blogging!  Be impressed, people.  Okay, not that impressed.  Erik and I are currently snowed in a bit at the cabin in Sunriver.  So, I have a little time on my hands.  :-)

We have enjoyed some great family moments thus far this month, the first of which was a brand new experience for the boys and a very nostalgic one for Erik and me.  We took the boys to the PLU Christmas Concert held here in Portland each year.  Let me explain.  Erik and I sang in this concert every year of our PLU lives.  And in 1997, having just started dating in November, we sat together on the bus ride down and back, dancing with each other in PLU's Red Square after helping unload the buses at midnight.  This concert is meaningful to us for LOTS of reasons.

We had never taken the boys because it requires sitting mostly still for two hours straight while listening to orchestral and choral music.  Right?  Not exactly their scene.  Also, in years past the concert has been on Tuesday evening, a night that I am committed to be at my bible study as the supervisor of the school-aged program.  But this year was different.

The advertisement arrived via snail mail in mid-October.  I glanced at it, interested in what the choir would be performing.  And there it was - Portland's concert was on Wednesday, December 2nd!!  I was so excited.  But I had a decision to make.  With or without the boys?  I decided to test the waters.

While sitting at the kitchen table for lunch that day, I not-so-slyly pulled up a youtube video of a previous PLU Christmas Concert and just started watching.  I NEVER do this, people.  I do not watch youtube during the day, unless it is very specifically connected with something we are studying.  Even then, it's always in our school room and has a big long boring introduction from me about what I want the boys to be watching for and things we will discuss afterward.  Educational.  Yep.  Not so this time.  I just started that video playing right in the middle of the Top Ramen.  From the very first notes, both boys were completely intrigued.

They stopped talking to each other.  That's so stinkin' rare.  Then, without speaking, they moved from their chairs to standing behind mine, silently staring at the screen.  After about a minute and a half, Paul reverently whispered, "What is this?"  And I knew they were ready.  I put a reminder in my calendar to purchase tickets when they went on sale a few weeks later.  And I did.

Next came some wardrobe improvements.  My children are homeschooled, people.  They spend much of the day wearing pants that are best suited for athletic activity and t-shirts with either Star Wars, Ninjago, or Mario characters emblazoned across them.  They wear these same clothes to church because nobody there cares about their clothes.  They each own two pairs of shoes - sneakers and rain boots.  That's it.  But for this PLU grad, the Christmas Concert held in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland was going to require something a bit snazzier.  In fact, before buying tickets I sat down with each boy and let them know that in order to go they would need to wear non-athletic pants and a collared shirt.  Period.  No arguments.  They both readily agreed.  And it was the first of a few Christmas miracles we experienced surrounding this event.

The boys and I shopped together for their concert attire.  I took them to Kohl's after doing some online research ahead of time.  I knew exactly what we were looking for and found it.  Wanna see the results?

Those ties have a character from Star Wars on them.  See what I did there?  It's called compromise.  You agree to dress up and I find you something that you absolutely LOVE to make it less painful.  The shoes were also a brilliant move on my part.  They are Vans, reasonably comfortable and absolutely awesome looking.  Not a single tear was shed during the donning of these outfits.  Christmas Miracle #2.  This picture alone might qualify me for Mom of the Year, folks.

We enjoyed dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory on the waterfront beforehand.  The boys did AWESOME.  A huge thank you to Grandma and Grandpa for introducing the boys to this restaurant a few weeks before the concert.  It was the perfect pre-concert family dinner place - fancy enough that I could be wearing my cutie dress and not feel WAY too overdressed - casual enough to be affordable and kid-friendly.  Seriously.  Perfect.

Sidenote:  This experience made me realize how much the boys are maturing.  They ordered their own food, stayed in their seats the entire meal, ate without complaint, and were uber polite to our server (I think she wanted to take them both home by the end of the meal).  I don't want to speak too soon, but these boys might actually turn out okay.

Okay!  On to the concert!  We parked the car and walked a few blocks downtown to get to the hall, taking us by the beautifully awesome downtown Christmas tree in Pioneer Courthouse Square.  I didn't get a picture because we were moving, but we all ooohed and aaahed appropriately.

We arrived at The Schnitz and both boys were super impressed by the marquee area.  All those lights!  I took this picture of them standing with Erik beneath it, but you can't tell it's them.  Oh, well.  The lights show very well!

We went in and the boys were again enthralled with the fanciness of the entire place.  I am basically just like them.  I think because I don't get out often enough, places like this still awe me.  It's not a bad thing actually.  But seeing it through their eyes made it even more enchanting.

We easily found our seats and it wasn't long before the concert started.  From the appearance of the Concert Master to the final standing ovation both boys were pretty much attentive.  Paul got tired during the second half (around 9pm), but he just leaned on Erik.  It helped so much that there are many opportunities for standing and singing.  Part of this concert tradition is the audience sing alongs.  About every half hour, the entire audience stands and sings a classic carol, loudly and fully orchestrated.  It rocks.  The boys loved it.  And it helped them stretch their legs and get the wiggles out.  So good.

At intermission, we climbed the stairs to the balcony to get the real view.  I took a picture.  The ties were clip on and too uncomfortable to last the entire night.  If I am able to, I will replace them with real ties for the upcoming Christmas celebrations.

It's a little dark and blurry, but can you see Paul's face?  It really says exactly how he felt about the entire night.  "Can you believe something this amazing exists and happens every year?"  Yes, buddy.  Maybe someday you will be on the stage instead of in the audience.  By the way, we need to get balcony seats next year.  It might be that you need to know the fancy people to sit up here.  But it just so happens that we know the people who know the fancy people.  So, it could happen.  ;-)

The concert ended around 9:30 pm, a good solid hour and half after we usually put the boys to bed.  We REALLY wanted to stay for just a moment to greet our former director and all-around awesome guy, Dr. Richard Nance.  Unsure of how long the boys would last, we were heading up the aisle toward the lobby when Dr. Nance appeared from back stage.  Ready for the third Christmas miracle?  Both boys were polite and kind to him.  At 9:30 pm.  Really.  I'm not lying.  I promise.  They greeted him and shook hands and smiled.  They allowed us to talk for a few minutes and then we gave our hugs and headed for the door.  Dr. Nance did ask if they sing LOW like their Daddy.  Erik and I replied in unison, "Not yet!" C'mon genetics!  Give us some more bass power!  Okay, we will be content with baritones or tenors...sort of.  ;-)

The drive home was mostly fine.  They were tired and at one point thought it was a good idea to start a conversation about Minecraft.  They were soon at odds regarding a debatable point of which no adult knows or cares to know the finer points.  Erik politely told them this was not a good time to discuss such matters and we turned on some Christmas music instead.  Other than that, there were no disputes.  We arrived home and all went to bed while visions of coloraturas danced in our heads.