Christmas Concert

Anchorage is home to the Air Force Band of the Pacific. Every Christmas the band hosts two free concerts for the public to enjoy. When Kara was growing up we attended every year. The last ten years our attendance has been sporadic. The grandchildren are now old enough to take. In fact they went last year with their parents and Grandma Karen and Grandpa Tim.

Grandma Karen asked about going again this year, but plans were not formalized. Matt is out of town and Kara is sick, so I decided that Mark and I should take the trio. I asked the children if they wanted to go. They said "Yes!". Then Jake changed his mind. Then he changed it back to yes. (Jake likes to verbalize his waffling. It makes him appear really indecisive, but I think he's just wrapping his mind around new ideas. Being a homebody, it takes him a while to see the pros to adventures out of the house.)

We were rushed because the children were still eating dinner when we needed to be leaving. We managed to get there on time and find good seats. The children watched, listened, and clapped enthusiastically. The first half of the concert always ends with a story. Children are invited to come and sit on the stage. Oddly enough (to my mind), Bentley and Jake rushed up and Viva refused to go.

After the story, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive and go out into the lobby to hand out candy canes (really small ones--what's with that?). Bentley got two and the twins one each, so there was a lot of discussion on the unfairness of that until Bentley (who doesn’t even like candy canes) gave his second one to opa.

Before heading off to the concert, Kara gave us one piece of advice: leave at intermission time. I told her, "You attended last year with two three year olds and one four year old. We're taking two four year olds and one five year old."

Despite my boast, I told Mark to grab all the coats during intermission so we could leave. When the boys saw Mark had the coats, they started protesting. "Aren't we going to see the rest of the concert?" Really?!? I asked Viva if she wanted to stay, too, and she was on board with the boys. Okay...we went back in and sat down.

The children ate their candy canes. The lights went down. The second half commenced. It was longer than the first half. All three children paid rapt attention the entire time. Well, the boys did. Viva paid attention, but she was also having fun sitting on the top of her chair seat. Instead of pulling down the seat and sitting on it, she climbed on the top edge of the folded up seat. She was pretty good, but I did have to tell her no more climbing up and down. Sit up or sit down.

After the concert we walked six blocks to the truck. Mark offered to go and get the truck, but I assured him the children would want to walk. And they did. They practiced slip-sliding. On the drive home, Bentley asked if we had any of the songs from the sing-a-long portion of the concert. I didn't in my truck, but I do at home. When we got home at 10PM the children finished their dinner. They were quite hungry and ate lots of pepperoni. It was a good evening.

The children have gone to a few concerts/plays/ballets with their father or both parents or Grandma Karen, but I was still amazed how long their attention span was. Quite frankly, it was longer than mine. The concert was excellent, but I had a long to do list when I got home. I'm hosting my book club in 8 hours, so I should wrap this post up.