Tuesday, December 15, 2009

A very musical Christmas season!

Wow! We had an amazing Sunday morning, to say the least! My awesome aunt Natalie is a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. After we lost out (again!) from getting tickets online to the Christmas concerts, she called on Thanksgiving Day and said she had tickets available for the Sunday morning concert! Were we interested?

Let's see, what was our favorite part? It might have been Natalie Cole, the children's choir or the bells? Was it the orchestra, David McCoullough or the dancers? The decorations or the tabernacle choir? I think our favorite part was being 6 rows away from President Monson as he walked to his seat! We were able to watch him during the show, also.

The show was amazing! It truly was an experience never to be forgotten! The music was magnificent, everything was perfectly timed. It was hard not to applaud until after the 1st half hour while they recorded Music and the Spoken Word. When the recording was finally completed, the audience applauded for about 5 minutes! I was so glad that Allison and Rebecca were able to witness such amazing talent. They performed a "mini concert" after the 30 minute recording. They were still recording parts for the PBS special next year and asked us not to applaud for certain songs. Some people still forgot, even though Lloyd Newell asked them extra nice!

President Monson went up on the stage after the show with President Mac Christensen and presented gifts to Natalie Cole and David McCoullough. He said that he'd like to say to them the 5 most important word in the English language, "We're proud of you." And the 2 most important words in the English language, "Thank you." Ms. Cole and Mr. McCoullough were very gracious. They both mentioned the "special feeling" that they had while they spent time in Salt Lake City. Hmmm.... I wonder if President Monson explained to them afterward what they special feeling was? If we get nothing else for Christmas, this present was more than enough for us this year!

That being said, our favorite concert of the week was one of much smaller proportion. Becca's! She had her first violin recital yesterday and we think she did very well for only 3 months of lessons! Here she is, in a duet with her teacher, playing "Ode to Joy" by Ludwig van Beethoven. It's very short and very sweet! Way to go, Becca!

5 comments:

Marianne said...

Wow! You're so lucky! What a memorable experience.

Shelley said...

That sounds like it was wonderful! How lucky that you were able to go!

Lindsay said...

Way to go Becca! You guys are just basking in all the musical talent out there:)

Crystal said...

What a neat experience. And good job Becca! You are a talented family.

Melissa said...

That is so great that you were able to go on Sunday. Sounds like it was amazing. Becca is awesome on the violin! She'll be putting my violin to good use in no time!!