Here in Salt Lake, the hottest holiday ticket in town is for the Christmas on Temple Square concert. It’s free, but do dadgum popular that the tickets are issued via an online lottery. This year over a million people entered.
Brian and I didn’t win, but our friends James and Laura did (er, rather, Laura’s dad won, but passed the tickets on to his daughter), and they invited us!
Whee! A big, spectacular musical extravaganza! This is what it looked like:
Big, brassy and sassy. There’s the big choir, and and orchestra and a handbell choir (who, bless them, wore the dorkiest vests imaginable. They made my heist-movie gloves look positively stylish). Also featuring: the most modest dancewear money can buy!
Yup, the theme was “Christmas Stories,” which somehow translates to “Renaissance Faire Folke.” Hence, a stage decorated to look like a castle, and heralds playing trumpets, etc. I did think a line was crossed when a guy in chain mail started doing ballet.
But, whatever. The choir (along with Jane Seymour) did a lovely “story-behind-the-story” monologue/choral arrangement of “Good King Wenceslas,” which is one of my favorite carols. Brian and I did have a bit of a snicker when we noticed that the choir changed a line in one of the verses. Instead of “bring me flesh and bring me wine,” they sang, “bring me flesh and fruit so fine.”
So, now “fruit so fine” is our codeword for any kind of alcoholic drink. (“Dude! That guy on the corner totally reeks of fruit so fine!”)
Believe it or not, though, my favorite part of the evening was just hanging out with our friends James and Laura. It’s been ages since I’ve been on any kind of double date, and it was plain old fun to sit and chat while waiting for the concert to begin, and stroll through Temple Square before and afterwards. If you’re reading this, J&L, thank you again so much! It was just the right amount of holiday cheer to get me through a very busy, stressful week.
Casa Camisas 