Whitestown, IN

Well, not to be outdone by yesterday’s insanity I planned for a busy day today as well.

As fate would have it I had ordered something for Christmas back in November from a store at the mall. I had worried that it wouldn’t arrive in time, but I got a call early Saturday morning that it had arrived. Of all the days, it had to show up on the last shopping weekend before Christmas.

Now hate going to the mall, I hate it even more on the weekend, and I hate it the most on a weekend during the Christmas season. This was the worst of all days. Traffic was nuts. Parking was nuts. The people were nuts. I was nuts for even venturing to go there, but alas, I went. I cheated though and I brought Michelle along and her run in while I sat in front with the car running in a no parking lane. While it still took 45 minutes from arrival to leaving, it was better than it could have been.

Upon returning home, the boys arrived and we headed off for our 2 1/2 hour drive to Whitestown, IN to see the annual Andrew Peterson Christmas concert. To add to the long drive, we had to plan time to stop and eat because the boys were going to be hungry. Traffic wasn’t too bad and the orange box made good time.

Jace is a riot to travel with. Every two miles Jace asked how many miles we had gone, where we were at, how many miles we had left to go, and how long would it take to get there. I’d tell him and he’d respond, “97 miles? Great, that will only take like 2 seconds.” He was killing me.

We made a pit-stop somewhere north of Indy and had McDonalds and after a bathroom break we were back on the road.

We arrived a little after 6:00 and headed to the ticket counter. Andrew had offered to put me on the guest list and ask that I reminded him about the week before. So I emailed and called and was pretty confident that everything was taken care of.

They’d never heard of Bob Soulliere; so it was time to name drop.

“Umm, I’m Bob The Web Guy.”

“OH! Bob The Web Guy, sorry, still don’t know you, but after looking foolish enough to actually think that would work, we’ll just go ahead and give you 4 tickets anyways.”

Well, so it didn’t quite happen like that, but none the less we got in there.

Several more bathroom breaks followed, playing of games on the cell phone, wrestling, face making and generally laughing. The concert started late due to an accident that backed up traffic for a while.

WOW. The show was great. I hadn’t seen Andrew in concert for a long time (despite being his web guy), let along his Christmas show so I was very impressed. Andrew came out and had the crowd laughing in a few minutes (surprisingly talking about burying his grandmother). Then he played a new song that will be on his forth coming CD (one that he will record in the Spring).

Next he brought out Ben Shive and introduced him. Ben was pretty excited because his brother was there (he was sitting two rows in front us, they were evening wearing the same style of shirt) and he played one of his songs that he had written (I believe it was about the birth of his son).

Afterwards Andrew brought out Andy Osenga. Now for those of you who don’t recognize that name, Andy Osenga used to be the front man for The Normals (all 3 of their CDs are amazing), and now currently plays for Caedmon’s Call as well as travels with people like Andrew and a few pick up shows with Jars of Clay. I forget which song he played, but I was pretty sure it was from the new Caedmon’s CD, “Share the Well.” As an aside, Share the Well is an powerful CD as it details the plight of the Dalit class of people in India, plus it really breaks from the normal Caedmon’s sound which is a nice change.

Any how, next came Laura Story who I’d never met before. She did one of the songs from her CD as well (the first real song she said she ever wrote). She used to be the bass player in Silars Bald (for those of your playing along at home) so she brought a lot to the mix as far as what she could play.

Apparently next Andrew introduced Mark (the violin guy), but I missed that part as Jace decided that he needed to take another bathroom break.

Last came Gabe Scoot (it was great to see him again) and they all played the Ninety and Nine from Andrew’s first CD. After all that there was a short break.

The boys and I bought a ton of CDs (10 Christmas CDs for presents for game night) and then we bought all of Andrew Osenga’s CDs and the one that Laura offered. Now, I really didn’t need all those, but CD sales are the only ways these guys make any money while out on the road and I wanted to do what I could to help out.

Michelle kept our seats safe and we settled back in for the concert proper.

It was amazing, I could have sat there for hours and just listened. They played the whole Christmas CD without pausing or story telling, it was really a very moving experience.

When it was over we slipped back stage said our good byes to Andrew and snapped a picture of Dafyd and Andy. Sadly it came out a little blurry, but such is life.

We made our way back home through blowing snow and arrived safely back at about 11:45. A great time was had by all.

Thanks to all the people of the New Hope Christian Church down there for putting on the concert and sharing the good news of the gospel. If you haven’t had a chance to get Andrew’s Christmas CD, it’s still not too late. Go to his website at http://www.andrew-peterson.com and click on store to order it (several copies) and one of each of his other CDs. If you want to pick up stuff from anyone else you can always go to http://www.grassrootsmusic.com and order from them as well. You won’t be sorry.

Also shouts go to to Hoss, Sharon and anyone else that I ran into while I was there at the concert. It was good to see all you guys.