Christmas gifted

Oh my.  The hustle of our 2014 Christmas rivals none.  It. Was. Nuts.

As you may recall, my parents had a devastating house fire in April.  The rebuilding process has been extensive, expensive, extraordinary.

Let me set the stage for the Christmas drama.  Remember Catilyn Smith?  She is lovely.  Before Christmas she gave the opportunity to apply for a private concert in the home of a lucky fan.  I applied for my lucky parents at their new casa, and won the gig!  Approx. 4 hours before the 40+ guests and 3 musicians showed up for the social event of the season, Andrew was installing cabinetry, dad was wiring, my uncle was cleaning, mom was freaking out, and my sister and I were looking at each other wondering what to do.  I wish I had a picture.  I can usually count on my mother for pictures of any interesting family happenings, but she was nearly paralyzed with fear/disbelief that any good could come of this chaos.  Alas! we cleaned it up, set out the food, lit the candles, and had the time of our lives!

#christmaswithcait #itsadate

Cait & co. sang some of her originals (one of which she just sold to Meghan Trainor...apparently it's not ALL about that bass), and delighted us with the most amazing arrangements of Christmas classics.  Of all time.  Seriously.  I hope there's a Christmas With Cait album, I will buy one for everyone.

My dad gave a lovely (and funny) speech about how grateful he is for the help and support of so many people.  Their house is a creative collaboration that came out of the fire 1000x more amazing than it was before (post demo and reconstruction, that is...it wasn't a refining fire, despite how that last sentence sounded.)  House pictures coming...sometime.

Sure makes me want to get my banjo tuned up.

My gorgeous sister and our talented to the max entertainers.

So much beauty, so much talent, so much merry.