It's over. I made it through the Holiday Concerts of 2017, and I am successfully unshaven and in smelly workout clothes on a Tuesday afternoon with nowhere to be for the foreseeable future.
This was definitely the smoothest year we've ever had. I don't know how we ever made it work when I was trying to do all of the concerts and also go in and teach at Lima (and do their concert) a few days a week, or to bring J down to accompany juries, or any of the other silly things I've tried.
The key thing this year was to keep expectations low. We didn't try to go to any unnecessary holiday parties or to take the kids anywhere. We didn't have any big household projects going on, (we mostly just kept food in the fridge and laundry in the wash), and didn't do any elaborate anthems or performances for church. Eat, sleep, drive, and play the trumpet. Repeat.
The trumpet playing was definitely easier this time around. For too many years in a row I've reached the end of the Holiday Pops shows in sad shape facially. I'll be backstage warming up into a curtain, trying to get my lips to vibrate, hoping that I can squeeze out just a couple more high notes and horse whinnies before getting some respite from the brutal pounding of high-octane shows every night. This year I switched no mouthpieces, made no desperate lunges for a piccolo trumpet, and forced out no reluctant notes. I just got up at 6:30 every morning and did a long, slow warm-up, and then practiced some soft fundamental drills. And then the concert at night, and that was it.
The biggest thing to survive, however, was the driving. There were a couple of snowy nights, but nothing that added more than a few extra minutes to the trip. There was SO much driving, though. In the 23 days from Thanksgiving to my last concert, I played 23 services, and not any two of them were geographically close to each other. I went as far west as Fredonia, and as far east as Ilion. I drove 4,342 miles in total. (Some of this was carpooled, to be fair.) To drive from our house to San Francisco, for reference, is 2,725 miles. It was about 3 days of being in the car.
But now it's over, for another year.
And now, NOW and not a moment before, I am ready to have Christmas music on in our house.
