Nothing went according to plan.

A week ago, Andy and I had the opportunity to present a Christmas program for a delightful group at our church. We were approached by this group two months in advance and agreed to provide background music for a Christmas dinner. They would graciously provide dinner for us in return for our involvement.

One month ago we found out we would not be providing background music. We were asked to put together a 45 minute concert to serve as entertainment after dinner.

OK. Not what we were expecting. But OK.

Andy and I sat down and talked about the possibilities. We came up with the following program:2 songs by Andy, one song by me, 6 song group carol sing, one song by Andy, a duet, and end with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. We figured that this would cover about 45 minutes.

We purchased the music and worked on our program.

The night of the dinner/concert:

I raced to the church after work with my change of dress in tow. I quickly made a power point slide show for the group carol sing. Andy showed up and we warmed up, checked levels, and sang through a few songs. Due to our frazzled state, we asked if our dinner could be held for us until after the concert.

A group of singers asked if they could join us onstage for the carol sing in the middle of the program. The more the merrier, I figured.

With the guests pleasantly filled with their delicious dinner, the program began as perfectly as could be desired. Andy rocked his first two songs (hardly a dry eye in the house) and I was pretty content with my own performance. We invited the group of singers onto the stage and we led the audience in a 6-song-medley. All was going well until a lovely lady (with the very best of intentions) announced to the audience:

“GOOD NIGHT AND HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!”

At her announcement, everyone in the audience grabbed their belongings and headed for the door. Andy and I remained on stage trying to figure out what had just happened. We still had the other half of our program to do. Did we care? Did we call out for everyone to come back? Did we just shrug it off and go get dinner?

We chose the latter. We chuckled over the strange ending to our concert and went to the kitchen to retrieve our dinner.

Before we reached the kitchen, we were met by a guilty looking lady who informed us (with her head hung low) that our meals had accidentally been thrown out. She firmly thrust a $20 bill into Andy’s hand and apologized over and over again for how the night turned out.

Then she asked if we would do a concert for their mother/daughter dinner they hold in May.

To which we replied: Yes.