date night at the old church

Our annual Christmas musical date night was fabulous this year. We went to see a local pianist, Michael Allen Harrison's Christmas concert. He is amazing. He plays for a lot of different events in Portland like the Singing Christmas Tree, private concerts, fundraisers, and he organizes a show called 10 Grands that we hope to attend in April. He invited lots of local talent including a jazz vocalist who really belted it out on Silent Night, a professional jazz clarinetist, several high school aged girls singing Charlie Brown's Christmas Time Is Here that is now stuck in my head, and a girl who played a Carol of the Bells duet with him on the other piano. That duet was probably my favorite song of the whole night. His entire family also joined him on violin, guitar, drums, and accordian, and he had a man that was out of this world good on drums.

I have a thing for old churches. This one was beautiful. It used to be a Presbyterian church but is now on the national historic register and is used for concerts, recitals, and weddings. This was the 20th year of Christmas concerts there by Michael Harrison. (Since my pictures didn't turn out that great, I snagged a couple from the website.)

(photos by Dan Saddler)

There were two grand pianos on the stage, and he'd just move from side to side every few songs. It was unbelievable how fast his hands and fingers moved. He had a guy open for him that I thought was really good. Then we noticed his cane and realized he was blind. I was so impressed.

Our date nights are one of my favorite Christmas traditions. That, and buying my new sweater which you see in the photo above. Yes, it has bling. Yes, I was a little out of my comfort zone wearing it. But it was all good.