Holiday Celebration with A Theme

A small group of us drove though the snow to meet at Outback Steak House in Danbury. We'd already postponed the holiday celebration once because of the snowstorm the weekend before Christmas, and it surprised us to be greeted with an unpredicted snowfall, which got heavier the further north you went. Fortunately, we experienced minimal accumulation, though it did slow traffic down a little. However, before any of us left our homes to head for Danbury, we decided we would not do the second part of the planned festivities: an evening of games at Mike's and Lisa's. They had three inches of snow in Bethel before our 3:00 "dinner," and their steep driveway had yet to be plowed. It would have been difficult for Rachel's car to make it up to the house.

Instead, we lingered over dinner and opened gifts at the restaurant. Most of my gifts centered around a theme. My first clue should have been the stylized staves with music stamped on the gift bag, but I figured Rachel was just being creative, as she usually is. Then I pulled a stack of presents tied together with gold ribbon and all wrapped in paper printed to look like sheet music. Hmmmm...

I started with the smallest package at the top of the stack, a Moleskine Music Notebook. The next package down was a CD of Telemann Concertos & Sonatas. The third one held a polishing cloth and a 64 page six stave student book. Hmmmmm again. Stave pages? That mystery resolved itself in the next package I opened, Music Theory for Dummies. The package at the bottom was Romantic Classics for Flute & Piano from Music Minus One. Lisa and Mike gave me a book I wanted, but the other item in the gift bag was a CD of a selection of Baroque music.

Theme anyone?

The card Rachel made for the stack says "Stay inspired."

Some of my inspiration comes from my friend Jonathan. He encourages me in my playing and often gives me advice about practicing. He's had a lot more formal training than I have, but he never talks to me like I'm some idiot know-nothing. It was his suggestion that I read up on music theory as part of my work with the flute.

So now I have a book. And I stumbled across a series of lectures on music theory at iTunes U. Between the two, I might actually soak up some music theory.

It's nice to have supportive friends.

Icky weather, nice meal, good presents, great friends. All in all a good day.