Latin Choir Concert at the Cathedral

Chris' parents visited us from Georgia in order to attend the children's second and final Latin choir concert at our city's cathedral on September 22. We enjoyed a festive feast at home on Saturday evening.

Menu as prepared by me and my mother-in-law: meatloaf, spinach-artichoke casserole, roasted sweet potatoes, steamed beets-green beans-carrots, tortellini, and rolls.

On our way to Sunday Mass

We packed snacks to eat between Mass and the concert, then drove to the cathedral, delivered the children for the final rehearsal, and waited for the concert to begin.

John is in the front row, six in from the right

The children sounded wonderful. The choir director said this might have been their best concert in their eight-year history. The teenagers in particular sounded like angels to me.

Mary is in the front row, the first girl on the left

I wanted to make sure that the grandparents who had come so far really got to see the concert, so I took charge of the baby and the toddler. This meant that within minutes, we were in the back of the church. This cathedral was built in the era before cry rooms, so it does not have one. One hangs out in the back by the doors and, when the child finally gets too loud, one exits out the rear doors to stand outside. Alas, there is construction going on outside of those doors, so they are blocked and locked, making for no escape for us half dozen parents guarding toddlers back there!

How could a girl so cute give me such trouble during the concert?

There are exit doors on either side of the front, adjacent to the altar: But that is where the choir was performing! One set of doors was blocked by the soloists of any given piece and the other set of doors was blocked by the pianist. I wasn't prepared to walk up the aisle in front of everyone and push my way through the performers unless my toddler needed to be rushed to the hospital.

So, Margaret discerned my helplessness real fast (two-year-olds are so smart!) and gave me a run for my money. She was doing antics like bolting from me, running up the center aisle, then darting down pews so I couldn't catch her as I ran clumsily after her, wearing the baby jiggling on my back. I couldn't even give her a consequence because she would have thrown a loud royal fit, which normally I would have ignored because we would have stepped outside, but this time I didn't want to disrupt the performance.



Mary at four-and-a-half proved to be too young to be up on stage. Sweet girl did some pretty big nervous behaviors up there! During one piece, she took off her shoes and stood there swinging them in a circle the whole time. I wasn't able to sneak up and pull her off stage because I had custody of the baby and two-year-old. Chris judged not to pull her off stage because she was so close to the soloists in every piece, it could have caused even more distraction. But she did sing her heart out! The choir director was extremely gracious, said it was "okay!", and pointed out one child who sat down in the concert and wouldn't stand up, and we saw another boy who just walked off stage down the center aisle and didn't come back. These things happen in the world of children!

After the concert, we celebrated by going out to dinner. It was heart-warming to me to have such family togetherness! It means so much.