HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY TUBA CHRISTMAS

When our son Austin joined the band in middle school, he started out on trombone. A few weeks later, the band director let a few of the kids have a go at playing one of the school's tubas, and that was all she wrote. He never touched that trombone again. He started going to tuba lessons with a private instructor every week, and when Christmas rolled around, his teacher told him about something called Tuba Christmas -- concerts which take place in cities across the country, where anyone with a tuba or euphonium can show up to play carols together. He played in these concerts every year, using a tuba borrowed from school, until he graduated.

The concerts here in Austin are always held on the steps of the Capitol building. We went together as a family a couple of years ago, but our son said being a spectator just wasn't the same as being a participant. In fact, it made him kind of depressed. Not long after that, he started searching in earnest for a decent second-hand tuba that he could purchase (tubas are very expensive), and this year, he was up on the steps, instead of in the audience!

We were a little worried that morning when we woke up to find it was only 25 F out. We feared there would be some tongues stuck to tubas! However, by the time the players marched out of their brief practice session, it had warmed up to a wonderfully sunny 60 degrees -- the best weather we've ever had for a Tuba Christmas!

Austin was able to reconnect with high school friend David, who is himself now a private tuba instructor for several schools in the Austin area.

They had all ages there, from sixth graders up through people in their sixties.

Almost all wore festive hats, and many decorated their tubas as well.

At one point they let the youngest musicians do a song or two on their own, then they sat out while the more experienced players did one of my very favorites, Carol of the Bells. Soooooo beautiful!

It was pretty much a perfect day.  The only thing that could have made it even better, would have been if Austin and David had inspired others to break into some spontaneous, synchronized tuba-dancing, the way they always did back in high school. That, my friends, would have been awesome!