Thank you to all who helped out with the concert!

I've been pretty busy these past couple weeks performing. I had my annual Christmas Concert in Sandy, UT on the day after Thanksgiving. It was probably the most fun I have had performing. I had 4 terrific guest singers sing in it: Jared Morgan, Issac Bickmore, Emily Dunn, and Laura Braithwaite. (Laura's my youngest sister.) The concert was directed by Brent Cowley, who graduated in film studies from the University of Utah. He put together some films and images that matched my music and helped to create the mood. Brittany Braithwaite and Jennifer Braithwaite both worked with the lighting for the concert. So thank you very much to everyone! I have also been performing at several parties and house concerts the last couple weeks, it's been a great week. I don't have any pictures yet from my concerts, but I expect to be receiving some soon, I will post pictures as I receive them.

On a personal note, my wife, Brittany and I are expecting to have our first baby this Feburary! We're both really excited. It's going to be a boy. Baby is doing good, but for some reason, he likes to kick his mom in places where it hurts (ribs, nerves, and anything else that can cause pain.) We don't have a name picked out yet, but soon we'll have a little one running around.

Salt Lake Family Christmas Gift Show

Thank you for coming to say hi at the Salt Lake Family Christmas Gift show this year. I should have some pictures from the gift shows soon that I'll be able to post to my blog. Friday morning I performed next to Bill West from as he broadcasted that morning from FM100.

The holiday season is now in full swing here in Utah with several stations playing Christmas music already. It might seem too early for those of you outside of Utah to already be playing Christmas music, but I enjoy listening to Christmas music now. I've been wondering recently, why should we only listen to some of the greatest music ever written for only one month out of the year? My family and I used to live in Manila, Philippines. They started celebrating Christmas pretty early there-they start playing Christmas music in the malls in September!

I am now preparing for my Annual Christmas Concert. It will be on the day after Thanksgiving (Friday the 27th) at 7:30 pm at Riverton Music in Sandy, 9491 South 255 West. Admission will be free, so if you want to have a relaxful evening after a hectic shopping morning, come and bring your family to the concert. I will have some guest singers there, and I have a film director directing the performance, so it will be a fun time! I'll write more about it later.

My experience in Tacoma

Well, the Tacoma Gift show is now over with. I had a really fun time playing at the Tacoma Dome. One of the funniest things that happened was when these two little kids about 3 years old came up and asked me to play Jingle Bells. I told them, "I'll play a little different version of Jingle Bells, it's called Santa Claus, Light my Fire." So I started playing, and the kids went berserk, it was hilarious! They started screaming and jumping like they were in a mosh pit and were wiggling their arms and running around in circles. It was by the door of the front entrance, so people were exiting the building, and their mom was trying to keep them from getting in people's way. After I played it, I said "How about I play something soft and pretty now?" The mom said thanks, and I played the calm "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" but they were still pretty wired from the last song.

I met some nice people in Tacoma, one of them was another pianist that was selling music at his booth in the exhibition hall. His name is David Templeton. He was really nice and humble. He gave me some ideas on how to keep my fingers from falling apart. I was on the piano bench playing for about 40 hours from Wednesday through Sunday, and I had started to develop some callouses on the outside of my thumb and pinky, and my index fingernail started to separate a little bit, but all is well, they held together! I also met another guy from Salt Lake named Jake, and we hung out Friday night, got some dinner, and then played ping-pong at the hotel game room.

I'm now getting ready for the Salt Lake show, this show will be shorter. It's from November 13-15th at the South Towne Expo Center. It should be another fun time. I'll be by the entrance to the exhibit hall again.

Getting ready for the show

I'm almost done packing getting ready for the Tacoma Holiday Food and Gift Festival. Brittany is being sweet and is helping me a lot. I wouldn't be ready without her. Let's hope the suit cases weigh less than 50 pounds! Hopefully I don't forget something. I think it's an American Standard though to forget 1 thing when going on a trip. Every one does it whether it's a toothbrush, deodorant (don't worry, I'm bringing mine) or a child (like in Home Alone.) Brittany and I watched Home Alone the other week because we were already in the Christmas spritit from my practicing Christmas songs since August.

My website is 95% complete, and should be 100% complete tomorrow. Whoever's reading this can check it out www.andrewbmusic.com

I am going to go to Soularium Studios to record my last song for my Christmas Album tonight. The album will be called "Christmas Flurry." :)