Well, it’s 11:54 pm EST and the
world has not ended yet so I think it’s safe to say we’re all in the
clear. That’s good because I would hate
for the world to have ended while my girls and my husband are together and I’m
in Canada!
I can’t believe I only have two
more shows on the tour. I’ve stayed in
so many hotels that I don’t know if I’ll be able to get used to sleeping in my
own bed when I get home. Well, I sure
haven’t missed washing dishes…but I DO really miss my husband and am looking
forward to being with him again. And it
will be GREAT to have the four of us
together again, even if only for a few days.
I’ll miss the fun of meeting new
people, of traveling and discovering new things and getting to sing for people
every night. It’s a whirlwind life I was
cut out for, and it will be hard to get used to being home again. Sooo, I’ll probably have a mood crash…I always do
after a tour. I imagine it will come at some point when I'm washing a sink full of dishes.
I can look back, however, and know
that his tour has been a success. I’ve made a lot of new fans and introduced a
lot of new people to my music. I accomplished what I set out to do and had a
lot of fun along the way. I have many people to thank for that,
including my sponsors, my hosts and all the of the people who have come out for
the concerts and encouraged me along the way.
There have been major bumps in the road...well, really only one, and that's the van thing. But my husband and I have pulled together to get that taken care of and, as he says, even though it's not fun we just had to make some decisions and take care of things. It's not the end of the world. When I called him from the hotel room in Nebraska, all crying, he knew just what to say to calm me down. He is my rock, and I could not do all of these crazy things without him. Thank God he came into my life. I don't take him for granted one bit. I know that there are not many men out there who would be okay with their wives taking off for a month and traipsing all over the country ,but Philip never questions it. He gets me, and he understands the dream.
Anyway, I just settled into my
hotel room here in Richmond Hill,
Ontario after a fabulous
post-show dinner with Kristine and Josh Reznik, my hosts. Boy! What a night!
But don’t let me get ahead of
myself. I spent some time in the hotel in
Michigan this morning working on the blog and
taking care of business, and then I went out and found the post office so I
could overnight that CD to the lady in Nebraska. As Philip said, it's not just wonderful that her husband loves the song, it's wonderful that she loves him so much she was willing to track it down and get it overnighted to surprise him with it for Christmas. Wish I could be a fly on the wall when he opens that package!
I
took off and headed for Canada
around 1:30pm. Just about the time
I crossed the border the blizzard
started and it was crazy driving for the next three hours. Not because I can’t drive in the snow, but it
seemed no one else could. It wasn’t too
bad, though getting across the border was a little hairy. When the border crossing guard asked me why I was coming into the country I told the truth, and he asked me if I was getting paid. I said, "no" and he said I might need a work permit anyway since the hosts paid for my hotel room. Then he said what I was doing was so unique he really couldn't classify it under any rules and he let me through. Something kind of funny happened, though. When I was telling him about the tour I handed him the copy of "Christmas with Mrs. Claus" that I had in the passenger seat and said, " Here's my CD!" He opened it up and stared at the inside for quite a while before handing it back to me. Afterwards I opened it up to see what he was staring at, and I discovered that I had mistakenly put the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John CD in it! Ha! He must have thought I was nuts...or he thought I was on a CD with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. He didn't say anything about it though, but I wonder what was going on in his head!
I had no trouble finding the Reznik’s house which was beautifully
decorated with white and blue lights everywhere, and one beautiful shining star
up on the roof. Josh and Kristine are a
nice young couple with three little boys and they gave me a warm welcome. One of the first things they told me was that
they’d gotten a front page spot on the local paper…but the paper had printed
the wrong date and they had a busload of people show up last night
instead! So we really weren’t sure how
many people would show up tonight, especially with the cold, wind and snow.
Josh
and his buddies got a big tent canopy up for me so I could keep the equipment
out of the weather. It was freezing cold
just setting up! But I was pleasantly surprised to see
how many people filled up the driveway in spite of the wintery weather. I think there were at least 50 people there,
which was really good considering the paper had printed the wrong date and the
weather was so cold. I didn’t even think
about the cold while I was singing…I never do, because I’m just in another zone
when that’s going on. But I did notice that the snow was blowing in under the canopy, and I had to ask Josh to get the keyboard into the garage before the show was over. I didn't even attempt to do "Candy," because I didn't want the people to feel obligated to stay that long out in the bitter weather. Anyhow, as I said, I don't really notice the cold while I'm singing.
But after wards, OH! My fingers were frozen! I couldn’t
even hold the pen to sign autographs.
Somebody brought me a hot chocolate and I actually dipped my fingers in
it to try to warm them up.You should have seen the kids in front of me gasp. "Doesn't it hurt?" one of them asked, and I said it didn't because I couldn't feel a thing. It didn’t help, either.
I managed to get all the photos
signed in record time then it was time to pack up, which was also difficult because I was
just soooo cold. I got a lot of help
from Josh and his friends and I was very grateful. Then we all went inside, Josh and Kristine changed and we all went out to eat. It was a really nice evening at the restaurant as I got to know them a little bit better. They told me the story of how their eldest son came to be called Beckham (yes, after THAT Beckham!) and their two other boys, Cruz and Rius. Can you guess how they got their names?
It was a whirlwind trip to Canada, and I have to thank Josh and Kristine for the whole thing...and the fact that it was their concert that made this the third INTERNATIONAL The House on Christmas Street Tour. Merry Christmas, Reznik family and may you have many more brimming with fun and joy with those three beautiful boys of yours! Thank you!!
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