Christmas Taco Finale

We had our very last show of our Home for the Holidays tour last night in South Carolina. Thanks to all who came out to see the show. I hope we helped get you in the holiday spirit!

Last night we did something that was a first for us. For some reason we were all STARVING when we got on the bus around 11pm, so we told our driver to look for something that was open so we could stop and get some food.

It’s weird, because we never usually eat after a show. We all just brush our teeth and go straight to bed for a good night’s sleep. (detect sarcasm)

Mike our bus driver slows down…

Taco Bell.  Drive thru open till 2am! Anderson, SC.

Doesn’t that look good even now…

anyway, we were a little nervous because our bus cannot fit through the drive thru, so we walked up to the window to order on foot. This usually doesn’t work. There is some kind of worldwide Taco Bell rule that you HAVE to be in a CAR to order in the drive thru. Redonk. We knew this would be a problem, depending on how “by the book” this location was.

We pleaded with the girl at the window, actually Denise did. Told her we were a hungry Christian singing group. Would she like a CD? Could we sing her a song? NOPE. Not having any of it.

PLEEEEEEEEASE???

“Let me call my manager.” wait two minutes. “She said no.”

Defeated, we walked back to the bus, heads hung low.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

“Denise, why don’t you offer the girl 20 bucks to borrow HER car and drive it thru the drive thru to order?” said Shelley.

“OK Shelley, you are the boss, so I will do it “, said Denise.

“Chris August, you go with Denise, to protect her.” said Shelley.

So the girl took the twenty bucks, handed Denise her keys, and thirty minutes later we all enjoyed a huge feast. (We ordered a lot, so it took a long time to cook it all. 83 dollars worth. That’s a lot of food at Taco Bell.)

Denise smelled a little like cigarettes after she got out of the car, but she really took one for the team. So we didn’t shun her.

Special thanks to Walt and Chris for accompanying Denise on her mission.

Two other things about today…

Number One

Number Two

Come on over….

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Meet The Family ( Part 2)

I am currently on the road to Baltimore as I type this. We are on our way to our next stop on our “Home for the Holidays” tour. I think this drive is about 13 hours from Chicago. I realized yesterday that I never did the second installment of Meet My Road Family. We only have 3 shows left and it has been a blast. I will really miss these hard working folks!!

This beautiful girl is DeMetri Moon. She goes to Trevecca Nazarene University and is an awesome fiddle player. She has been a blessing to us on this tour. Not only does she play the fiddle and study faithfully on the road to keep her grades up, but she also does Caroline’s and Darby’s hair every night. They LOVE her. And we do, too.

This is Chris August. I took his picture during soundcheck. He has been opening for us. His record is SO GOOD. He just had his first number one single, Starry Night. My husband is his agent and the first time he played me his record I said, “If this guy doesn’t make it in Christian music, then no one will…”  You should buy it, it’s called “No Far Away.” Super dee duper…and I get no kick back for saying that…He also makes me laugh, and that’s a bonus…

Darby and Caroline got to go with us on this last run. They sing every night and just love it! Honestly, I think they just love to show off whatever cool hair-do they have, compliments of DeMetri. They got these hats from somewhere in the church. I hope they left them there, but knowing them, they probably stole them…

This sweet smiley girl is Rebecca. She is the representative from American Bible Society that is traveling with us for the Christmas tour. You’ve never met a nicer, more positive person and I’m not kidding. I’m pretty sure that deep down inside she thinks we aren’t Christians. Actually, she’s probably too nice to think that…

I saved this guy for last. This is Dana. If you have seen us in the last 15 years, then you have seen him. He is our Mr. Everything. Guitar player, road manager, merch guy, and most importantly our biggest fan and encourager. He has so many jobs on this tour-I’m afraid we might just kill him. Pray he lasts for 3 more days! Big love to you, Dana!!!!!

On a serious note, which I don’t do often or well, I am blessed to love the people I travel with. It would be a long lonely road if I didn’t. We laugh a ton and encourage one another along the way. So a big thank you to all of my road family. You all are the best.

Stay tuned tomorrow, where I will share with you my all time favorite holiday music and movies….

Snow Day!!!

We pulled into Nashville this morning for a day off, and came home to a beautiful blanket of white. As I write, the kids are sledding down the street with the reddest cheeks I’ve ever seen. This whole scene makes me happy. Don’t you remember being a kid and how much you LOVED a SNOW DAY!

I had to beg Caroline to pose for this right before she came inside because she was certain she had frostbite.

Now we are all warm inside drinking hot chocolate with our neighbors and watching “Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas” which I actually love myself.
(Shelley’s hot chocolate has a couple extra squares of melted Hershey bar in it. Oh yeah.)

I made them put that blanket on the floor so I wouldn’t have hot chocolate on my rug. Isn’t Bella cute? And the kids too, of course.

Just a few random thoughts and things I also wanted to mention from yesterday.

1. A HUGE THANKS TO MICHAEL PASSONS, our keyboard player, (you can follow him on twitter @mpassons) who saved me (and this blog actually) with his kindness yesterday.
We had to change planes in Dallas to get to Shreveport. There was an earlier flight we could catch so we ran to the other gate two terminals away. Right as we were boarding the plane, our road manager got a call on his cell phone. Guess who left their computer on the other plane?? Yep, me. That’s right. So Michael offered to stay behind, go retrieve my computer, and take the next flight to Shreveport. He also got to eat at the new Pappasito’s in DFW, which was a slight consolation in the matter.

2.FBC Bossier City does a really great Christmas program every year. Yesterday, we were their special guests. Here we are with the “mini-Rockettes” that performed in the show. I’m not kidding, these girls were good! I believe they were called “Vicki’s Dancers” from a local dance studio. Denise and Leigh wanted to ask them if we could borrow three of their costumes and put them on to be funny “for your blog shelley! For your blog!”

Ummmmmmmm, nope. Not sure I see my size available in that pic.

3.Also at FBC Bossier– the church was decorated to the nines. They had these HUGE red velvet bows everywhere. There was one in the conference room next to our dressing room. I picked it up and acted like it was in my hair. The girls thought it was funny, so Michael stood behind the wall, held it above my head, and Leigh took this pic. Random.

I don’t know why I think that is funny but I do.

4.So our good friend Kimmie, who actually works for Reba McEntire, but is always a huge help to us whenever we play around town, took some photos at our concert in Nashville the other night. I just have to show you this one of Spence (Denise’s oldest) and Darby and Caroline. I hate that Price isn’t in it, he was on the other side of the stage playing guitar. But aren’t they so cute. Our fiddle player, Demitri, did their hair and they thought they were hot stuff. There is a video of them singing this on my previous blog.

Well, how’s that for a mixed bag of goodies.

I must go now and reorganize my house and life, because we leave for Wisconsin in about 33 hours. Happy SNOW day!

PS  Had to add these two pics in fresh off the press. Neighbor just sent me these. Happiness.

Not So Tiny Tots

Our kids are getting so BIG. I can’t even take it. It’s a tradition for them to sing in our Christmas shows. Below is a video of our Nashville show and the kids performing Silver Bells. Price is on guitar and Caroline, Darby and Spence are singing.

Enjoy!

PS thanks to one of my besties in the whole world, Keely, for filming this, and also basically running my blog while she herself is traveling all over the world. Story to follow this week. She is going to get her own dedicated post real real soon.

Jingle Bell Not

So last night we were in the dressing room right before our Nashville show, and we were LOSING IT. See the video below for “lack of sleep” at it’s finest…

I can’t believe I just posted that.

I swear we can sing when we’re not delirious.