Last Saturday, Mer went to Canton to pick up her parents, and I met them at EJ Thomas Hall in Akron. We met in the main lobby with no trouble. We were there to see “Tuba Christmas,” which is happily a free concert.

Akron’s Tuba Christmas is one of the biggest in the country, with over five hundred tuba players and two “sell-out” performances. Tuba Christmas started in the 70s as a way to get people interested in the tuba family. It plays in over a hundred cities around the country, and it is all made of Christmas music arranged for the tuba family.

At Akron, the tubas play through the song once, and then they play through again while the audience sings. Song books are not provided for the singers, so half the fun is in seeing how many songs the audience knows. Mer and I did pretty well, with Mer knowing (and prompting me on) all the songs except the lyrics to “O Christmas Tree.” We need to learn that one for next year, since we had been stumped by that last year as well.

As a fun bonus, the usher for our row, which was in the balcony, was a former colleague of ours (from CVCA). Mer said that she had run into our former colleague when she had gone with Ellen to see My Fair Lady back in November. Since there are dozens of ushers, that is quite the happy coincidence.

All in all, the concert was much fun. The tubas were decked out in lights and garlands, and we sang lots of carols, and Dale and Carlene seemed to enjoy themselves. I hope to be able to see Tuba Christmas again next year.

On Sunday, we headed down to Canton to Aunt Mary’s place, for lunch with the family and with Mer’s “Aunt” Zovie (her adopted aunt). We had a good lunch together, and then Aunt Zovie had to go. The rest of us had our family Christmas. Since we are all grown-ups (and me), and we all have tons of stuff, this year we decided to to give to charities as gifts for people. We did decide to spruce the gifts up by giving the details of the charity as a riddle or as limericks. So, we made a good show out of the “gift” opening, and we all felt pretty good about how things turned out.