Thanksgiving On To ChristmasDear Friends, This November has been especially nice for Robin and Linda. During the days, when we're not doing chores or working on music, we've made a daily routine of taking walks. The weather has been extremely cooperative, and the late fall light on this picturesque countryside where we live never ceases to energize us.We had a full Thanksgiving weekend, dinner with friends on Thursday and Friday nights and we spent Saturday night listening to and playing music. We couldn't have asked for anything better or made better plans. And mostly we stayed out of stores. In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, Robin gave thanks that all our phones are working when, while on a trip to the grocery store over the weekend, he noticed the line at the Verizon store stretching several hundred down the sidewalk. The wait time for a clerk was an hour and a half. Several guests on Friday night had family members that got up early on Friday morning - like 1:00 a.m. - in order to go to the WalMart in town. We were astonished. As you probably have surmised, the Black Friday mania has never hit our house. One of the benefits of being a musician is that we can hit the stores in the off hours and don't have to slam dunk our shopping during the Thanksgiving weekend. We've spent most of our music time recently getting back to our Christmas material. We consider these songs to be the gifts that keep on giving. We spend a month getting reacquainted with them, polishing them up, adding and subtracting to the list of songs and then going out and performing them. Then they mostly sit dormant for a good portion of the year so that, by the time we get back to them the next Christmas season, they are fresh and we're once again excited about them. Additionally, they bring to the forefront our awareness of the joyous nature of the holidays. We're looking forward to performing these songs at a couple of special concerts coming up soon. One is in Chatham, NJ this weekend with a friend from our "A Prairie Home Companion" days, Pat Donahue, and a "just added" show close by in Charlottesville, VA the following weekend at a new venue called The Front Porch. As we write this on a Tuesday, there is some talk about a second show at the Front Porch on December 10. If it comes to pass, we'll send another announcement. We feel it essential that we do our duty on the commercial side of the season and tell you that we'll not only be bringing with us our own Christmas CD, "The First Christmas Gift,", but we'll also be bringing the just released Red House Records compilation, "Christmas On The Lam And Other Songs Of The Season" which includes our song "Together All Alone." Both can be purchased either from us at our shows or from our web site, www.robinandlinda.com. Bumper Sticker Of The Month: This is God's country, so don't drive like hell through it. We hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season. We chose the third verse of our song, "On a Quiet Christmas Morn," to use on our Christmas card this year and we'll leave you with the last verse: "The hustle stops and the bustle stills and on this day all is calm. Forgiving kindness and good will soothes like a healing balm. And the hardest heart is softened by the Blessing that was born, When the gift of grace was offered On a Quiet Christmas Morn" We hope to see you soon somewhere along the way
Your pals,
Robin and Linda
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