Tomorrow is Diane’s 78th birthday so we’re going to celebrate by decorating our tree and other stuff. It’s a small tree and it won’t take long to cover it with ornaments. Currently it’s outside letting the flocking odor escape. She wants to tweak the branches a bit before adding ornaments. When done, we will move it inside. This way there’s less chance of flock flying around inside where Max might decide to taste it. So, we’ll decorate it outside. The move should be interesting.

For this day, her chosen activity was to stay up late, drive do the heart of downtown Tucson, join a couple hundred strangers and enjoy a couple of hours listening to a string quartet Candlelite Christmas Concert.

According to Veronica (our GPS) the Scottish Rite Cathedral was only 15 minutes away, but we didn’t want to take any chance of being late. The doors closed at 2100 and would not be opened for late comers. We made it in time and surprisingly found a parking spot only a couple of blocks away.

There was a long line of people waiting to get in when we got there.

This is the Red Room of the Cathedral. For the concert, the floor was filled with chairs and chairs were also placed on the first level of the risers on either side. They were angled toward the stage. We were seated on the first riser on the right with a perfect view of the stage. Diane picked them and she made an excellent choice.

Here we are in our assigned seats. When Diane saw this photo she said, “you should smile more.” This is just the way I look when I’m concentrating, and I concentrate a lot.

These are the candles that littered the risers next to us.

This was our view of the stage.

In case you were wondering about the candles, they were all battery powered, but very realistic. I know they weren’t real but I had to stick my finger in the fake flame of the candle under my chair to make sure. It didn’t hurt at all.

When the music was finished, we sat while everyone else filed out. The candles were the only light in the room throughout the performance. There were hundreds of them around the room and it was quite stunning. A nice young lady took this photo and I’m smiling because I didn’t have to concentrate. I just had to stand there with the love of my life, right where I belong.

Once outside it was a leisurely walk back to the car for our ride home.

Max was happy to see us and I took him for a walk before we retired for the night. He knows the routine.

It was another really good day with an excellent ending.