Babysitting Crisis #1 & The Gambler

In case you can't quite make him out from this high quality iphone shot, that's The Gambler himself, Kenny Rogers smack dab in the center of the stage. Let me restate that. What I meant to say was that's 70 year old Kenny Rogers, father to two identical FOUR AND A HALF YEAR OLD twins smack dab in the center of the stage. Yes, my husband and I celebrated a Saturday night out with two highly sought after tickets to the Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits/Holiday Concert and I'm admitting it in public, on the internet, and my cheeks aren't even red. It was such a blast.

A blast, of course, once we overcame a few obsticles. I bought the tickets back in September (you never know when the 3,000 seat farmhouse is going to sell out when one of the greats comes to town) and knowing the concert was the weekend before Christmas decided to play it safe and book a babysitter at the same time. Then I reconfirmed the sitter this week. Then I called her at 6:10PM when she was already 10 minutes late to make sure she was OK. And you KNOW your plans are going to change when the babysitter answers the phone and after hearing your voice can only say "oh my God oh my God oh my God". Yup, she completely forgot, and we found ourselves ditched with two tickets and no sitter.

Let me just say right now to the whole universe, Thank the Gods for college students heading home for the holidays. We're lucky enough to have one next door who just happened to be free and was happy to earn a few bucks while home from school (and also happens to have house sat for us before so knew the ropes of Casa McGregor, and Ashton seemed to LOVE her when she came over). So, all was once again right with the world and babysitting disaster #1 was quickly overted and we were on our way to groove with The Gambler and a scrumptious meal to boot. It was just a little later and a bit more rushed than initially planned.

A few notes on the concert. I've never been to one where there were so many concert goers with oxygen tanks in tow. I've never seen so many christmas sweaters (complete with blinking lights) than I did tonight. And I grew up in MN... And last but not least, I admit, I knew (and happily sang along with) most of the songs. Granted they're all 1 1/2 minutes or less and every third word is either bourbon, lady, or whiskey, but come on, it's Kenny! Granted they have to be 1 1/2 minutes or less or else poor Kenny would probably tip over for good right there on stage, but he didn't. And I have so much respect for the man for that. 8th best selling artist in the world, 70 years old with 4 1/2 year old twins, and still performing in the country's longest running holiday show. 2008 marks it's 26th year. Pretty freaking cool. There are two sides to me, the upstate NY country me and the NYC Brooklyn me. The Brooklyn me is somewhere upstairs hiding in the closet not quite sure of what to think of tonight, but the upstate NY country me doesn't really care because she had So Much Fun!

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when youre sittin at the table.
Therell be time enough for countin when the dealins done.