We've just finished the 24th of our 24 Christmas concerts in Livermore at the Performing Arts Center- a fairly new facility about 45 miles to the east of us.  Last time we sang there it took three and a half hours to get there and we almost didn't.  This time – because this Christmas tour has been pretty charmed where traffic and whether are concerned- it only took an hour leaving us plenty of time to look around.  

This a our third Christmas in Livermore and we're starting to see familiar faces in the audience.

Casey and Michael made it through their first Christmas tour none the worse for wear – they said they enjoyed it – especially coming back to the intimate acoustics of the California missions and the grandeur of St. Ignatius.

Both of them are leaving early in the morning – as are most of us – for points east.  Casey, as has been noted, will arrive in New York tomorrow in time for his mother's 7 fish dinner, and then sing midnight mass!

Gregory  is staying home in San Francisco for a cozy Christmas with no cars to rent or planes to get on… 

So now you know where we'll all be for the next few weeks.  We thank you for following us through our Christmas odyssey and we wish you and yours a very happy holiday season and all the best in the new year.

(more lights in Petaluma)

Hope you saw us on TODAY this morning!  We sang the Biebl "Ave Maria" for millions without having to get out of bed!  We should also be on at 8.50am tomorrow morning ((Christmas Eve.)We were lucky yesterday to be driving from Carmel to Santa Clara between storms.  It was menacing looking but that was about it.  The Mission Santa Clara is always lovely at Christmas, and our concerts very well attended.  We had to turn people away from both shows.

Former ensemble member Gabe Lewis-O'Connor came with his wife Lauren from Kansas City for some holiday time.  Always good to see former colleagues in the audience.  Todd Wedge was also there – he had already come to St. Ignatius with Justin Montigne.

A big shout out also to our Board Chair Kathy Henschel and Development Committee Chair Peggy Skornia who turned up just about everywhere on this Christmas run – from New York, to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Carmel, Santa Clara, Oakland, Berkeley…many of our board members attended Christmas concerts in New York and Los Angeles and around the Bay Area, but Kathy and Peggy went above and beyond and we really loved seeing them out there so often. Thanks, ladies.

Here's a lovely review from Carmel you might like to read.

If any of you feels bad that we were NOT named by Gramophone ( an English publication) as one of the top 20 choirs in the world – don't.  We're OK with it – being named as a puzzling omission ( which we were)  may be just as good!  So we're not one of the 20 top choirs in the UK (….most of them were British)…. really, we're OK!!!

The next to last of our 12 'dudes of Christmas' as somebody called us in a review oh so long ago at the beginning of the Christmas tour – is Alan.  He's staying at home in San Francisco and will be having a romantic Christmas Eve dinner out tomorrow evening, then an at home dinner which may involve duck for Christmas day, and a restful holiday which will involve buying a couch and not much else.

Well, no, that wasn't us on TODAY this morning – that was Mr. Buffett and his reefer Christmas who bumped us and we hope you enjoyed him.   TODAY's news today is that we will be on at 10.50am tomorrow – that's Kathy and Hoda's hour and we think that Hoda would NEVER bump Adam) and then Christmas Eve, Friday at 8.50am.

It's clear that we can guarantee nothing, and we thank you for hanging on in the hopes of seeing us in our sea of pointsettias and television lighting sometime before Christmas.

We're spending the morning in Carmel where it's actually sunny, heading in a little while for the Mission Santa Clara.

Arriving in Carmel in between storms, we found our hotel with no power.  Fortunately the nearby mission was OK.

With power still out in parts of Carmel, the storm arrived over head in time for the break between shows, and continued in an audible drumbeat on the roof throughout the second concert after which the public exited into a downpour.  The intimacy of the mission, the warmth of the longtime fans  and the proximity to Christmas makes these concerts very special to us – downpour or not.

Casey (10th in our countdown -Christmastime is almost here!)  will be going back to the island of Manhattan where he comes from for his mother's  7 fish Christmas Eve dinner and he'll spend the rest of the holiday seeing friends.

Remember that we'll be on NBC's TODAY tomorrow Wednesday at 8.50am and Thursday at 10.50am.

TODAY has changed the schedule, we're on Wednesday morning at 8.50am singing "Angels we have heard on high" while floating on a bed of pointsettias.

Luckily the big storms didn't get too much in the way of our second San Francisco Christmas concert last night, although the early arrivals in our audience did get rained on while waiting outside St. Ignatius.   We like seeing so many families reuniting for the holidays for whom our concert is a tradition.

Ben Jones ( seen here backstage at Disney Hall) will be going to Peoria for Christmas with his family, and then to Las Vegas for New Year's…

We're all hoping we'll be lucky with travel this weekend, especially Michael McN who has to pass through Brussels.