The Muellers’ Official Christmas Letter (By Sarah)
December 22, 2006
Thank you from the very bottom of our hearts, or so ended Mom’s Christmas letter. Annah’s best try was Merry Christmas (in its entirety). So this is Sarah writing a lovely Christmas epistle, after Mom threw up her hands in despair, and Annah sadly failed to meet Mom’s expectations when she set upon her the task of writing it.
Christmas letters are funny things. A lot of work goes into them, and then the readers either let out a nice “aah” or a groan of anguish. Of course, since I’m 11, I probably won’t spend more than 15 minutes on this, and I’ll have time to eat another tin of sugar-frosted cookies before I have to go to bed.
I’ll begin by announcing that we have indeed had a fantastic year. We’ve played at a lot of new places and met lots of new people. From 20 shows at the awesome Silver Dollar City in Branson to the huge IBMA convention with jammin’ 24 hours a day in Nashville, we’re always getting to know mighty fine folks or passing by fellow bands on the highway. We were driving off after playing a set at the Poppy Mountain festival when Dad remarked, “Now there’s a nice bus.” We all turned around just in time to see the golden cherry on the back. You’re right, folks, it was the talented Cherryholmes family. The fun thing about traveling around and playing music is that it never gets boring. No matter how much you do, it seems there’s always going to be more to do – more to see, more to play, more to learn. How great is that?
Of course, we have lots of Frequently Asked Questions about road travel, and I don’t mean “What’s the best hotel around Fishkill, New York?” Yes, we eat fairly real food while on the road. Yes, we bring schoolwork along, yes, when we stop at our motels at night we sometimes tune up our instruments and play in the lobby because we have to keep the songs fresh in our fingers. And no, it’s not bad being with your family for weeks at a time. The more we’re together, the closer we become. Playing music has pulled our family together so much and it’s made us a unit. One early evening we were packing up the van for a show when Dad confessed he’d much rather spend his evening with his porcelain friend, the toilet. It’s hard to wiggle out on performances, so we pulled our shoulders back and put on the best show we could without him. It was one of the hardest things we’d done as a band, and it goes to show how different everything becomes when just one person is left out and how important that one person is to our band.
Speaking of feeling nauseous, it’s quite amusing to watch Dad learn to drive our new 40-foot bus. Nothing glamorous - a ’76 MCI with a curious color theme. That’s all being fixed, of course, thanks to some very kind friends of ours with the expertise needed on the project. We’re really excited to get the bus on the road and be able to eat and yes, use the bathroom without getting off the highway. Oh, and if you have a diesel generator you’re willing to part with, you know who to call.
So as a summary for this year, I’ll say this. All of this is made possible by YOU. If it wasn’t for you, we’d still be sitting there in our living room, twiddling around with our instruments with a dream of being good enough to play for food. We wouldn’t be laughing about the fact that Mom, who was sick of being a “country girl” went to St. Louis and married Dad, a supposedly sophisticated “city boy,” who was actually just a country boy in disguise and one day pulled a banjo out of the closet. Did he do it just to see Mom’s jaw drop? We’ll never know. So thank you.
And lastly we thank our Father in Heaven for keeping us safe in our travels and blessing us with everything He’s given us. We owe all glory and praise to Him, and we feel that it is our mission on earth to use our music to teach others the good news of salvation and glorify Him.
God bless you for a merry Christmas and a happy New Year’s, and, well, the year of 2007!
-The Muellers
Karen, Curt, Tom, Annah, Bob, Laurah, Sarah, John & George
