The second year I lived in Oslo I was invited to a Christmas concert with one of the guys I lived with. I didn’t really know what to expect, all I knew was that the choir was all gay guys and one of them was standing outside of my bedroom one day, dressed in a princess gown made for the show.

Let me tell you this: They sing beautifully, they are hilarious, and I’ve been to every Christmas concert since then. It’s sort of a tradition now. I’ve even invited my parents to come, and they loved it, too. They have the traditional Christmas songs, and they have songs with a twist, new arrangements and crazy choreography.

This year was no exception. Even though I’m super short on money nowadays, I had put away money for this show. It was planned and paid for a long time ago. Then suddenly, a couple of days ago, Husband casually asks if I remember that he’s going to his job’s Christmas party. “Oh. Yeah? Which date?” And of course it’s the same day. He can’t really get everyone to change the day of the Christmas party and I can’t afford to throw the money out the window, so I decided to take Emeline with me. Even though the concert started about the same time that we get her ready for bed. Ahem.

So we get there, Emeline looking like she has no idea of what is going on (but can you blame her?), and we get seats at the first row, RIGHT INFRONT OF THE ORCHESTRA. It’s a tiny one, but still. I nervously tell the others that, “We’ll see how this’ll go…” and look for the nearest exit for when she will scream and everybody will look at her and that crazy lady that brought a baby after its bedtime.

It went well in the beginning. She was looking at the choir, the lights, the musicians, the guy next to us that was drinking sparkling water. Until they used the cymbals. I froze. Cause I know my child. It doesn’t like sharp noises like that. And I looked at her face. It was stiff. Then the lower lip went downward into a pout. And then the screaming.

I managed to comfort her, and the song was over, so the clapping drowned her screams, and then she was over it. Until the second song with the dreaded cymbals again. But yeah, she stopped screaming when she could hang around Momma’s neck. She did her cute, sitting baby dance through the rest of the concert, and fell asleep during the last song. So adorable.

She might be too little to come with next Christmas, but I’m hoping to be able to make this a tradition for the whole family in time.

BTW, the gay fun was brought by Oslo Fagottkor, and both their Christmas and summer shows are highly recommended.