Christmas CD.

(Cover)

(Back)

As I've already mentioned, my kids and I made a Christmas CD this year in lieu of a card that we sent out to friends and family.  We made a "Volume 1" in 2002 and have wanted to make another one ever since. It was so much fun to do, all those years ago, and still remains one of our favorite things we've done as a family.

We all chose one song to sing alone and then the girls and I sang one together.  Elliott wasn't really interested in participating, but I wanted all of us to be on the CD so I had to bribe him.  He was only nine then so I figured singing "Rudolph" would be a song that he could handle.  The day we were going to record, (and yes, it did end up taking LOTS more days than one to record, but what did I know when we first got started?) I told Elliott that if he would sing on our CD I would buy him a new Nintendo game. He said he would do it, but that he would only do it once.  And that's exactly what he did.  He went into that booth and sang Rudolph ONCE.

There was a part in the song where he messed up a little bit and I was outside, listening - SO nervous that he would just stop singing right then and there and that would be the end of it ... but that little boy kept on going.  (When I listen to that song now, the fact that he messes up is actually really precious - especially knowing the "back story" of how important that one take was.)

Now that the kids are grown and voices have drastically changed, I had a few requests that I wanted them to sing and they had songs of their own that they chose to record, so there's a nice variety on it and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  (Both CD's are a treasure for me, actually.)

We have a friend, Rob, who has a recording studio right here in Draper.  He and some friends run it together (in addition to their day jobs) so we were fortunate enough to get a great deal on studio time.  We technically started to record with him last year, but like most things it took a lot longer than we anticipated ... the CD's would have been mailed way late so we opted to wait, which actually ended up being a good idea - we tweaked a few of the songs we had already recorded, added a few more, and sending them out this year made it 10 years since the first one - so it was kind of like an anniversary album.  

On one of the nights we were recording, Chloe, Sophie and I were the only ones left in the studio. Rob said he had gotten an interesting phone call a few days earlier. The guy on the phone told Rob that he was the manager for a "high profile celebrity" who was in town and was looking for a studio.  This celebrity and his buddy had been snow boarding in Park City and came up with a rap song they wanted to record.  Then the guy said, "But you have to keep it really hush hush.  No one can know. Not even your friends and family. We're just looking for a studio that's willing to let them come in and work late - for as long it takes."

So Rob said, "Sure. Who is it?"

"It's Justin Beiber and Jaden Smith."

Whaaaaaaaaaaat??!!!!!

Yup ... how cool is that?!

As soon as Sophie heard that Justin Beiber had been in that same studio just days before, she sat in every chair that was in the room.  She wanted to make sure to have touched the same chair that the Beibs had touched.  She also asked Rob if he had used the bathroom - he had ... and then she headed into the bathroom.  (Oh, Soph.)

But, if I was her age, you KNOW  I would have done the same thing! ;)