The following is the 2nd in a series of posts leading up to the Pre-Order date of our new Christmas album!

(2/7) Dreams & Ideas

December 26, 2021: There had been some demand in my household to bake Christmas cookies because, of course, I hadn’t made any BEFORE the big day came 🥴 and once the holiday was over I was actually in the spirit 😂. I had been listening to Christmas music non-stop for 3 days and as i stood in my kitchen the chain of thoughts went something like this:

“Hmmm, why are there no oboe tunes popping up on my Spotify?”

“Oboists need more quality Christmas music.”

*scrolls through Spotify for ‘oboe’ and ‘Christmas’ (not much)*

“Wouldn’t it be cool to to create more.”

“Eat some cookie dough.”

“What if I could record an album?”

“No, you can’t do that.”

“Take the burning cookies out of the oven.”

“But what if I could?”

“You can’t do that.”

“Turn on the stove fan. Stop coughing.”

“It would be something I could give the kids.”

“Eat more cookie dough.”

“Who knows how to record an album? Who could I do it with?”

Frances.

After running through many more doubts in my mind, I texted her. Within 5 minutes she responded with, “I LOVE that idea!”

She suggested we meet in January for coffee to discuss the idea. Was it even possible? It’s an undertaking of some large proportions…a huge commitment of time, money, and creativity. After meeting together, many more discussions took place, not only with her but bringing up the idea with my husband and hoping that he might be on board. He loved the idea. ❤️ The light had turned from yellow to green…it was a go. 😳

The next step was finding music…arrangements of Christmas songs. I’m NO arranger, trust me 😂. After some time, Frances suggested contacting @phillipkeveren who had arranged some songs for her previously, one of which was “I Wonder As I Wander” which we had performed in 2019. We had both loved it, so…why not?

Indeed. Why not?

{image is a scene from the gorgeous AirBnB we stayed in during our recording days in Franklin, TN. White Oak Farm was a beauty with its sprawling landscape and wonderful animals}