Keal Family Letter, December 2004

Merry Christmas everyone, from the Solomon Keal Family!
This has been a very busy month (I'm starting to see a pattern...).
This Friday is the Kempton Christmas Sing. Saturday morning (possibly)
we are having our Keal Christmas because this year me and my siblings
are all spending Christmas with the In-laws, namely: Echols,
Genzlingers, and Coles. Saturday afternoon is the Kempton Tableaux
rehearsal. Sunday morning I'm playing special music for church.
Sunday afternoon and evening a lot of us are singing in the Tableaux.
Then on Wednesday the 22nd, we leave to head towards Ohio. Wednesday
afternoon we arrive in Pittsburgh and spend that afternoon and night
with my grandparents Jack and Sally Rose, and visit with any of my
aunts, uncles, and cousins that are around. We then leave from
Pittsburgh for Ohio around lunchtime on Thursday the 23rd and arrive at
the Echols' in the late evening on the 23rd. That way we have all of
Christmas Eve to spend with the Echols'. On Sunday the 26th, I will
be playing piano for a Day-After-Christmas musical service at the
Cincinnati New Church. We then stay with the Echols' for as long as
our two little under-two-year-olds can stand to be away from home. We
will then drive through the night all the way back to Lenhartsville
some time in the middle of the last week of December.
After all of that, life Will Go Back to Normal. O.K. I'll stop
dreaming. January will be a deciding month for my music career. A
lot of things that I've been working on so far will hopefully start
coming to fruition. My website will be designed. I will finish my
Recording Engineering course, and possibly start looking for a job in a
studio. I will hear if I've become a member of ASCAP (American Society
of Composers, Authors and Publishers). I will hear if I've been
accepted to Solo Piano Radio. I will possibly hear if anyone wants to
help me financially. If anyone does help me financially, I will start
buying the equipment I need to finish my home studio. I will start
recording demos and sending them into TAXI, an independent A&R company.
I will start recording my next album. I will start developing a Music
History course to offer next school year. I will start calling
contacts and performing in local coffeeshops, bookstores, etc. I will
probably start a music e-newsletter (so if any of you want to receive
it let me know). It will be a scary and exciting month! Wish me
luck!
The family is doing well. Cirdan is still the cutest, happiest
little chunk of a boy I've ever seen. He just turned 6 months. He
rolled over the other day. He is starting to eat some solid foods such
as rice cereal and teething biscuits. He has been teething a lot,
which means that between me and Tirah, we collectively get about 8
hours of sleep a night. Thea is approaching the Terrible Twos.
She'll be two in February. She is talking a lot, but we don't always
understand her, which gets her very frustrated. Tirah is, as always,
the glue that holds us all together. She works 24 hours a day keeping
track of a teething 6 month old, a terrible two year old, an unemployed
musician, and anyone else she can touch with her joyous, life-giving
sphere.
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! Love, Solomon, Tirah, Thea, and
Cirdan Keal.
"Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward
Men!" (Luke 2:14)