Yesterday afternoon (17 December), I drove to Julie's house in Florissant. We then headed to south St. Louis for dinner with Julie's son Dave and Dave's wife Barbe. Originally, we were to have dined at Menya Rui, a Ramen restaurant; however, we arrived to find a long line to get in. We then decided to have dinner at Noodles & Company in Hampton Village Shopping Center. We had a wonderful dinner with conversation.
After dinner, Julie and I said goodbye to Dave and Barbe before we headed to the 560 Music Center in University City. This venue hosted On This Shining Night, a concert of Holiday season music performed by BandTogether, a volunteer music organization in Metro St. Louis of LGBT+ performers. After a pre-show performance by BandTogether's Colorguard in the Pillsbury Theater, we walked to the Auditorium for the concert. Selections ranged from Ukrainian Bell Carol, to Dreidel Dance, to music from the movie Home Alone and the TV special A Charlie Brown Christmas, to Auld Lang Syne.
It was a most enjoyable concert witnessed by a large crowd in the Auditorium. After the show, I briefly said hello and thanks to one of BandTogether's tuba players, Harald Boerstler, who I know from volunteering at Circus Flora. I introduced Julie to Harald before we left the 560 Music Center to head back to Julie's house.
This morning, we had breakfast at home before watching the FIFA World Cup Final on TV. Julie found the match on Peacock, with Spanish language commentary, but we had no problem following the action between Argentina and France.
We witnessed a match for the ages, as Argentina took a 2-0 lead, the France scored twice to level the match and send it to Extra Time. The teams traded goals in Extra Time, which ended drawn at 3 each. Argentina prevailed in the Penalty Shoot Out, 4-2, to win its third World Championship--the first for Lionel Messi, who scored twice in the match and had one of the shootout goals. France's Kylian Mbappe had a hat trick--only the second in a World Cup Final--and had a shootout goal. What a match. Julie was disappointed; she pulled for France. I was happy that Argentina won.
After the match, we printed off some photos that were taken of us two weeks before. These pictures were taken at Zenhorse, an equine therapy facility in Marthasville, Missouri run by my friend Kit Maxwell. She invited Julie and I for photos with Santa Claus (played by Kit's husband) and Mrs. Clause (Kit). Michelle Huelsman of Unbridled Focus did a great job taking the pictures that day. Julie and I each got two pictures printed off for our Christmas albums. (I had brought photo paper and printer ink Julie requested to her house yesterday afternoon.)
Julie and I stopped by a Starbucks for lunch before driving to South County Center. We met with Dave and Barbe, who brought their young daughter to the Santa photo booth. They invited Julie and I to join in the photo, and we did. I then dropped Julie back off at her home, with plans to meet again this coming weekend for Christmas, before going home.
Later.
Websites of Entities Mentioned in This Post:
Noodles & Company: Noodles & Company | Classic Favorites with A Goodness Guarantee
560 Music Center: Welcome to the 560 Music Center | 560 Music Center | Washington University in St. Louis (wustl.edu)
BandTogether: BandTogether | St. Louis' LGBT+ Band and Colorguard since 1997 (bandtogetherstl.com)
FIFA World Cup: FIFA+
Zenhorse: Home | Zenhorse
Unbridled Focus: Unbridled Focus (mypixieset.com)
South County Center: South County Center | St. Louis MO (shopsouthcountycenter.com)
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