Christmas at Main Street Music Hall

Last night the family attended Christmas at Main Street Music Hall in Osage Beach, MO. They invited Military members and their families as special guest. Last week Kevin came home with a flier and we thought it looked interesting so we went. When we got there, they gave Kevin a plaque called a "Hero Award" with his name on it thanking him for his volunteer service to our country. We got pretty good seating in the theater and we were told to make sure afterwards to come by and get gifts for the kids.

The show was AWESOME! At the beginning, I was real emotional as they sang "I'll Be Home for Christmas". For those who have been reading this blog for the last couple months you know I'm so happy and grateful to have Kevin home so yes I get to be a big emotional sap. They sang traditional Christmas songs and fun Christmas songs and had some silly acts as well. After intermission right as the second act was about to start, they honored the Military. I was surprised that not as many active duty military took advantage of this special event but it was pretty neat to have so many people clapping and honoring Kevin. They even took a moment to honor our Veterans and I got to stand.

The second act was so good, they focused on the real meaning of Christmas and sang some of my favorite hymns. They had the most beautiful rendition of "Mary, Did You Know", oh it brought tears to my eyes. It was just beautiful.

After the show they told the Active duty military to stick around and get some gifts that were donated. This is where the evening took a turn for me. On the flier we got, it mentioned that kids 10 and under would receive free gifts. I thought this was kind of weird but okay...not a big deal. As we were waiting to let Daniel get his gift, they handed Kevin a big gift bag with some tools in it. They were handing out gifts to the Active Duty Military. That was pretty nice. Well as Daniel was getting his gift, people were kind of being crazy and pushy. Some of the toys were kind of pushed all over and so Neil picked up a box of shoes to move them so they wouldn't get stepped on. At that moment, one of the men in charge said VERY rudely to Neil, "Put those shoes down, you are not under 10!" and then he shoved the remaining toys back so no one else could reach them. Now...was that really necessary? I don't think it was. Poor Neil was so stunned, that he looked like he was going to cry. I had to step away because I really wanted to let that man have it! I took the boys and went to the back of the crowd, I was talking to Neil, making sure he was okay. Neil is my most sensitive child who has to deal with some emotional issues/disorders. He has really come into his own the past couple years, but incidents like this can really make him backslide.

At that point, I was just going to chalk the situation up to the man being overwhelmed with the situation because so many people were hanging around. Oh, can I just mention here that the theater we were at is not huge, when they asked the Active Duty military to stand up, there weren't that many. However, there were TONS of people afterward claiming the free gifts. Integrity people, integrity.

So one of the ladies was talking to Kevin, the boys and I were waiting towards the back when all of a sudden we saw kids OLDER then Neil walking around with some of the free gifts, 2 and 3 of them. Neil looked even more hurt then before. I was SO angry. There were many gifts leftover that they started to just hand out to people waiting. Things that older kids would have enjoyed, why couldn't they have just given those to kids over 10 to begin with? It really was a confusing situation for my boys.

Please don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the gesture and Kevin and Daniel got some really nice things. But when you tell a Military Family that you are going to honor their "FAMILY" you need to make sure you include all of them. Oh and let me add here, that after the show they got all the active duty military to stand on the stage for a group picture. Some of the performers we walking through shaking hands and a couple totally snubbed the females. It was CRAZY. I guess they thought they were spouses, but hey people, WOMEN SERVE TOO!

There was no reason for that man to be as rude as he was, none. You null and void a kind gesture when you follow it with rudeness, I should call him Mr. Grinch because he stole some light from my children. Last night was yet another reminder to me that people lose sight of what Christmas is about.

We had a good night up until that point, the show was AMAZING, we definitely want to go check them out again. As far the Grinch, I will be writing him a letter. If it was unintentional and he was overwhelmed with the situation then an apology to my son should not be a big deal. If it's too much, then that will let me know that we don't need to return back to that venue ever again.

Here are a few pics..it was dark, I have a crappy digital..lol