Haygoods Thanksgiving! [11.27.08]

The Thanksgiving show was pretty much my reason for going to see my relatives for Thanksgiving. haha. Sorry guys. :) But when you live 30 minutes away from Branson and I seem to like to come visit you on a regular basis [especially when I live 4 hours away], you must ask your self.... Does she love me for me, or Branson? hahaha.

Kidding. I love my family. The show was just a much-needed reprieve from all the family love. And sick family.

Anyway. The second I stepped foot into MCC, I set about looking for the message boarders. I knew Kim, Rose, Jason, and their families would be there, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to find them. [Especially since Jason is so tall, and I figured a loud conversation would be going on - and it was. ;) haha] I was dragging my poor cousins Shaina & Brianna behind me, but I was not to be deterred. I love them, I do, but I'd been with them all day. haha. I was ready for some non-family interaction. [Especially since the rest of my cousins haven't learned any table manners yet, and I'm STILL stuck at the kids' table... mainly because the adults' table is full and not one more chair can be squeezed in. I can only handle so much open-mouthed chewing, and getting food everywhere... Such as faces, clothing, hair, etc. anyways. I digress.]

I met Kim face to face for the first time! And I think it was the third time I'd seen Rose. I just saw our group picture on the MB, and I love it. :) Very cute. Haha. I had to ditch the MBers for awhile to talk with my family, then I ditched the family to go back to the MBers. When they went on up to find their seats, I started dragging my family in... it took about 10 minutes, and we walked in right when Dom was introducing Cassandre'. At least I didn't miss her. :D Gorgeous. Beautiful voice. [Almost like an angel... hah!]

The show was fantastic! I love, love, loveloveloveLOVED all the pinstripes. First time I'd seen them instead of the suits. [Not a big fan of the red suits, and since my favorite brother usually sports a red suit in the beginning of the show, I was a huge fan of the pinstripes.] I embarassed my cousins, haha. ;)

I don't know how well you know me, but... I'm normally quiet. At least out in public. When you talk to me in person... I have to get out of my shell and out of my comfort zone... Which is speak when you're spoken to. And even then... sometimes I'd rather not say anything. But now, the front row at the show is my comfort zone, so I let loose. :D haha. I was screaming, cheering, hollering at the top of my lungs, and flashing pictures to my heart's content. Since no one was sitting by my mother and I, during the second half we had my Aunt Gina [Tina, Gina, I can never tell who anyone is yelling at. haha. Especially my dad. Is he yelling at his daughter or sister? When the first letter is mumbled... ahh. Frustrating. Sorry. I'll continue.], Shaina, & Brianna come sit next to us. Brianna sat in an empty seat in the second row, though... because we embarassed her. :P I love it. Shaina said, "Geeze, Tina. Calm down!" But where's the fun in that? Like Kim said... it isn't any fun unless you act like a three year old. So that is what I did. haha.

I yelled "DANG!HOT!" at Shawn... Mom yelled at Mikey... and at one point I even got in a, "SEXY SAX PLAYER!!" Although no one heard that one because of the screaming girls on the left side. And, one of the funniest things... Right after Aaron said he didn't have anyone to share the holidays with, my mom started yelling, "You can come down here with me!!!" hahaha. Then he and Dom started laughing. It was great. I love my mom. And my cousins were further embarassed, although things like that are expected out of my mom. :P

When the show was over, my mom was the first in the autograph line. I preferred to actually stay in my seat until the last note was sung and the Haygoods left the stage... so I was the second. haha. I pulled out my big envelope of 8x10's, and handed mom her 8x10 of Mike [I printed out two], and the 5x7 of her and Mike. I had my other eight photos to get signed. hahaha.

Patrick was extremely surprised that I had all these 8x10s. [I scanned them and put them in my 3rd Haygoods Thanksgiving album "Merry Christmas, Baby."] When I showed Mike his, he said, "Nice." Then I had to dump out all of the pics on the counter, right in front of Catherine, because mom had messed up the order [is it sad that I had them in autograph-line order? I'll go ahead and say no... I was just planning ahead. haha] when she had looked through them five minutes earlier. Cat looked very surprised to see me rifling through all these huge pictures of her and her brothers. Haha. But I do think she liked her picture. I thought it was pretty, at least. Mom was very proud of the picture I took of Dominic, and I had to restrain her from showing it to everyone in the autograph line. haha. It wasn't THAT good. I also had him sign a 5x7 of him and my Grandma Low up on stage when she was the My Girl. It's going to be part of her Christmas present! And I was very distressed for awhile that Shawn was nowhere to be seen. But once the crowd thinned out I noticed he was back behind Patrick, so I trooped over to get in line again. I was several people behind Kim.

Hahaha. At one point Kim turned around and said, "Hey Tina! Did you hear that?!?! Shawn said he was singing just for me!" The look on Shawn's face was priceless right when she turned around. :P I loved it. So I decided to react in a total non-Tina way and yelled right back. Haha. I said, "Hey! What's up with that, Shawn?!" hahaha. I don't think he knew quite what to do. Whenever it was finally my turn in line with him he informed me that he was also singing right to me. I just grinned and said, "Thank you!"

Then he put his arms around me after I handed him the 8x10 of him to sign. :) He signed it with his arms around me! Eeahhh! I had to refrain from fangirling right there. That was the one time I refused to act like a three year old... After all... I didn't want to make it too difficult for him to sign and hug me at the same time. :D haha. Then he asked me my name, and wrote, "To: Tina Love you. Shawn Paul." I loved it. Then he leaned down and put his head on mine for my mom to snap the picture! [See above picture.] Best picture of Shawn & me EVER! Evereverever.

Then I waited for the autograph line to die down, and went to hunt down Catherine and Matt. I wanted to have pictures of me and them without the autograph counter thing in the way. :) I persuaded Shaina to take a picture with Matt as well. Oh... and Brianna finally got into it at the very end. The first time we went through the autograph line, she realized she didn't have anything for them to sign. Shaina got out a bank deposit slip [to which one of the brothers said, "Nice." haha.] and Brianna had them sign her ARM! Hahaha. When Dom signed, he said, "So, now you can never wash it again right?" haha. NOW who is the embarassing one, huh? hahaha. At least I had individually picked and printed 8x10 color photos that I had taken myself. Wow, that sounds sooo stalkerish. But that's okay. Mom was boasting about it to the brothers that we were their own personal stalkers [along with all the other fans]. hahaha.

So... all in all. It was pretty awesome. Oh, and I saw Tim... and I had just KNOWN when I was printing up my 8x10s that I should have printed one of Tim, too. But I didn't. Should have gone with my first instinct. *snaps* Rats. Oh well. I'll print one up next time!

God bless!

Tina