This past weekend we got the opportunity to meet the guys from Jars Of Clay, the popular Christian rock band from Tennessee, who were performing at the opening of Busch Garden’s Christmas Town.

It’s a funny story really…

My sister-In-Law Denise was able to get tickets to the opening of Christmas Town and we were really excited to go!

We’d heard Jars of Clay were performing at 10 o’clock and we’d planned on heading over to see them, the only problem was we were standing in line waiting for Santa!

Seriously!

We were standing in line a really, really long time and while the elves were extremely cute and really good at keep Meghan entertained…

the repetitive “just hear those sleigh bells ring-a-ling ting ting ting-a-ling too…” accompanied with bird whistling was driving me completely bonkers!

To make matters worse, hubby and Meg realised the music was wearing on me and started imitating the whistling so as  to drive me completely insane, but I digress…

It was the grand opening of Christmas Town so we fully expected it to take a little while to see the jolly old fella and Meg kept peaking in the windows to see if she could see him.

Finally we were led into Santa’s house where we were met with more elves who led us into the kitchen to meet Mrs. Claus.

After gobbling a few chocolate chip cookies and learning a song with Mrs. Claus we were ushered through some red curtains by another elf into a hall of mirrors.

The elf told us her name was Jingles and this was the getting cleaned up for Santa area!

Jingles asked Meg which mirror was her favorite and then did a secret knock…

 the knock was returned from the other side of the mirror and Meg’s face completely lit up when the elf on the other side revealed the mirror was actually a secret door to Santa.

With a big smile on her face Meg quickly told Santa she wanted Olivia’s House (Friends Lego) for Christmas and promised to be good.

While it took a long time to get in to see Santa it was well worth the wait!

Meg was beaming from ear to ear while we stood outside waiting for her cousins to come through.

Hoping to catch the end of Jars of Clay’s performance we high tailed it to the other side of Christmas Town, but sadly we were too late.

Determined to continue our fun and because Meg had never seen snow before we headed over to Snow World where Meg threw her first few snow balls!

I was so proud of Meg for being brave enough to go down the snow slide by herself although I would’ve had a giggle had hubby gone up and done it with her.

While I was taking pictures of Meg going down the ice slide I happened to notice the guys from Jars of Clay just a few feet away chatting and taking pictures with fans.

So I motioned to Hubby and Meg and we headed over to see if they minded taking one with us.

Stephen Mason greeted us with a smile and asked if we’d happened to see their set?

Unable to lie I told him we’d missed it on account of waiting for Santa.

  He was really sweet and told Meg not to worry Santa was more important anyway!

*phew*

Stephen was just a really nice guy and we found out, while he was chatting soccer with hubby, he’s an Arsenal fan which makes us like him all the more!

By this time the rest of the band had gathered around for our picture!

They were sincerely a great group of guys and I’m glad we got a chance to meet them!

So today for Music Monday I’m featuring a few of my favorite songs by them.

First up their christmas remake of Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time!

Eyes Wide Open

Two Hands

For more information of the band or to check out more music visit their website www.jarsofclay.com