Coldplay Surprise

I'm awful at keeping secrets.  When I buy presents, I typically tell the recipient what I've just bought.  I gave J three-quarters of his gifts before Christmas.  Six weeks before Christmas, to be exact.  So when I bought tickets at the end of summer for a Coldplay concert to occur in December, I thought I'd need to be gagged.  Maybe bound, too. 

I knew that I would take Bop to the concert, and that our trip would be my big gift to her.  She's always asking to go to a concert, and I thought Coldplay (one of our favorite bands) would be a great foray into live music.

Over the last several months whenever I heard her singing one of their songs, I had to bite my tongue.  I was in fact able to keep the concert a secret.  It's a personal record.

On the night of the concert, I told her I was taking her with me to a craft show.  She was ecstatic.  We rode the train to Frankfurt together, and all the while I listened to her relay all of the craft supplies that she was going to buy with her pocket money.

When we arrived at the Festhalle stop, we walked to the venue together and I asked her if she wouldn't rather go somewhere else since we were in Frankfurt.

M: Are you sure there's no other place you'd rather go tonight?
B:  No, the craft fair will be fun.  Plus I know what I'm going to buy.
M: You wouldn't rather go somewhere like a Coldplay concert?
B:  (Gives me the, "You're not funny, Mama" look...if looks could kill)
M: I think they're here, you know.
B: (said with supreme sarcasm) "Yeah right, Mama."
M:  Look at our craft tickets and tell me what the address is.
B:  Mama, the tickets say Coldplay!  THE TICKETS SAY COLDPLAY!

About this time, we walk into the venue and she sees t-shirts.  I let her pick one out and we walk into the section where our seats are to be found.  Bop has been speechless for the last several minutes.  She asks if she will really see the concert.  I say yes, she hugs me, tells me that this is the best present ever, asks to call J, and smiles for the next three hours.  Except when she cried halfway through because she was so happy.  She sang, she danced like a tribal native in a National Geographic special, and was transfixed by her radio controlled glow band given to concert goers in Europe (that a kind security guard gave to her after we discovered that the venue had run out).

The night was magical.  I will never forget it.  My cup runneth over. 

Bop helped to choose her favorite moments: the switching on of the glow bands, cannons shooting thousands of neon confetti butterflies into the air, and bits of her favorite songs. The video is long, I know. Plug your ears b/c she squeals. A LOT.