During the last few stops on this year's holiday tour, Lorie Line has spent countless hours in her dressing room hand gluing a thousand Swarovski crystals onto a billowing raspberry gown. After every show, her crew of 20 packs up the gear -- Christmas trees, chandelier, lush drapes and trunks and trunks of costumes -- to move to the next city.
"It's a big moving show every day," she said. "We're in the moving gear business."
The popular pianist's whirlwind holiday tour doesn't end until she collapses at her Minnetonka home on Christmas Eve, where her family has arranged the holiday festivities. "It's kind of fun because the only thing to do is open presents and eat," she said.
Her Christmas show has been an annual tradition at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, where it draws a huge crowd. Tickets for this year's shows, selling for $47, were nearly sold out last week.
Line started by playing piano after college at Dayton's in downtown Minneapolis. After requests for CDs, she made one that Dayton's started selling. She decided to tour to five cities.
"It was huge," she said. "We did so well."
They added a few cities the next year, and "it started to explode, because it became like a Broadway show," she said.
"I can't even believe it myself today," she said. "That it would have such a long life to it. That's the biggest part of my story. I never did imagine that it would be what it is today."