holiday preformances

I love, love, love the holiday season.  For a multitude of reasons.  I love the emphasis on family and the extra playdates and get-togethers.  I love shopping and gift giving and Secret Santas.  I love the snow and the amazing decorations.  And I love the kids’ winter performances!

Friday night was dress rehearsal, which is always managed with minimal chaos actually.  The girls got to see each other’s dances and collect all the pieces of their costumes.  And then on Saturday, we started into the festivities early at the ward Christmas party with tons of great food and a nativity program.  I came late, having taught a class at the gym that morning and Grammy joined us shortly after with a surprise stowaway, one of our nieces!  L was especially excited as they are really close friends despite their age difference and infrequent visits.  The girls played at the house and A got ready for dance, as she was the only one performing in the matinee show.  She wore a royal blue and silver costume, (especially good colors for her) and looked for regal with her hair in an elegant bun.  When her class came onstage she was easy to pick out as she is the tallest by far.  We were so impressed! Much like the first time I watched L perform, I was amazed at her natural grace and beautiful extensions.

After the matinee, we had lunch at The Dairy Keen (always a fun favorite for the girls) and played for awhile again before we readied L and E for the evening show.  I’ve gotten used to seeing L with her ballet bun and some light stage make up but this was E’s first time and she looked so grown up!  L’s jazz class opened the preshow and she was amazing as always.  L was center stage, and she solo-ed a heel stretch to start the routine.  E’s class was next, in their adorable red leotards.  She was more interested in her 2 foot candy cane prop and in general her class was rather uncoordinated, never in sync and obviously distracted.  But they’re so young and so dang cute that they make you melt anyway.  We picked up E at intermission and then stayed through the rest of the show to see L dance in the Nutcracker.  This was her first year as part of the Nutcracker cast and she has been so excited.  She played a bon bon, the last one appearing from under Mother Ginger’s skirt to play and prance across the stage.  They were so cute! And then she was the last one to exit, skipping and beaming as she went.  We gave each of the girls a red rose after their shows and then they got to stay up late for a movie night with Daddy.

I also attended the school sing a long.  Not many parents did as it really isn’t a performance or an assembly.  But both L and A were surprised and thrilled to see me there.   All the students sit on the floor in the gym and the Christmas carol lyrics are projected while the music played.  It was loud and crazy and fun.

And lastly, L had a winter piano recital that was rather unique in a wonderful way.  The class has been working on accompaniments so the recital was held at a senior citizen home.  Each student played the accompaniment to an assigned Christmas carol as all the senior residents and families sang along.  So festive and so fun!  L played “Hark the Harold Angels Sing” and played beautifully.