Christmas program

This morning was the Christmas program at David and Mary's preschool. It was positively delightful!

The morning started off with some special visitors! Grammy, Aunt Le, Cousin J, and Baby N were here to see the program! David and J were thrilled to see each other. Mary vacillated between happiness and unease--she and J have a complicated relationship. Both David and Mary were excited to see Baby N.

Being new to this preschool, I didn't realize you're supposed to arrive 3 hours early to get the good seats. I was proud of us for simply being on time! Fortunately, Grammy snagged us some aisle seats, so we at least had a good view of the procession.

Speaking of the procession, here is the video of David's class's entrance.

Now for a few disclaimers about my video clips: (1) I refused to devote more than 6 percent of my brain power to video recording this. I insisted that at least 94% of my brain power be devoted to enjoying the moment. This means I refused to watch the performance through the camera's screen. Which, means, of course, that I really had no idea what I was recording. (2) I refuse to edit my video clips. I count my blessings and call it good if I'm able to successfully upload them. (3) I don't always remember to stop recording (see #1). This and #2 are a pretty annoying combination. (4) I have a Flip video recorder, which is great. Except that when I got it--for Mother's Day last year--I was feeling cheap, and I insisted that an HD one would be an unnecessary extravagance. I was wrong.

With that in mind, here is the video of the Pre-K's first song.

If you are having a hard time seeing David, maybe this will help:

David is just to the left of the chorister. He is wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a red vest. Look for that blond head of hair bobbing around and those energetic white-sleeved arms--he really got into it!!

Here is their second song. I cannot tell you how proud I am of David! I was worried he would have something of a bad attitude (like last year), but he was awesome!

Next the 3-year-olds entered and sang two cute songs. And, finally, the 2-year-olds, with Mary's class (the youngest, with some barely 18-months-old) bringing up the rear. I love this next video clip of Mary. Her teachers have joked to me about how they should put her on payroll. She is very helpful (and bossy?) in class. She cleans up everyone's lunches. She is also VERY good about making sure everyone holds hands whenever they leave the classroom. You can see here that Mary was put in charge of her own group of kids. She is taking her job very seriously--but then one kid breaks free to see his mama! Oh no! Well, you can see for yourself.

This is the song that the little ones sang. (What is it about seeing your kids on stage? They can be doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING--ahem, like Mary--yet your heart still swells with pride as if they just won a Tony.)

The grand finale consisted of two songs the whole school sang together. Here is an especially terrible video of the first song. (But you can see how Mary was positioned very front and center. The perfect place for a perfectly cute little girl.) I will spare you the video of the last song even though it was really cute--they sang "Shine Your Light for Jesus" with mini-flashlights. But here are some pictures:

Let's get a closer look at that sweet boy of mine:

I was very impressed. The program was thoughtful and well-organized, and the children did a super job! I'm especially grateful that Grandma Evie, Aunt Le, Cousin J, Baby N, and Grammy could be there. David and Mary's faces both lit up when they saw us all there.

For those of you wondering why I would put so much terrible video footage on the Internet, I have one word for you: Greg.

For those of you who suffered through all those videos, I have one question: Do my kids deserve Tony Awards, or what?