Christmas Program

Well, that’s over – my final gradeschool Christmas Program.  Over.  Is this a rite of passage every mother goes through?  The final thing is done.  The final thing, that, when you first looked upon it, you worried would stretch on ad infinitum and never actually BE done?!?

And all I have to say is that Sonny does NOT tuck in his shirt very well.  How do I know this?  Because he looked fine from the front: black pants, white shirt, belt, red tie.  And then, when he turned to walk up the risers with the rest of the kids, the truth will out and all the non-existent shirt tucking that happens in the back was revealed.  Aha!  His comment about having a “very sensitive back” which was so “sensitive” that I shouldn’t look at it when he walks to his place on stage allllll makes sense now.  Turns out it his back was so sensitive ‘cause the breeze was gettin’ to it courtesy of the untucked shirt!

But apart from the state of untuckedness of my own son, it really was a very good Christmas Concert.  Let’s see…

There were the little first graders (is it my imagination or do first graders get smaller and smaller every new school year?!) playing the bells like a boss.  Or at least like angels.  It was so Heavenly; you couldn’t even tell where the sound was coming from when it started.  And half way through the song you feared it might completely peter out one…bell…at…a…time, but they eventually made it thanks to everyone in the audience holding their breath.  It was a very recognizable “O, Holy Night” which left you with the impression that you had just heard the memory of a song, rather than the song itself.  (Can anyone else hear those bells in my head?!?)

Then we had the requisite Christmas-song-played-on-the-recorder wherein half the kids sounded like they were playing a fun-yet-different Christmas song to different tempo.  Love that.  That’s a crowd pleaser every time. 

Finally, there was that part where a commotion breaks out over what to give Baby Jesus at his birth.  All the good presents have been taken by the Wise Men.  What to give Jesus?  [Panic setting in.] What to give Jesus?!? 

Cue: “The Best Gift Is Me” song, about giving Jesus our hearts at Christmas.  Now picture 200+ sets of little hands gently holding the precious gift of their hearts out to Jesus.  Waaaaaaah!  WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!  <–That was me crying, not the newborn Baby Jesus.

At the very end, when the suspense of “what’s in that BLANKET up on stage?!?” gets to be almost too much, the time comes to lift the newborn Baby Jesus up like the Lion King for all to see.  And?  End scene.  End Christmas Program.  End my spectatorship at Christmas Programs.

Waaaah!  WAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

I’ll miss those 45 minute increments of Christmas Magic. 

Well, except for that part where the little kid behind me was playing with my hair.  And then pretending he was pulling stuff off and EATING IT!  AND MAKING SMACKING NOISES!!!!  Yeah, no.  I won’t miss that; I’ll miss everything, but that.