Here We Come a-Caroling

Yesterday morning, I attended Owen's very first Christmas choral program. They pooled together both of the K4 classes with the three K5 classes, which made for a group of about 100 4- and 5-year-olds in the front of the darkened auditorium. There was so much pride in the room, it was physically manifesting itself on the faces of every adult in the audience. And then there was the parental paparazzi, scooting down the aisle to get good shots. I'm almost not ashamed to admit I was one of them (hey, at least I had an aisle seat). Even moving closer, it was impossible to take a decent photo. But, at least you can sorta pick out the red hair. You'll also have to imagine that there were three times as many kids as I got in this frame.


You could definitely tell the 4-year-olds from the 5-year-olds. The older kids were the ones actually singing, while many of the younger set had vacant, slightly worried expressions the whole time while they somewhat mindlessly mouthed the words to Twas the Night Before Christmas and other songs. Or maybe it was just my kid with the distracted gaze -- I wouldn't really know, since he's about the only one I watched.

During Jingle Bells, he dropped his bell. And, of course, it fell to the floor, so he spent a good part of the song trying to retrieve it. Not so easy considering he was on the second riser. He finally got it back, and went right back to jingling. I look forward to reliving that on the video.

Before the concert, they had a breakfast for the kids and parents. There was Santa and face-painting and French toast and cookies. Owen willingly approached Santa Claus (proving he has overcome his crying run-in with Santa from 3 years ago).



Then he hammed it up with some of his pals. I think it's funny that in this first photo, they're posing like mini high school graduates and in the second one, they're definitely 4-year-olds with untucked shirts, tennis shoes and crazy attitudes (so, I guess, they look like college graduates, LOL).



All in all, a good way to spend the morning.