Festivities

First, I have a message for parents: If you go to an elementary school to attend a concert, you need to sit through the whole thing. You don't leave after your kid sings. You just don't. Rude!  Yesterday I attended the annual holiday concert at my daughter's school. The show always starts with 4K (with the adorable wee tykes waving to their parents and occasionally singing a few words) and then proceeds through each grade. This was my seventh and last year attending. It seems like just yesterday I was attending my first school concert. Next year, my daughter will be in middle school. (waaaah!)  This year's concert was particularly exciting because my kid had a solo.  The fifth grade was the last to perform.  The people sitting next to me were there to see a girl in the 4K class. After she was done, they got up to leave and never came back. I noticed others trickling out after the younger grades had performed. It definitely occurred to me to trip some of them on their way out.

By the time the fifth graders had scaled the risers, a friend of mine invited me to move up and sit by her. Her daughter is close friends with my daughter. Anyway, this was perfect because it enabled me to record my daughter's solo with my crappy phone. I tell you, I don't know when I've felt so proud. I shed a tear or two as she sang. Later, I uploaded the video and then my mom called, crying. I think we are just that excited to have a singer in our tone-deaf family.


Today, I attended another school event: gingerbread (AKA graham crackers) house-making. Parents and grandparents were invited to come and join in with the construction. Several people (including teachers) came up to me and complimented my daughter's performance from the day before. I always feel a little weird about saying "thank you" in those circumstances. I didn't make the kid (as in, construct her from my own DNA) so I feel like I probably shouldn't take credit for her singing voice. I'm no less proud than if I had built her from scratch, though! I also shared the video with her birthmom, as I knew she'd be proud, too.

The gingerbread house project was interesting. I'm not very good at that sort of thing.  I kept encouraging the kid to think it through before she just started slapping stuff together. It seemed like she was mainly concerned with running her mouth and checking out what everyone else was doing. Then she just started slapping stuff together. You'd think that a kid who has spent 9,486 hours playing Minecraft would know a little more about building stuff. It was fun, though.

I've finally reached that point in the pre-Christmas frenzy where I can start to enjoy the festivities without suffering so much anxiety (because now I've gotten everything done that I was obligated to do). Last Sunday, my daughter and I went to a Christmas program that was completely amazing. I think this was the fourth year in a row that we attended.  Even my little non-believer heart got a little gooey at the beautiful music and the living nativity at the end.

I'm looking forward to Christmas next week. I would like to thank the universe for placing Christmas on a Friday so that I don't have to go back to work the next day.  I do have to work a half-day on Christmas Eve, though . . . also known around the office as "zero productivity day."  More good news for next week: my foster dog, Kevin, is going to his new home on Wednesday. Woot!

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