A's Christmas Concert

Friday was the elementary schools Christmas program. A was so excited to perform. I remember as a child, the Christmas program was so fun to sing in. I remember my parents taking me to my classroom and then we would come into the gym as a class and find our seats on the bleachers. The gym was full of parents and grandparents. Then we would sing lots of cute songs and have a little program. When it was over, we would go back to our classrooms and wait for our parents. I don't remember as a child that it was that stressful of an evening. It was just fun to sing those really cute, silly Christmas songs.

So, here's how it went. Our ward Christmas party was also scheduled for the same night at the same time so S was extremely mad that she had to miss out on the yummy Christmas dinner. I had to listen to her whine and complain all evening while I tried to get everyone ready. Z just wanted to sleep and K was working late so I was unsure of what time he would be home or if he would make it at all. At the last minute, A said that we had to go to the high school because that's where the program was going to be at. I quickly found the announcement. Yep! It's at the high school which is clear across town. K came home, S quickly faked a change of attitude to avoid a run-in with her father and Z woke up in time to realize that it was important to show his little sister some support.

We pulled into the high school auditorium parking lot which only has enough parking for about 10 cars and there is a line of people clear out to the road. It was like we were going to some sold out concert. K dropped us off and went to find parking. It was 18 degrees outside, Ka forgot her coat in the car, and we had to wait outside in the cold for 20 minutes. They said to have the kids there at 6:30 but they kept the doors locked until 6:45. I'm standing in freezing cold temperatures with 6 children in a crowd of 1000+ other freezing, upset families and my coat is wrapped around Ka. I completely forgot about how cold H must have been. Finally they opened the doors and it was a stampede to see how fast we can all get through the two doors (out of 8) that they opened. Once inside, parents were trying to find where their kids were suppose to be, everyone was fighting over seats, I was trying not to loose any of my kids, and K was lost somewhere parking the car. He called me on my cell to find out where we were. It went like this:

K:Where are you?

L:In the auditorium

K:Duh! Where?

L:In the middle.

K: Where in the middle?

L:I don't know. In the middle. On the end. Kind of towards the back.

K:Great! Now I know right where you are.

It was chaos!!! Then each grade came up on stage and sang one...ONE! song about something holiday-ish. And then they all sang a final song together at the end. It was the weirdest concert ever. Of course, A's grade sang last so we had to endure all 6 other songs. That doesn't sound like many but they were painful to listen to, and there was an awful narration that the older kids read through that had basically nothing to do with Christmas or any of the songs. It took more time to get the kids on and off the stage than it did to sing their one whole song. One grade did a rap! It was a little weird. The song leader lady was psychotic. She was dancing all over the place and completely putting on a show all by herself. I couldn't help but laugh out loud at her. She was really enjoying herself. Apparently, since she couldn't see any of us, she forgot that we could all see her backside. Funny stuff!

Thankfully, when it was all over, because the Kindergartner's were last to sing, they kept them on the stage until the parents came up and got them so we just sat and waited for everyone else to frantically try and get their kid so they could be the first ones out the door. Poor A was the last one on the stage with her teacher. I decided we were not going to be in a hurry! We were the last to leave the auditorium and then K met us out front with the car so we completely avoided all the crazy traffic.

A was cute and it was worth it to watch her have a good time singing. This next Friday is the other kids concert and I have higher expectations from their charter school. We'll see how it goes. I guess A's was like a dress rehearsal for me. I should do better at getting it right this next time. We'll see...