Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Listen to the Angels

This is the title of the Christmas Play that was performed by all of the children at Jessa and Spencer's school. And I think it is a great title on many levels. They are all angels (mine are most of the time. . .) that we were listening to - listening to their singing and acting. But the main characters of the play were also dressed as angels. They were all so cute, very angelic, and well worth listening to!

This was Jessa and Spencer's first foray into performing in public, and I think they had better not quit their day jobs! No, seriously, they were precious. And I was in love with staring at them, but neither one of my children ever sang a note. And neither one of them danced or even paid that much attention, BUT they both stood in the proper places and did not do anything terribly embarrassing. More than I can say for several children, so I am considering it a huge success.

Monday night was the first performance, Spencer's. He was not thrilled when I dropped him off at his classroom. It was not the normal school time, and he was not too sure how he felt about school at night. He was in tears when I left him. When he calmed down, he told his teacher, "I am done with my crying." I guess it was good he got it out before hand, right? My favorite part was the mad waving that was going on. Every time a child saw someone they recognized in the audience, they would grin and wave. Very professional! Spencer was so excited to see all of us he waved several times throughout. He even got a wave from our vet whose grandson is in Spencer's class! Although he did not sing or dance, he was a precious angel all the same. He did play with his shiny belt, adjust his halo several times, briefly picked his nose, and even clapped when the songs ended.

Sorry for the iffy pictures,
but I was st the back trying to videotape, too.
Ours is the angel on the front row, in the middle.
When Spencer's performance was over, Jessa and I were waiting for him to get his costume off. We were still in the sanctuary sitting in a pew at the front looking at the set. Her class performed the same play on Tuesday night, so she was pretty proud that she already knew what was happening. So she says to me, "Mommy, want to know a secret?" And I said, "Yes." And she pointed at the manger with a little baby doll and said, "See that baby?" I nodded. And she said "It's not a real baby. It is just pretend." I got so tickled at her sharing this insider information with me! She proceeded to inform me that the painted cardboard sheep and donkey were also shockingly not real barn animals! And so I asked her, "How do you know all of this?" And she said, very matter-of-factly, "well, I am in the play. It is sort of like a movie, just pretend."

Then Tuesday was Miss Jessa's performance. She was cast as Mary, a non-speaking, but important role. I was glad she had no lines to memorize because I would have had the duty of forcing her to practice! She was excited about getting to hold baby Jesus - she even brought Jesus a toy. And she loved wearing a special costume. Everyone had the same costumes: either shepherds or angels, except for Mary and Joseph. She never sang a word, but she was in the right place and moved at all the right cues. She picked up her baby at the right time, so I guess it was a success. She spent a lot of time playing with her costume and looking around. My personal favorite part was when she was performing her own little play with her hands totally oblivious to what was going on around her.
I was at the back again - sorry!
She is easy to spot in her blue-green costume!

I am sorry that all of you missed their theater debut. I cannot tell you how much I loved watching them. To me, they are such gorgeous creatures. They are miracles walking around. I know that every parent in that room felt the same way about their child, but that does not make me any less in awe of mine. And hearing them sing Christmas Carols (I have heard them singing at home - Spencer loves "and hea-ven and heaven and nature sing.") warmed my heart. I loved listening to all the angels - especially mine!

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