Holiday Lights

For the past 12 weeks, Ari, Freestone and Xanthe have been practicing before school twice a week for their big choir concert.  Someone is always singing, "Holiday lights!  Shining so bright!  Oh what a joy this holiday season!..."  It's so much fun having all this holiday music floating around, and so great to see the enthusiasm of my little singers.  It's been good for their organizational skills, too.  On Thursdays, Freestone and Xanthe have choir right after violin and piano, at 8:00, so they have to have their clothes ready, music and violin packed, and lunches in the fridge ready to go the night before.  That's a big switch from rolling out of bed in their pajamas for violin and piano, then getting ready for school afterwards.  When it got cold, we even started leaving the lunches outside on the front porch so we wouldn't forget them.

The kids got good at thinking ahead, throwing their music into their bags after Wednesday practicing.  Our school has so many great opportunities, there is something before school every day.  Ari just started orchestra at school, so that added two trips to the school for me, to retrieve her cello after rehearsal.  No way am I leaving it there all day!

Anyway, speaking of organization and how we have a lot more work to do in that area, Ari told me Wednesday night that they needed white shirts for the choir performances the next day, the one for the school in the morning and the parents that night.  So at 9 pm, I found myself at Family Dollar buying white shirts because you would think we would have some, but we didn't.  Oh, and they also needed flashlights, which I knew but...(How long have you had this assignment, Mom?)

Thursday, 6:30 AM, everyone was dressed in new white shirts with new flashlights, ready for the day to unroll according to plan.  Thursday after school, Ari came home with this update:  "The school performance isn't until tomorrow, and they decided we're supposed to wear holiday colors instead of white tonight."  So, in case you're wondering why my kids are the only kids wearing white shirts, I guess it's because they couldn't switch gears after finally getting their white shirts ready.  There's only so much organization one family can take! :)

Regardless of colors, the concert was awesome!  Even though I had three kids in the choir, I got far more compliments on Tziporah, who stole the show.  During a song that talks about the best gifts being gifts of the heart, she escaped and bolted up to the stage.  In her new Christmas dress and pigtails, she located Freestone and sidled in next to him, singing.  It was the cutest thing ever, and I am so mad I swooped in to get her off the stage.  I should have just left her there, since, as one parent told me, "All the video cameras in the room panned straight over to her."  I'm pretty sure every single person I talked to said how cute Tizzy was in her impromptu role as concert crasher.  Oh boy!

 Ari got to do the xylophone part.  She did a great job!  I was so impressed!

 Dad entertaining Tziporah...or was in the other way around?

 Mrs. Buttars, the teacher.  Thank you!

 Worn out from her shenanigans.

 She said, "Go away, Mom!"

 And then:  "I want to go to sleep.  Give me my baba, Mommy!"  Gladly, little tiny tornado.