Christmas Performances

Keagan had two Christmas performances back-to-back earlier this week. On Sunday he did Ringers and Singers at church...and that was, well, interesting. Then on Monday he had his preschool program. This was much better, and we were very proud. Of course, both programs required that Keagan wear Christmas outfits...and being that he is a boy we just don't have a plethora of Christmas outfits in the closet. So he wore the same outfit twice in a row. Don't judge me.

Ringers And Singers. Every year Keagan participates. He has since he was 2. (Finn is not in it this year though...that would be entirely too much for anyone to handle). But every year Keagan steals the show: he dances like a crazy fool, drops his bell behind the little wall separating him from the pianos, or he picks his nose the entire time. This year he chose the latter. And I can't say he made me proud. Years past, his show stealing acts were funny, others might say he was so cute. But this year he point-blank stared me down as I sat 10 feet away from him, rang the bell with one hand, and picked his nose with the other. The whole time. And wouldn't stop. In front of the whole first-service congregation. Luckily he straightened up a little during the second service. But it still wasn't a shining performance. You can check it out in the video.

Keagan is kind of the "ladies man" and wanted a picture with these two pretties.

Preschool Program:  This was much-much-much better. I kid you not when I say Keagan has been practicing for 3 weeks straight. Singing at the top of his lungs, "studying" the lyrics by constantly asking to listen to the songs, and acting out the moves. He was ready. And he did phenomenal. He performed "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Santa Clause is Coming to Town."  And he didn't pick his nose at all. :)

At the end of the performance the entire preschool got up on stage and recited I Corinthians 13: 4-7. 
^"4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." Then they ended with the first part of verse 8: "Love never fails."  I cried hearing the babies recite this.  MY baby recite this.  And then I realized I had been hearing snippets of this verse for months now...and had been defining certain words for him. I love these little seeds being planted. And I realized I needed to be more loving in my parenting (but this is a whole other topic of conversation/blog). Simply beautiful. After the program the kids danced out of the sanctuary and back to their classrooms. I took video of them walking out because my big boy looked so small and sweet...and I wanted to try and remember this moment forever.

After the program Josh and I took the boys to Dairy Queen to let Keagan know how proud we were of this performance. They had a good time, and then we saw a bunch of Keagan's classmates and parents there, too. He enjoyed that.