Dance Recital

"It was an unmitigated disaster."

That's how I described the rehearsal the night before Kiera's dance recital on December 12th. The description was very, very accurate.

The dance studio asked us to have our kids there at 6:30 p.m. for the rehearsal. They were supposed to be done by 7:30. Yeah right!

I had Kiera there on time, but they got started very late. They still told the parents to return at 7:30, which I did. I got there just in time to witness Kiera and her class run through their routine--and that was only half way through the rehearsal! It wasn't pretty.

Imagine 10 three and four year olds who are nearing or past their bedtimes. Not good. Not good at all. Kiera was one of the worst. She left her place in line twice, running to her teacher once and trying to grab the microphone the second time. "Oh my God!" I thought to myself. "Tomorrow's going to be a fun day."

Well, it was a fun day. Dawna got Kiera's make up and everything on her early.



I got her to the auditorium and waited for everyone else to arrive. Grandma, Grandpa, Nona, Uncle Bubba, Dawna, Kaylee, Kevin, Jr., and I took up nearly a whole row of seats. The show started, and Kaylee was absolutely enraptured by the whole ordeal. Finally, it came time for the pre-K ballet class. Things started off a little rocky. Kiera took some time to try and locate everyone.



She settled down though, and toward the end, she was actually doing some ballet moves when she was supposed to be doing them.



The recital itself was far from the unmitigated disaster of the night before. In fact, all things considering, they did a great job.



The neat part of the whole ordeal is that after the recital, things finally clicked for Kiera. Up until that point, she had been very reluctant to do any of her ballet moves around the house. After the recital, she knew what it was all about, and she was only too happy to dance around the house. We'll be enrolling her again next summer for more dance, and we look forward to see what surprises are in store later.

Yes, I know...

That it has been quite some time since updating this blog. Sue me. It's not like we pastors have anything to do during the Christmas season anyway, right?

Well, I do have quite a bit to catch folks up on, especially dance recitals, Christmas program, holiday visits, and birthday parties. So, I'll begin tackling them one by one.

I'm going to start with the Christmas program that our church did on December 21st simply because I have those pictures on this computer.

The program was a pretty cool one entitled "Life 101" where Jesus has to go through school to be taught everything he needs to know to live on earth. I got to play the adult Jesus who didn't want to go back to school. Unfortunately, the angel Gabriel had a thing or two to say about that.



Kiera had a part this year in the program. She was a "tiger"-at least according to her. The costume we had made for her looked much more like a leopard, but she doesn't know the difference or didn't say anything about it.



Her part consisted of walking in with Noah's wife at one portion and then being a "lion" with Daniel in the lion's den. You should have heard the congregation crack up when Kiera ROARED! She did a great job and was far and away the loudest roarer of the group.

She also helped all the other kids sing "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night". We had been working on "Away in a Manger", and she did very well, especially on the first verse.



Of course, not to be outdone, we had to put Kaylee in her little leopard outfit. She didn't have a part in the play, but she wanted to at least feel like she did.



Afterward, the girls enjoyed the traditional candy and fruit bags afterward. It should be interesting in a few years when all three kids have a part in the play.