Penelope’s First Christmas Program

Okay.

So this video is really long, and also of a particularly poor quality.

But it warrants a post anyway. Because of the backstory.

Our sweet girl did pretty terribly in the final rehearsal. Despite much practicing, she had a hard time. It was a bit much for her. So we got serious about it the last night – tons of prep, tons of explanation, and tons of quizzing.

Essentially focused on three things:

1) We stand on the step (and don’t jump off!).

2) We don’t touch the microphone.

3) We listen to the teacher, so so carefully.

And we practiced the songs a ton.

After our practicing, we kind of decided just to skip it and have her watch the performance with us. It didn’t seem to be clicking for her.

But the next morning… she woke up saying, “Today is Sunday! I get to sing in church!! And if I stand on the step, don’t touch the mic, and listen to my teacher, I get a SMILEY FACE!! And if I get one more smiley face, I get to GO TO THE ZOO for that!!”

Um. How do you say no to that? And she was right – a smiley face chart doesn’t lie.

So we called reinforcements (read: grandparents), and braced for the worst.

She did great, though! And only one flaw in our prep was revealed – general performance etiquette.

We should have included one more step:

4) We don’t try to have a conversation with Mama and Daddy while on stage.

My favorite part? It’s around the 2 minute mark, in between songs. Penelope proudly exclaims,  ”I didn’t touch that [microphone], Mama!”

Enjoy (at least a few seconds of it, anyway):