Merry Christmas, Musicians Everywhere!

'Tis the time of year when musicians everywhere go into hiding. You think that nothing was stirring, not even a mouse? Try a musician. We are behind closet doors, holding our breath for 38947 minutes so that no one can ask us to do one more musical number.

I kid, I kid. I actually LOVE music and LOVE performing. It's just that half hour window right before a Christmas program when I wonder what in the world I was thinking by signing on to play several piano solos and accompany various groups. It is at this moment full of Christmas "cheer" while I am frantically trying to be on time to said event, but can't because I need to help a child who can't find her Christmas tights, that Dan always says, "The next place we live, we aren't telling ANYONE you know how to play the piano!" I'm always shocked to hear this, and quizzically look up from the fourteen piles of laundry I've dumped out of myriad hampers, face red, hands frantically throwing items behind me to find those BLASTED tights and with a hurt expression on my face, reply "How can you SAY THAT? I love playing the piano!!" at which point I race to my piano to run through a song one last time, making a huge mess of the giant chord at the end, which makes me feel like I'm going to lose my Christmas cookie lunch from earlier.

And then afterward, after everything ended up being just fine or even maybe a little better, and we get back into the car, and my face has returned to a normal color and full of relief, I turn to my family and apologize for being crazy before and we return home to try to forget what a neurotic person Mommy is in December.

But besides that half hour, it's a great time to be a musician. And I'm not the only musician from our family this year! This past week was full of events where I played, the girls played, and the girls sang. It was stressful, and it was fun.

Yesterday, the girls played in their very first piano recital. It was a very low key recital my friend Kim hosted in our living room for any kids from our local congregation who wanted to come play. And yet, I was still a little stressed about it. The girls had been progressing along just fine, but the morning of the recital were playing like they had just been deposited here from another planet and didn't know what a piano was. They were skipping whole lines of music and messing up parts they have never messed up before. I should have known this is just the general Murphy's Law (Music Edition) that always happens right before a performance, but I was too scared it was going to happen at the recital.

And then they both got up there and played their songs perfectly.

Gwen played "We Three Kings of Orient Are".

And June played "Up On the Housetop" which is what I played at my very first recital!

We had our ward Christmas party on Friday, and I was able to play several numbers, including one accompanying my friend Jenny, who is a professional opera singer. My life will forever now be divided into two parts, "Before I accompanied Jenny" and "After I accompanied Jenny." She sang "O Holy Night" and it was the most amazing thing I've ever been a part of. And I hardly did anything. It was a good reminder for me that I've been too comfortable for far too long with my level of playing, and that there is a whole world I haven't even gotten close to. And I'm accompanying her and her husband (also a professional!) this coming Sunday, and it's going to be amazing.

If I don't blow it.

There is this great group of older boys in our ward, and they always let little Harris play with them. It's awesome. He was right at home sitting at their table, and they helped him eat and do whatever else he needed. Bless these boys.

Okay, this is just getting ridiculously out of order, but I'm going with it because I have to leave for a doc appointment in ten minutes. Here are the church pictures from yesterday:

And we bought and made a gingerbread train kit from Aldi (7 dolla!!!) on Saturday.

Okay, back to music. The girls had their school concerts this week:

It was raining, and I had them wear their rain boots to school, with their church shoes packed in their backpacks.

But Gwen forgot and sang with her pretty dress and rain boots on. Hilarious. I was in the front row and pointed to her boots from my seat and she looked down, realized her mistake, and look horrified and ready to cry. At which point, I thought to myself, "Why did I do that?!??!" I reassured her from my seat that it was fine and that she should just laugh about it. So she did.

And June's program was great too. She was the kid that came in a full measure early on one of the songs, and I don't think she even noticed. So she wasn't sad and it was entertaining for me. Win win.

My mother-in-law makes all of our stockings, and Beck's came in the mail this week. It's the best one yet! A full nativity on it. She does great work.

And we had friends over one night while their parents were in the city, and we were able to introduce them to Battle of the UFOs, our favorite game.

The End.