Oh, The Concerts!

Christmastime is a time of concerts. Always has been, always should be. I think my very best high school memories were of skidding along I-15 in a rattletrap car stuffed to the brim with Madrigals, racing through a snow storm to make it to our next Christmas concert on time. It's amazing we survived (truly), but man, I loved singing Christmas carols. And now I get to enjoy listening to my kids sing Christmas carols, which is wonderful in its own way too.

Here are a few highlights from the past few weeks:

The best closeup I could get at Wyatt's Preschool program

Wyatt and the gang at Salem Lutheran Church

Here's a video clip of Wyatt singing away. (All video clips are mostly for Grandmas :-).

Wyatt ends this particular performance with some excellent preschool-grade nose-picking, doesn't he? Ah, to be at the age when nose picking is still cute.

Here are some of Jonas's performances. First, band. He just started the trumpet this year and is doing a great job. (I'm glad somebody in the house decided to pick it up after Ethan unceremoniously dropped the instrument last year.)

No video of the band concert (so sorry Grandmas!). But we do have video Jonas's choir concert. I thought this song was a lot of fun:

And it's always nice to hear kids singing in a foreign language:

And here's s a nice photo as well, to compensate for the kinda icky grainy video taken with my cell phone:

My two favorite things about this picture: Jonas's smile, and the hair on the kid two to his right.

I've been so happy with the opportunities Jonas has had with music at his school. His school has TWO music teachers (band and chorus), and I've been so impressed with the great job both have done. The kids are really learning a lot, and Jonas is starting to like singing more and more. It helps that his good friend Jack (he's the kid in the bottom right in the orange) is an excellent singer. The two of them sang a version of Linkin Park's "In the End" for their school's talent show. (Jonas sang the "It starts with . . ." part, while Jack did the rapping, then they came together for the chorus. Wish I could have seen it.)

Here are some pics and videos from Elise's last few weeks:

First she participated in the District Honor Choir for her school district and spent the day with other good singers from middle schools in the area:

Elise is on the far right . . . somewhere.

Elise and her friend Preeta.

 She's also had fun performing with her middle school's extra curricular choir, Vocal Jazz. It's quite a sacrifice for our Lou to go to her Vocal Jazz rehearsals, since they take place at 7:00 a.m. one or two times a week, and our Lou is not a 7:00 a.m. girl. But she's happy to go because she loves to sing:

Elise is on the right, in the back (as always -- the right where the altos stand, the back is where the tall girls stand)

After her concert at the middle school

 She's also been able to perform at the Mall of America, at an old folks home (there's nothing like performing at old folks homes when you're a choral singer -- they're always willing to host a bunch of warbly teenagers), and at our local library. Our local library also has a cool indoor park area with an amphitheater, so it's more like a community center than simple library. She always comments on how much she likes its smell. Something about the indoor waterfall and trees? Hmmm. Anyway, here's Elise singing, along with the combined choirs of East Ridge and Woodbury high schools:

Wyatt has spent some time listening to all of these concerts. Here's his take on the experience:

Finally . . . what about Ethan? I know you were wondering how I would work him into this post. It's true that we no longer attend any Ethan concerts since he's not in a choir or a band anymore, and we're in between the musical and the play at school, but he's been keeping busy. He finished out his first trimester with a flourish, earning a 4.05 GPA (the .05 is possible because AP classes get extra weight). And he's been spending every Mon, Tues, and Thurs from 6-9 at drivers ed. He finished this Thursday and got his "blue card," which earns him the right to take his permit exam, which, if he passes, will earn him the right to drive with a parent in the car. AHH! Seriously? Seriously. I made him back the car out this morning so I could take his picture. He was happy about the backing out part, not so happy about the picture taking part:

Oh, and one quick thing from me. I'm the new Literature and Fiction Editor at BYU Studies, which is pretty cool. It's another volunteer gig, but I look forward to getting to know the people on staff and to the opportunity to promote good Mormon lit in another venue. Should be fun.

And that's it from here. Christmas is coming! Hooray hooray hooray! And it's been so much fun to get everybody's Christmas cards in the mail -- thank you. If you haven't sent yours, I'll be haunting my mailbox until it arrives.