Christmas Concerts

Wednesday night was the candlelight carol service at my school.  It was held in our lovely courtyard.  My class looks out on the lovely courtyard with some trees and a pretty fountain in the middle.  There were beautiful Christmas lights across the courtyard and through the trees.  The school concert band, choir and of course steel band all performed interspersed with carols sung by all.  The highlight was the alto sax solo by one of the 6th formers (seniors) during "Have your self a merry little Christmas". Apparently he was the young musician of the year for the Cayman Islands last year.  It was so good, he did an encore after the concert while we were waiting for the big raffle draw to take place.  Unfortunately we didn't win any of the prizes in the big raffle.  (The grand prize was $25,000!!) The trombone section in the band has quite a few women it too.

A side effect of the Madden's visit in November is that Ellie now believes all babies are Madeleine. Madeleine had just turned 1 and Ellie and Alex really enjoyed having a little one around.  Alex was so gentle with her and followed her around helping her.  Every time Ellie sees a picture of a baby she says "Madeleine".  Even when she sees baby pictures of herself around the house, she insists it is Madeleine and won't believe us that it is actually her. 

Today at school we only had a half day of classes.  We then had a wonderful Christmas lunch in the canteen.  Each tutor group had a table to decorate and enjoy lunch together.  Afterwards the year 11 students put on a Panto in the hall for all.  The tradition is they poke fun at the teachers.  I guess since I am new I got of relatively lightly as they don't know me very well yet.  It was very funny and the younger kids loved seeing the year 11's making fun of the teachers.  Tomorrow we only have a half day and no classes.  There is the big talent show and then mass before we break for the holidays.  We are all looking forward to our break and the students don't realize that the teachers having been counting down the days more closely than them.

Tonight was the Christmas concert at Montessori for Alex and Ellie.  There was a huge crowd watching,  I never imagined there could be that many cars parked out in front for a small school.  The kids all sat in chairs out on the patio with lights and a beautiful tree, with a packed audience of parents, grandparents and others crowded around, standing room only several rows deep.  Alex and Ellie had their best Christmas outfits on and school provided jingle bells for their wrist and lovely angel tinsel halos for their heads.  Ellie's class of two year olds was first singing their ABC's.  Then Alex's class of the three year olds and the other class of four year olds came out in their little parade and took their places.  They all sang a great collection of Christmas classics and did a wonderful job for a group of such young kids.  The genius of the concert was it was very short.  Lots of kids waving to their parents in the audience, some good singing and then before anyone could get distracted or grumpy we were done and on our way.  The secret to a outstanding little kid performance is brevity!  Afterwards we all went to see the amazing Christmas light display again.  The kids just love wandering around all the lights, Santa's (except Ellie who is scared of any kind of Santa, even a mechanical one singing Christmas carols), reindeer, trains, polar bears and snowmen. We even ran into two of Alex's classmates, obviously the lights were the thing to do after the concert, and they were running all over with Ellie chasing after them trying to keep up.

This afternoon while watching the movie "Cars" (yes it is still Alex's fav)  Alex said he wanted a Mack truck like in the movie.  We told him we could put it in his request for Santa to bring to him on Christmas.  He insisted that it had to be bought in the store and was not convinced that Santa could get him one.  Sunday, the 20th, we are off early to Minnesota to soak up a cold and hopefully a white Christmas.  The kids are all excited about singing their carols to Grandma, Grandpa, tata Tam and uncle Brad.  The kids are also delighted to be going on an airplane again and keep asking when we are going to pack and dragging their little wheelie bags around the house and putting their essentials in.  We hope everyone has enjoyed their Christmas build up and have a fantastic holiday.  As Alex loves to say while his little reindeer Ellie follows him around, "Ho, Ho, Ho! Meeeeeerrrrry Christmas!!"

Love Eric, Emma, Alex, and Ellie