Two Little Shepherds

This year, both of our boys had Christmas programs at their respective schools, so Ian and I went and proudly watched each of our boys.  While perhaps it wasn't Broadway quite yet, I love getting to see our boys on stage.

Ben's performance was at his preschool at Resurrection United Methodist Church.  Now, last year at the performance, Ben ran off stage as soon as they walked up and watched the rest of the performance from my lap, so I wasn't quite sure what would happen.  This year, when his class walked in as shepherds dressed in bathrobes, he proudly walked up to the front and stood with them.  Unfortunately, they put him on what should have been the taller row of kids, so it was hard to see him over the row in front of him sometimes, but we still managed to see most of the performance.

Ben did a great job!  The minister told the story of Baby Jesus while the kids sang songs to add to the tale.  While Ben didn't sing every word, he did sing some and did very well with the hand motions.  There were a couple of yawns added in to the mix as well, he was so cute to watch!  Afterward, he got a big hug, showed off the candy house he had made in class, and munched on some muffins and cider for snack.  There was a large contingent of big siblings there as well, so it was a big of a reunion for Evan's kindergarten class, and everyone had fun seeing each other.

A few weeks later it was time for Evan's performance at his school, Triangle Presbyterian.  I guess that shepherd were the theme this year, because he also got to be a shepherd.  His school also has a preschool attached, so the kindergarteners are the oldest kids there.  They got to dress up and actually act out the story of baby Jesus while more songs were interspersed.

Evan definitely takes after his parents when it comes to performances.  He found a string on his shepherd costume when he walked up there and spent the entire performance picking at the string.  Ian and I definitely have memories of similar behaviors from us in various shows and sporting events in our past.  He did play the role of a shepherd quite nicely and walked up to see the baby Jesus in the manger, but singing really wasn't his thing this time.  He always is a little shy in big groups.  He was still so cute to watch-definitely our little boy!

After the performance, the boys got all manner of sweets and treats that had been brought in and were on tables around the room.  They definitely got their fill of sugar, and ironically, it was just before a dentist appointment for both of them, oh well.

Once we had munched on snacks, we hurried to get in line because the big guy, Santa, was actually at Evan's school.  We were the last ones in line, which was nice because Santa and the boys really got a chance to talk.  Evan was so proud when he gave Santa a little piece of gold tinsel that he had found on stage.  He had trouble thinking of something he wanted, but he eventually decided on an underwater shark robot.  Benny wasn't scared at all either and immediately hopped on Santa's lap.  I think it helped that brother had gone before him.  Again, he really couldn't think if anything he had to have, but he still had a nice discussion with Santa.  The first thing that Evan noticed when we got outside after the performance was that there were no reindeer.  We decided that a red car in the parking lot was actually his sleigh in disguise and he could take it to the reindeer and then transform it back into the sleigh...very complicated.

We had so much fun watching our little boys in their performances.  In our minds, they were the stars of the show!