Shepherd*Singer*Star

With the Christmas season always comes Christmas singing.  This year, I discovered Pandora Christmas radio stations in my car, so we were always singing something wherever we were going.  Too bad the boys and I don't share the same taste in Christmas songs.  Evan and Ben were always dying for some Jingle Bell Rock while I was more in the mood for God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman.  Fortunately, with our voting system in place in the car, there weren't too many fights over songs.

In addition to Christmas music in the car, Benny also had the opportunity to sing his Christmas songs in public.  One Saturday morning in early December he had his preschool Christmas concert.  For the concert they each got to choose which part of the Christmas story they would be dressed as.  Ben chose the star, so on the morning of the concert he was dressed up with a little shepherd's hat and a big gold star pinned to his shirt.  He loved it!

He was so cute to watch in the concert.  Unfortunately, they were standing on the rows according to grade level and height.  So, he just happened to be the teeniest four year old standing behind the tallest three year old.  I had to move my seat to get any view of him, and even then he was slightly hidden.  Oh well, they were all still adorable to watch.

While Ben is certainly not the most vocal one in the chorus, he certainly sings more than his brother, and he really enjoyed the hand motions.  He loves music so much that I wanted him to try out the church choir at our church.  The Sunshine Kids is the choir for kids from 4-7 years old and practices right after church on Sundays.  He loves to listen to music, but I think the verdict is still out on whether he wants to do Sunshine Kids.  I wonder if sometimes he is reluctant to go because his brother doesn't do it.

I'll just have to see how he continues to do, but the same weekend that he had the preschool concert, he also had a concert at church between services in the fellowship hall.  He was adorable as usual, but I learned a valuable lesson from the concert.  When you dress your child for a concert where he will clearly be standing in the front row, make sure he has pants with a strong enough waistband.  His pants fell a little lower than they should have and revealed a little more than they should have several times.  I had to run up to the stage and pull them up several times.  That's okay, he didn't seem to mind.

I love watching Benny the star, and I hope I get to watch many more performances in the years to come!

(my star!)

(the whole group)

(Benny and his buddy Anna after the performance)

(the preschool performance)

(one of the church songs-note the dropping pants)