Choirs and candles

Afternoon, God.

I'm waiting for my girls to come back from school. Today they were going to have a rehearsal for the Christmas Play and they were very excited this morning. Both of them were happy with their allocated part this year (which makes a change; last year at nursery Katy was somewhat disappointed to be an angel again and I never owned up that I requested that part for her so that I could get a bit more wear out of the angel costume, which has done (if I remember rightly) three nursery nativities and two at church. How satisfying it is to get good use out of a supermarket dressing up outfit. I felt rather smug. 

Anyway, this year Elizabeth is a narrator, and she is also in the choir, so she can wear her jeans and a T shirt and doesn't have to dress up. This is good news as she didn't want to dress up. She's quite self-conscious these days, poor love, and no longer likes dressing up and exhibitionist type things, though she was longing to be a part of things. I think she was actually afraid that she might have to have green face paint on as her class did last year when the theme was 'Christmas With The Aliens' but this year it's 'The Christmas Hoe-down' or something like that so perhaps the green face and deely boppers weren't on the agenda anyway. Still, she was happy to be a reader. Only the best readers get to read something in the Christmas play. (Bit of maternal pride there. Sorry.)

In this year's school play Katy is going to be a candle. Yes, a candle. She chose to be a candle, but to be fair the choice was only a candle or a snowflake. It seems that she decided that it would be nicer to be a candle than a snowflake. Both candles and snowflakes get to do a dance, and I can't wait for the candle dance. Apparently she is going to be dressed in black with a cardboard flame on her head. I thought candles might be white but then maybe they'd be confused with the snowflakes. Big sister is a smudge scathing about the reception class candle business but Katy is undeterred and most enthusiastic.

They were both delighted to be involved in the play and they're practicing like mad. Elizabeth has her reading nailed now and keeps trying it out in funny voices. Katy is getting deeply into character and does mystical dances that can't possibly be candle related but I might be wrong. Both of them are often to be found in the house singing Christmas songs and I love to hear them sing. It doesn't matter one bit to me if they're in tune or not; I love to hear their little voices. Especially when they're singing something like 'Away In a Manger', which is one of my favourite Christmas carols. I'm particularly looking forward to the finale 'Yeee-haa!' at the end of the hoe-down bit. My two collapse in giggles at the end of that. 

This will be the only year that they're both at this school together. In a few more years they'll meet up again at Junior School, but I don't know what sort of Christmas play they do there. This will be a proper whole school event where classes do something individual to tell the story and then come all together for the nativity bit and carols at the end. I get to crane my neck with lots of other proud parents to see both my girls in different places (they're both tall so they're always at the back, whatever they do) and I can't wait. I just love the innocence of it, and the effort, and the pride, and the care that goes into it. They're so small.  It usually makes me cry. 

I love that they're learning so much, that they are growing in confidence and that they have such pride in showing their school off at times like this. My beautiful Lizzie reading her bit about the birth of Jesus and standing tall and beautiful in the choir. Katy, my little light with a flame on her head and this mysterious candle dance. Both of them growing up. 

I'm off to fetch them from school now and hear all about it.