Hawaiian Santa (week 313)

For the second week in a row, the Keislers spent our Friday night at the theater.  Last week, it was actually St. Luke's Lutheran Church for the pre-school Christmas.  But this week it was Patrick Henry's 5-14 year-olds on stage in the "Biggest Auditorium in the World".   I'm not really sure that I have evidence to support this claim, but the auditorium and stage at Millikan High School is at least the biggest that I have ever performed on (or seen for that matter).  In any case, the Patrick Henry Room 1 Kindergarten Class had responsibility for singing and dancing to the song "Hawaiian Santa", somewhere at the 2-hour mark of the performance which included the Patrick Henry 12 Days of Christmas and Gungam style dancing by the 8th graders, an abridged version of the Nutcraker by the 1st graders, and a finale that included all 700 kids sprinkled throughout the crowd singing about world peace.  Although my parents were bitter at first that they made the kindergartens perform at the end of the 2.5 hour show, they enjoyed themselves a great deal.

This was also a week of tragedy.  My parents haven't told me anything about it--nor have I asked any questions--but a man entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut this week and killed 28 people (including 20 children my age.  It was an extremely sad week for everyone, but we are counting our own blessings and very grateful for the friends and family that we have in our lives.  

I learned that Christmas can also be a double-edged sword.  In the past, it has always been sort of a one-way street.  Presents come in and thank you cards go out.  But this year, I found out that I had to begin buying presents for others using my own money.  

We did our Christmas shopping for Mommy on Sunday afternoon.  Daddy made Chris and  I take out our piggy banks to count our money.  We had $14 in ones (mostly from Dubby) and another $35 in change that we cashed-in at Ralphs.  I have been saving for a $30 tether ball and was getting close so this was a traumatic thing for me.  Daddy said we had to use our savings and make some sort off sacrifice to buy Mommy some presents.  I communicated very clearly to him that I had plans for our savings but he wouldn't budge.  

The shopping wasn't so bad because Christopher grabbed everything that caught his eye and threw it into our cart.  We spent most of our time chasing him down the aisles and putting stuff back on the shelves.  It got even worse when we tried to wrap everything.  Christopher stepped all over the wrapping paper we had laid out and dumped a full glass of water on our supplies.  Needless to say that with a few tears, we got it done...and 9 full days before Christmas!