Christmas Holiday Show

We have been looking forward to this year's CHES Holiday Show for MONTHS!  Each year, the Kindergarten class narrates the entire show.  So we were all very excited to see what they had in store for us this year.  Olivia as usual took the order to not tell mom and dad and keep it a "surprise" very seriously.  But, several teachers had come up to me in the weeks leading up to the show telling me how good she was doing, what a great part she had, and that I needed to bring Kleenex!  The morning of the show, the school's director stopped me as I was walking out and told me that if Olivia's nerves didn't get the best of her, I was in a for a real treat.

So, Matt and I spent the entire day nervous/excited about what was to come...

Popo & Tutu joined us for the show.  (So did Mimi, Grandpa, Yazzie and Naz but they were seated further back and I didn't have a chance to get a picture!)

Her wonderful teachers do a great job of painting a set each year.

This year's theme was all about technology.  The kindergarteners were mostly units of a family (mom, dad, siblings, grandparents).  Everyone else is using technology (email, FaceTime, twitter, etc) to get ahold of Santa

Except for Molly, the little sister

Molly tells Grandma and Grandpa that she likes the "old fashion" way and she is going to write a letter to Santa using pen and paper

So Molly writes her letter

And then Molly does a little dance all by herself across the stage that causes "Molly's" parents to turn into a puddle of tears that their little girl is so big and brave.

After receiving Molly's letter, Santa makes a special appearance just to find her.  He asks her family where she is...

And then Molly appears and she and Santa talk about the true meaning of Christmas (cue more tears...)

And then the whole Kindergarten class danced in the final number

She had her own little fan club waiting to hug on her and take her out for a pizza dinner!

Not to get too mushy (lets all just blame the pregnancy hormones!) but it was night's like this that make me marvel at the great honor it is to be a mom.  Nothing Olivia did tonight was because of me - I didn't help her practice any lines, I didn't give her any advice about going on stage, I didn't even really talk to her about the program except to say that I was excited and would be in the front row.  And, on her own, she walked out on that stage a poised, confident, prepared little girl.  She amazed me.  I know I couldn't have done that when I was 5 years old.  I am 100% biased and honestly I hope that every parent feels this  way about their kid (I sure do hope mine think this highly of me!) but being able to watch your kid excel on their own and succeed without you has to be about the best feeling in world.  This girl will do big things in this world all by herself.  And I am SO glad I will have a front row seat to it.  I will stop now before my heart bursts with love....