Advent Week 3 - Saturday

What an insane day!  We had the "Santa Skate" this morning and then, the first of our church Christmas performances tonight.  I can't believe how much we actually had to get done!

Pk has become very involved in skating at our local club.  I have somewhat mixed feelings about it - any of the performance activities for girls (e.g., dance, figure skating, cheerleading, etc) seem to be rather over the top and the hair and make-up and costumes make me feel a bit... like we are asking children to grow up before their time.  It's not really my comfort zone, that's for sure.  On the other hand, Pk skates with an amazing cohort of girls, the coaches are awesome at our club and it's a small club, so there isn't too much pressure to spend a fortune on extra coaching and hours and hours of practice.  She's there four days in the week but it's fairly close to home.  

I think, though, that for me, any of these performance events actually appeal to me because of my history in music.  I played my instrument in a variety of performing groups from the age of 11 until I finished university.  My life was bouts of hard work, the adrenelin of performing and the high of a job well done.  There was also a sense of closeness the developed with the people with whom I was performing and in those short bursts, we could build very close relationships.  It makes me so happy when I see my children getting to be a part of that, even if it is not exactly the form that I would have chosen.  Pk got to perform in three numbers today - the debut of the synchro skating group she has started being a part of this fall, the full "star skate" group and her "juniors" group and I think I had as much fun as she did.  The coach tried to convince me to join the adult skating class and I am actually considering it - I love being on the ice and the exercise would be super!

Our church performances also make me so very happy!  It's wonderful to get to see the kids working hard and building their confidence being part of a play and it's even more wonderful that we actually have enough children from families that are committed members of the church to put on a production.  My heart is full tonight!