Christmas Concerts

Marshall had three performances over Christmas that he was to take part in.  The first one would be at his preschool Christmas party on December 19th, the last Wednesday before the end of school.  The second was on the last day of school, the 21st, and was a full performance in the gym for the entire school and parents present.  Friday morning was a Christmas Chapel that was put on by the grade one classes mainly, which included M's sister, so Daddy took the day off work and the grandparents were informed to come out!

Naturally there was a lot of practicing going on at preschool in the weeks prior to the party and the performance.  Marshall was talking at home a lot about it, singing some of the songs, and seemed really excited about it!  Well, i knew better than to get my hopes up of the fabulous performance my son was going to give during the actual event. lol.  If he stands in line with the children, i will be happy, he doesn't even have to sing!.... oh wait, actually, even if he sits quietly with me the whole time i would be happy.  lol.  Just please don't cry or have a fit over nothing!!  So, we hoped for success and expected much less, naturally ;)

Miss Mary did a wonderful job of putting together a social story for me to take home to read to Marshall the week prior to the party.  If you don't know, a Social Story is a small laminated book with simple sentences and pictures, that is set up to better prepare your child, or to teach them something they can't quite grasp.  Marshall has only been given one before (that i know of) and that was based around him using the potty, instead of his diaper, to relieve himself.  This story that he recieved now said things like, I will sing loud and do the actions, My Mom will come and she will be so happy!  If i don't know what to do i should look at my teacher.  Marshall was totally into the story, reading it several times with me and speaking about it by heart.  He was excited and we were counting down the days to his party, until it was Tuesday night and we could say, "The party is tomorrow!!"  That was a very exciting night.

Then we woke up Wednesday morning, Party Day, and there was snow on the ground.  School was cancelled for the day.  Hmmm... oh goody.  After i broke the news to Marshall that the party would now be on Friday and he would have to wait, he said, "OK Mom!" and ran off to play.... NOT.  My little boy was in tears.  "Party (to)a-day, Mommy, party (to)a-day."  *sigh.  All of the work we put in to prep him for this big day, and seemingly he was in the right mind set to allow for me to come and see him sing for me and do crafts with me... all out the window.  Some timing our God has!!  Well, Marshall did get over this change in plans as the morning progressed, and didn't stay too upset about it after the initial blow.  His teachers had sent an email saying that they were grateful to at least have Friday left to move the party too, but that it would be after the Chapel and would make for a busy morning.

When Daddy phoned home that morning i told him that the kids had no school and that the party was moved to Friday now.  He said, "Oh good!  Then i can come!".  Oh yeah, i hadn't put it together yet that Danny took Friday off to see the kids in the chapel performance.  I wondered what Marshall would have to say about this change, so i excitedly told him, "Marshall, Daddy gets to come to the party now!!"  He smiled at first, then paused to think, then started saying, "No Daddy a party, no!"  Then he ran to get his social story in which he showed me that there was no photo of Daddy, just Mommy.  lol.  Great.. social story backfire!  haha.  I decided to leave the topic alone for the rest of the day.  The next day though, i brought it up again cause ideally it would be nice if Daddy could come, and also if Marshall was excited about having him there.  Well, Marshall didn't budge, and Danny knew he might just have to wait outside the door or something in order for M to have success at the party.  We pick our battles and this was not one of them!

Friday morning Marshall man woke up and before i even said anything he says, "Ok a Daddy a come a party."  Really?  "Yes!", he confirmed.  He told me he was going to be happy and smile and let me take his picture and video :)  OK!!!  So we got all dressed up and got to school nice and early.  I wasn't sure how to explain to Marshall that he'd be going to the gym first to sing, so i kinda just left him in the hands of his teachers and aide.  Well, how did Marshall do??  AWESOME.  The whole morning, awesome!  Daddy and I along with both Grandma's sat in the gym.  Marshall walked in with his class to the front of the stage, stood and sat as requested, sang and did the actions to the songs!!!  I even came up to the front and he saw me with my camera, but didn't call out to me, just sat in his spot with the rest of his friends... looking like every other kid there :)  Then when it was over, he walked back to his classroom for the party.  He sat for story time, brought us the gifts he had made, ate snack at the appropriate time without whining, and made a variety of crafts with Daddy and I.  What a wonderful morning!!!  Devyn did amazing as an angel in the recreation of the Christmas story on stage as well.  Success all around!

Both Marshall and Devyn are in the same kids program at our church.  Marshall was designated the role of a shepherd, and Devyn an angel.  Up until the day before the performance, M was adament that he was going to be an angel like his sister.  lol.  Thankfully, he accepted the role of shepherd eventually... although i would've let him be an angel if it came to that.  So, they have been practicing for this program which included some songs as well as a Nativity Story and recreation, for the past month or so.  The first day, Marshall came home with his line he had to memorize.  Hmmm... really?  I was a bit surprised that the lady running the program would ask a line of Marshall, i mean, come on, aren't we just hopeful that he will even set foot on the stage?  But, we practiced the line at home along with his sister, and he knew it with a little help. During the short rehersal on stage the week before, Marshall seemed to be going along with it, but a bit lost and in his own world.  He had just endured an hour and half of church/sunday school already, so i think he was just done.  He wasn't misbehaving or anything, just choosing to sit next to one of his teachers rather than manover around the stage.  Well, he's not screaming "Go away" or "I don't want to".  There is hope!

The morning of the live performance was Sunday, December 23rd.  They had a whole hour scheduled to practice prior to the real deal.  I was quite concerned as to the length of time beforehand and figured M probably would be great for the practice, and be done by the time the performance came around.  So, on the way to church in the car already, we were talking to Marshall a bit about what this morning would look like.  He has been dealing with a cold and been extra whiny the past while because of it.  He started to tell us "no!" and "stop talking" and such things, even starting to tear up over it, so we dropped it.  Then we got to church and he asked to bring in his magnetic coloring board.  The kids each have a little board that they color on while driving.  If we are asking them to sit through a whole church service, or at a doctors appointment or something, i will allow for them to bring them along for entertainment.  Often M or Devyn will ask and i will say no, because it is not necessary, and they are ok with that... even Marshall.  Because this morning entailed Marshall dressing up, holding bells, a candle and a shepherds staff, i told him that the board needed to stay in the car.  He started whining and getting teary over it, but i just repeated myself.  The rest of us were outside of the car waiting for him as he seemingly was now just finishing up the picture he was drawing, and then he would come along with us... or so i thought.  Daddy told Devyn and I to go ahead and that he would come with Marshall.  As i was walking away i said something along the lines of, don't get him crying, this is one of those times where we might have to cave on what we said for the bigger picture.  What i was really trying to say was, don't get M all worked up over this dumb board.  If he starts really crying, there is no hope of him cooperating for his teachers.  Let him bring the darn board if it means keeping the peace.  I'm sure Danny got all that from my mumbled sentence ;)

Devyn and I walk into the Sunday School room and all the little kids are getting into costume.  People are smiling, the kids are cheerful, there is much energy in the room, all in anticipation of the morning.  After a few minutes of getting Devyn into her costume, i hear it.  It's Marshall.  Crying... no, screaming.  And then he is infront of me, capturing the attention of everyone in the room, jumping up and down with tears rolling down his face, yelling and crying about wanting the coloring board.  He was extremely upset.  Daddy trailed into the room behind him.  AHHHHHHHH!  I might have had thoughts about strangling my husband at that point.  I picked up my son and walked out of the room and into the hallway.  Danny then explained to me... one, that he didn't understand that what i had said was to just give him the board.  And two, that he had tried to negotiate the board with Marshall and told him that I had said no, but that they could come inside and ask me again if he really wanted it.  Jeepers.  I can't get mad at Danny, he really does try. Ok, so i shooed Danny off to go and get the board and i sat with Marshall in my lap trying to calm him down.  By the time Danny got back, Marshall was over the board (of course, my stubborn child just wanted his way at that moment). 

I had Marshall in the room with the other children and was trying to get him to dress up a little.  Well, Marshall wasn't down with that.  There was no way he was wearing a towel on his head... so his orange touque remained :)  At this point, there was no pushing a costume on him.  The kids started to head down toward the stage to practice, but Marshall was refusing to follow along.  So.... we bribed him with a cookie.  lol.  And also put a sucker in his pocket that he could enjoy after it was over.  I wasn't sure he would do it, but he totally did.  Gobbled his cookie and ran down with the other kids, sucker hidden in his pocket :)  And then i sat down and watched my son totally participate!  Singing and doing actions, even saying his line into the microphone!!  He was listening to all instructions from his teachers and manovering around the stage appropriately.  I decided i was not taking the chance that he was going to do this later on for the real concert, so i was video taping the whole time.  lol.  Practice was a complete success!  Then the kids came back to their room for a little snack and drink, while all of the people filed into the church.  Marshall ran around the halls a little, but i figured it best he get out some of his energy before he had to get back on the stage, plus, he deserved to be a little 'free' after the great practice.

It was finally time to head to the stage.  There is a long flight of stairs the kids have to walk down to get there where they are visible to everyone.  The children were all given battery operated candles to hold while walking down.  At the last second, Marshall threw his into his touque and started walking down the stairs.  His head was totally glowing!!  lol.  I thought it was hilarious, and exactly the type of thing that shouts Marshall.  Once he got on stage and the teacher noticed, she took it out and Marshall held it happily.  Then, to my surprise, as well as to the surprise of all of those present who know Marshall, he totally performed beautifully.  The whole thing.  Said his line nice and clear and into the microphone, and then shared the mic with the friend next to him (unlike last year when he robbed a little girl of her solo! oops).  Of course, we were so proud of our little guy up there on the stage.  During the song, 'Go Tell it on the Mountain', Marshall belted out the chorus quite loudly, lol, the kids near him all turned to stare at him but he didn't care!  It was adorable.  Our church family was all smiling and laughing a little, and of course, i was crying, just overjoyed once again at how far my son has come.  And of course, beaming from ear to ear at how well both my little angel and touque wearing shepherd did that fine morning... our sweet little children of God. 

After such a rough start in the day, look at how it turned out!!  You just cannot ever lose hope.  Based on the screaming and crying that morning, i had very low expectations of the mornings success.  But we stayed positive, were on our toes with new ideas and slight adjustments in 'the plan'.  The plan.  LOL... truely a laughable concept in Marshall's world most of the time!!  But that's ok... we get there.  We see the light at the end...the bigger picture, and often there is success :)  And in success comes great reward... for both Marshall and for us as his parents.  We are so thankful for the way God continually blesses our little family.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!