Advent Day 18: Attend a Christmas Concert

Tonight we attended a special Christmas concert at our church. (If you follow that link, you'll see a video of my brother, who is the person responsible for the whole thing. He's unbelievably talented and inspired, and also MARRIED.)

Anyway, this is the first year Dave and I have felt like we could take both kids and try to sit through the entire thing. I thought the novelty of watching my brother sing might be enough to keep them from making us want to bolt for at least 15 minutes. I packed a little bag for each child – small dolls for Lucy, quiet trains and a magic pen book for Asher. We got there too late to get seats together on the aisle (FORESHADOWING) and the kids were a little stir-crazy and Asher was laying on the floor driving trains and Lucy was determined to climb over the seats until she made it to where her Yaya was sitting and we blew through the bribery candy in four short minutes and... yeah. Asher actually did FANTASTIC once the lights went down and the music started. He sat quietly for the entire hour (of course, he's four). But Lucy threw a massively disruptive fit at the start of the second song and was dragged (quite literally) kicking and screaming from the sanctuary by Dave. WE WERE TOTALLY THOSE PEOPLE TONIGHT. He calmed her down in the lobby and promptly deposited her sorry butt in the nursery. Hilariously, neither of us noticed until he was back that he'd dropped her off only wearing one shoe. We found the other one underneath our seats, where she'd kicked it off in all her flailing glory.

So, a bit of a failure in one sense, in that we didn't spend the hour together. Also that people had to listen to the Doppler effect of my screaming child being carried from the room. But really, it was much more of a win, as Lucy wouldn't have really remembered it or gotten much from it, and I think Asher was able to watch and listen without being distracted by Lucy, and he is at an age where he is starting to make sense of church and why we go and why it is so important. It helps that he thinks his uncle is VERY COOL, look at all those GUITARS HE GETS TO TOUCH.

Before we left (he took the Rudolph nose off in the car):

Comments

[Kate]

You know, even before I had a kid I never minded a kid screaming at something like that as long as the parents are responding like you did by removing them from the situation (and I had a kid throw a toy at me during my piano recital when I was 13 so if anyone should be upset by this it would be me). I also spent an entire wedding ceremony watching from the cry room because my one month old decided to get upset right before the bride made her entrance (and no, I wouldn't have brought him except that the bride in question specifically requested his presence).

[HereWeGoAJen]

Oooh, good one! Next year I will find a concert starring your brother for one of our Christmas activities.

Don't think of it as Lucy being disruptive. Think of it as you guys being generous to all the other parents who were thinking "thank goodness it isn't always just us." (Like I was thinking when I read it.) No one likes the kids that are ALWAYS well behaved, they make the rest of us feel inadequate.

[TR Brand Jeans]

Check it out for you may be very surprised by the clubs they beat the snot out of through their history and even more surprised by those who have beaten the snot out of the Raasdfngers.