holiday pageant.

the kids' school put on a holiday pageant where each class got up on stage and sang songs. it was super cute. the teachers worked really hard to get everyone ready and we loved the whole process of them practicing at home every day leading up to the actual event.

hollis was not thrilled at all to be on stage. the festivities started at like 4:30 and by the time we got to that point, he was basically done. he lasted all of two minutes before one of his teachers rescued him and returned him to my arms. sigh. maybe next year.

  

emme, on the other hand, really embraced the experience. she had a lot of stage fright at her dance recital last year, but maybe because she is really comfortable at school, she was all about it for this performance. she knew the songs and was super enthusiastic with the hand gestures and moves. i was just so proud that she had so much fun up there and we loved watching her.

at the end, santa came up on stage to hand out gifts to the "big" kids. they did a kind of secret santa gift exchange thing with their classmates, so that was really cute. ek said she was going to hug santa, but when the time came, she wasn't ready for it. she did accept her gift graciously and tell santa thank you, though, so that's a big improvement over her santa reactions from previous years (which are treasures we hold dear).