Christmas carols

"Being a writer is like always having homework."

I've seen this quote attributed to several people, and I absolutely love it. It totally explains why I feel a never-ending need to write. Especially about my kids. They do things, and I want to write about it, to record it so it's never forgotten it. Most of the time, the writing is an absolute pleasure. Only rarely does it actually feel like homework. Such as when I should be writing about yet another elementary school choir concert.

Now you know why I haven't written the last two days. I had nothing particularly inspiring to write about it, and with Christmas preparations reaching the frantic stage, I was able to find plenty of distractions.

Here's a very, very short clip of one of the songs.

Now, imagine listening to that while sitting on hard wooden bleachers, packed into a gym for an hour with hundreds of other family members, which meant the temperature quickly rose to uncomfortably warm levels. Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!

A few random thoughts worth mentioning:

• I've lived in our small town long enough to realize that any time you see a dramatic increase in traffic on our main road, it means one of three things: It's the community wide garage sale, it's election day or there's a music concert at the school.
• Kudos again to the music teachers and school administrators. They started off the program with kindergartners singing Away in a Manger. How's that for a statement about keeping Christ in Christmas and in the schools? Loved it! (Incidentally, each grade sang three songs, one of which had a religious theme.)
• The opposite of kudos to the third grade teachers who thought it'd be a good idea to send the gingerbread house class projects home with students after the concert. Trying to retrieve your child from his/her classroom after the concert isn't hard enough, trying to squeeze up the twisting staircase along with hundreds of other parents/grandparents who aren't completely sure where they're going. So let's hand out fragile art projects for parents to balance on large trays as they squeeze into the mob. That doesn't further slow down the flow of traffic at all. Good thinking!
• Next year should actually be easier. Sydney will be in kindergarten, which means it'll be her teacher's job to keep her busy while the rest of the kids are performing.