2018 church Christmas program

Sunday December 16, 2018, brought the culmination of all the hard work Evie, Samuel, and Ezra had been doing for their church Christmas program. They had been working on it since September I think! 

Noah wanted to sit with his friends so Terry gave he, Asher, and Moses and be-quiet-and-respectful talk. 😂 They're all getting so huge!

First up was the preschoolers and kindergarteners. Last year was Ezra's infamous shouting of his songs, which was hilarious. But when Lauralee instructed all the kids to sing nicely and not yell, I told Ezra not to do it again. He obeyed and did very well...even though he was standing next to Silas again, which was who he was competing with last year.

Holding up the ornaments they had colored. 

Cute little faces. 

The preschoolers did a few songs and came to sit down with the parents and next up was the rest of the big kids. 

Quite a big group! 

I think the first song was this one, Sing a Song of Christmas. 

Hands folded.

Holding make-believe babies. 

Going to sleep. 

Hands up!

Go tell it on the mountain!

A bit of that song.




The big kids left the stage to go to changed into costume for the rest of the show and Samuel's class did a song. 

Samuel was next to Julia. 

Samuel's buddy Zachary on the top right side. 

A little bit of Samuel's part.



The program was composed of several monologues of bible characters recounting their memories of Jesus. Abigail and Henry were the married couple from the gospels whose wedding where Jesus  turned the water into wine. 

Evie's friend Shekinah was Joseph of Arimathea. I didn't recognize her because of the beard and costume. So funny!

Evie kept her part very hush hush. She didn't want me to know anything about it but wanted it to be a surprise. Someone let it slip that she was Mary Magdalene but that's all I knew. I was so impressed and proud of her! Everyone had to memorize their parts that were about two minutes long, but Evie was the most dramatic as far as I was concerned. She is my daughter of course so I am biased, but she really did do amazing!

So thoughtful...

She tried so hard not to rush all of lines out in a rush and succeeded. 

Here she is!




There were many kids who went before and after Evie, but in the end, the wiseman came and bowed before baby Jesus. I loved that. 

Then everyone came back together in costume and sang Joy to the World. 

Zooming in on Evie and Samuel. 

They are a talented group of kids!



Lauralee closed us up in prayer. She had written all the parts and organized the whole affair. She did a spectacular job. She always does! 

2017 Cmas program, the one where Ezra shout sings

I forgot to post about the church Christmas program! The kids practiced very diligently and Evie was so excited to perform. Boy does that girl like to stand up in front of people. Perhaps there's a future for her on the stage... Samuel played Joseph. Terry and the other staff guys were included in a game of "Stump the Pastors." Ezra brought down the house in laughter with his shout-singing. So all in all, everyone but Noah and I were involved. 

(Here is the full recording on youtube. Ezra starts just a couple minutes in, through six minutes.)

Paul, Dave, Terry, and Russ

The preschoolers always go first since they're so wiggly. There's Ezra on the projector screen with Silas pictured above him - that's who he was competing with while he was singing.

There's Ezra with Sydney on his right. She was covering her ears at one point because he was so loud!

All throughout their program there was one voice that was louder and more obnoxious than the rest, but since we were sitting further back, I couldn't quite make out who it was until this moment. Ezra was yelling out "J-E-S-U-S!" 

He got progressively louder as their program went on. This was their last song and he was out of control. It was completely and totally hilarious. It turns out he was in competition with Silas as to who could sing louder. He told me later that Silas wasn't singing loud enough. Ezra more than compensated. The shaky recording was due to my laughter.

Next up was Samuel's first and second grade group. He's in front of the microphone.

Not long into it Samuel disappeared behind the curtain where he donned my bath robe and other paraphernalia and came out as Joseph. He was so cute. He kept looking over in the front row at Daddy, whose phone you can see pointed at him.

Here's some of Terry's footage.

Last up was the rest of the kids, which included Evie. She's in the middle while they all get set up, all smiles.

Singing or laughing?

She had two lines for the program, which she was excited for. She so badly wanted a part.

The kids all participated in a game of Stump the Pastors with Dave, Russ, and Terry with Paul as the game show host. Terry was a cowboy rancher. Russ a nerd, and Dave a rabbi (since he's Jewish)

They were hilarious. 

I don't remember what Terry's question was, but he explained what Immanuel means.

Dave shared the gospel at the end.

Lauralee closed it up and we all sang a couple Christmas songs together. It was such a fun night, the best Christmas program I can remember. Great job everyone!

2016 church Christmas program

On Sunday evening, December 11th, the kids (minus Noah this year who is a middle schooler!) had their annual Christmas program at the church.

They had been practicing for months, literally, even the littles! There's Samuel at the top of the line. Ezra is already in place wearing the blue vest.

All the practice really paid off though. I was most impressed by how well the littles did, and not just mine. All of them did wonderful. I couldn't believe how much they had memorized!

Ezra surprised me by how much he participated. When we ask him pointed questions at home he pretends to be all shy, not wanting attention. Of course that is another way of getting attention.  

Next up was the bigger school aged kids. They all performed at once, with the different classes doing their own special parts. Here Evie cheeses it up while waiting for another group to perform. 

She was especially proud to be given a small speaking role. My oh my does she love to perform. This girl would simply adore being on stage more often... 

We were in the front, but she still speaks so quickly that it's hard to understand her. Just ask her what she said and she'll be more than happy to reenact it for you. :D

Belting out "Christmas in July."

Again cheesing while she waits. 

It was a good night and a good program.

2015 Children's Christmas program

On December 6, the kids had their church Christmas program. They worked so very hard on it and couldn't wait to perform. We all dressed up and had Jazmin take our photo before Sunday school began.

Ezra's two year old class went first. My favorite part was when Ezra put the manger on the flannel board upside down like he was totally sure that's how it was supposed to go. He just slammed it decisively down. His teacher told me he consistently did that when they practiced so perhaps he really did think it went like that. 

The little girl that went after him had to turn it right side up to put baby Jesus in the manger. We can't have baby Jesus falling out of the manger.

Ezra sat with us when he was done. Usually he's in the nursery so this was a test to see how he'd do.  

He started fussing right away. The candy cane kept him happy for about five minutes and then he had to go to the nursery. Maybe next year dude. 

Cute little Sah-muel.

He's got amazing eyelashes. 

Evie was the most excited; she'd practiced for us at home. She was totally depressed when it was over. I guess she loves to perform! Perhaps she needs to be in dance class or something next year...

Noah was Joseph in the play. He didn't have any lines but apparently he knew them all since he was gesturing to people when they forgot. Ha!