Skyler's first school Christmas program

Skyler's preschool is part of a church. The church is primarily Chinese American worshipers lead by Pastor Hall a very nice, soft-spoken man. The parents were asked to take seats in the church so we sat and listened to the first part of their service while waiting for the kid’s music portion of the show to start. Pastor Hall would read or say one part of the sermon in English and then an older man would repeat it in Chinese. It was all very strange and we had a bit of trouble at first keeping a straight face. "Open your Hymn book to this and that" and we would stand with everyone else and mumble/sing the Hymn about our Blessed Jesus. Fortunately my mom was with us and has more church experience that Matt or I so we just kind of followed her lead. They had a guest speaker who got up and in broken English told the story of how she found god instead of the evil Buddhist / fortune telling/horoscope reading sinner she used to be.

The best part, of course, was the kids getting up and singing. Skyler’s class is all of the 3 year olds that attend the school and they had to be lead and pushed from the back of the church up to the front. Skyler walked down the aisle with the other kids, but for some reason he had his hand covering his eyes and was holding on to another kid to guidance. When they got to the front the teacher arraigned them all in two rows. One of Skyler’s teachers, Mrs. Yang, put blush on their cheeks and they all looked like pink-cheeked sweeties. They sang Jesus Loves the Little Children, This little light of mine, Jingle Bells, and, We wish you a Merry Christmas. Skyler was great and sang along with the kids and rang his bells. One little girl sang and shook her bells and shakers with such gusto she had everyone laughing, she was really shaking her bootie. Half way through the songs Skyler decided he wanted to take off his cute Christmas sweater so with the help of the teacher he striped down to a tee shirt (fortunately a long sleeve black one, he still looked cute but a bit Goth in all black). All of the parents crowded the front trying to get the best shot of their little angel.

Then we went down stairs for a potluck; an odd mix with lots of Chinese dishes, our pasta salad along with a couple other American dishes and sushi. The whole thing was kind of strange, but it was fun and good for all of us to see the other kids and parents.