Christmas 2004 "Spectacle"

Before I begin this post I just wanted to tell everyone it's cold in Ottawa today. How cold? With the wind chill factor, try -44 Degrees Celsius (that's -47 Degrees Fahrenheit for those south of the border). That's too cold even for most Canadians I know.

Last Weekend was the kids Christmas "Spectacle" which can be translated as Christmas show for the daycare that they attend. The event was organized by the daycare providers at no extra costs to the parents and includes a very impressive spread of food, a visit from Santa Clause with gifts and a performance by each daycare group. My parents attended the event not wanting to miss Nicholas' first and Juliette's second ever performance on stage. The first group was the youngest and the cutest. Nicholas was very brave (1/3 of the kids were crying) and he delivered a stellar performance. I can't remember what the song was but you could tell that the entire group had spent hours practicing the performance since, those that were not crying, knew every word of the song. When the curtains went up to reveal 15 little kids, not one of them over 3 Ft all wearing paper reindeer crowns, a chorus of "awwwww" could be heard from the parents. Juliette was in the next group, which not only had paper crowns but also red noses (painted) and pyjamas. Last year, Juliette spent her time on stage crying but this year she very energetically belted out the well-rehearsed song (I know the song but not the title, ask Juliette to sing it for you, it's become one of our family favourites in the car). She even made a bow on cue with the rest of the kids. The other three groups were more complicated and less cute the final being group of 5 kids delivering a Christmas Rap in French (very brave). Nicholas liked the food but loved the present from Santa Clause which was toddler friendly Lego. To entertain him (and myself) I settled with Nicholas outside the gym where it was a little quieter and spent half an hour building and destroying Lego buildings and animals. One mother past by and said I had a lot of patience to be playing so long with my son but really I was enjoying myself immensely and patience had nothing to do with it. Juliette loved spending time playing with her school friends. They ran all around the gym with their toys (the 4 year old girls got Barbie dolls) while the mothers chatted. Overall it was a complete success and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.

P.S. I'm trying to do one post a week that would come out on a Friday so tune in then.