Entry for December 27, 2006

"Mite ite tanoshikatta ne!"
Wasn't it fun to watch?

I forgot to mention a very important event. The Pumpkin Princess made her stage debut two Saturdays ago. The Pumpkin Day Care held its annual Christmas performance. Every child got on the stage and had a part in it. The Pumpkin Princess's class danced shook homemade shakers (small plastic bottles containing beads and sequins and decorated with ribbons, but not before being sealed very very tightly) to Christmas music. At least, that was the plan. No one expected things to go as planned (can you still call it a plan if no one, including the planners, expect it to go through?) as we are talking about babies aged 4 to 16 months. A couple of the older babies shook their shakers and danced off beat. One baby found her mommy in the audience and pointed to her excitedly while smiling and shaking her shaker, to the delight of the entire hall, which was packed to capacity. The older kids sang Christmas songs and danced and pantomimed to pre-recorded voice acting and music. The oldest kids (5 and 6 years old) performed a Christmas Pagent.

Every time I see a Christmas Pagent, I am reminded of the childrens' book "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever" (I think that was the title). However, the Pumpkin Day Care's Pagent involved no ham, and a single clan did not dominate the entire main cast.

My favorite performance was by the boys in the oldest class. Clad in happi jackets with their names calligraphied on the back, they danced, boyband style, to pop music. I've never been a fan of preschool kids dancing in unison, but that dance looked fun to be a part of, even for little boys. There were two boys who were obviously better than the rest, and I wondered if they took dance lessons or something.