6th Grade Christmas Musical

Last night was Sam's Christmas Musical. He was an elf in the chorus (green turtleneck.) He said that he'd raised his hand for a speaking part as well, but didn't get selected. He also said that participation in the musical was getting him out of his regular music class.
Of course I didn't know that I'd have to provide some sort of costume until the very last minute, so the kids and I dragged ourselves into the dollar store in search of an elf hat. Thank heavens they had one because we were already spent from our trips to Home Depot with Ag's Girl Scout troop for the Build Your Own art display easel and then to Michael's for You Are Trapped Forever In Craft Purgatory.
So the elf hat and the turtleneck were the sum of my efforts. It was a really cute program and they did a great job.
Sam-O and his Dad were eyeballing each other through the whole thing. I kept giving Mark the look to make sure he wasn't trying too hard to make Sam laugh. Sam said later that he was almost in tears trying not to laugh, but I know part of it was just his joy at having his Dad there watching him.
It was drizzling as we left and I said to the kids 'Wait! I have to get my coat on or I'll melt!,' and the look on Lily's face was fairly priceless. Because instantly there was a big part of her that was dying to see her mother melt. Maybe not all the way into a puddle but at least a little softened and runny. Rarely do I fully have her attention like this. She asked why would I melt, and I told her it was because I was so sweet, like sugar, and sugar melts in water. She silently stared at me as she struggled between the possibility of seeing something so incredible and then the dawning reality that it wasn't going to happen. Finally I got one over on her!
And poor Aggie this morning. She caught me as I was heading out the door and said that her teacher said I 'had to sign this.' I was confused because we'd already done all the homework last night. Turns out she got a big fat stinkin' F on a math paper in class. It was apparent that she'd been rehearsing her little speech, because it spilled out in this run-on sentence of 'I'm sorry Mommy and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again and I promise I'll work really hard and..." We've had this happen with one or the other of them every blue moon or so and they normally get all A's & B's so I didn't get too excited. Everybody has a bad day once in a while. And it certainly explains her weird mood last night. That's kind of a relief-I wasn't the cause of it for once!

A customer stopped in the office yesterday and we started in on the obligatory 'Are you ready for Christmas?' conversation when he stopped mid-sentence and said 'You know what, never mind, have a Merry Christmas' and walked out the door. And I was grateful. Because he understood that I've had this conversation about 300 times already and will have it at least 300 times more. Not that I always mind, it's usually pleasant enough, but he's the first person to ever give me a pass on it. His little Christmas gift to me, I guess.