Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Sheep or Angel....Decisions, Decisions

Well, we've survived two ballet performances and one preschool holiday program. The latter was last night and was great fun. Especially fun seeing sweet girl, front and center on the stage, looking oh so confident in her creamy skirt, red tights and red sweater, sparkly Christmas barrette, and oh yes, reindeer antlers! They sang several songs but we especially liked the "reindeer pokey." ("You put your antlers in, you take your antlers out...") We didn't get pictures but we did get some great video.

Next up, the church Christmas pageant. It almost didn't come together at all this year -- I think the season snuk up on the church school volunteers just like it did everyone else -- but in the end, there will be some brief tableaux with narrations from the Scriptures. D. has been helping the kids pull this together, so has been able to report on rehearsals.

The big decision for the sweet girl came when she was asked whether she wanted to be an angel or a sheep. Can you guess what she chose?

Baaaa baaa baaa....

I wasn't at all surprised. She loves angels, especially the beautiful ones in the creche, but when it comes to playing pretend or dress-up, she'd always rather pretend to be an animal than, say, a princess. Wings are exciting, but fluffy sheep ears even moreso.

Then again, she might have been a tad bit influenced by our recent reading of the chapter "Ramona and the Three Wisepersons" from Beverly Cleary's wonderful book Ramona and Her Father. I hadn't planned to do any Christmas readings from Cleary -- in fact, hadn't thought of this scene in a while (though I love it). But at a library sale a few weeks ago I picked up an amazing $2 find called "The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury," a great collection of poems, stories, folktales and chapters from longer works. Ramona makes a terrific sheep, and I'm sure my little girl will too -- even if we don't put mascara on her nose!

2 comments:

Erin said...

Awww, I'm glad she decided to do the dance after all. Sounds wonderful! I love that Ramona story. And I've had a rather long history with Christmas pageants myself, my favorite being the time when I was the angel delivering the "good tidings of great joy" to the shepherds, who got a bit overzealous in their awe-struck expressions and left me unable to complete the speech I'd so carefully rehearsed, so convulsed by giggles was I... Oddly, I don't think I have ever played a sheep. But given the option I'm sure I would have! Good luck with the pageant; I'm sure it will be great!

Beth said...

Well, she participated in the dance, anyway. Mostly she stood stock still during the whole performance, with a kind of a "deer in the headlights" look. :) But at least she got in there and gave it a try, so I was proud of her!

Your turn as the angel sounds like fun. I'm just as glad that we're nowhere near speaking parts stage yet!

D. informed me this morning that S. chose to be a sheep because "angels are too far away from us." Hmm...might be a case of choosing to be the thing that she's actually seen with her own eyes, the visible vs. the invisible! :-)