Sunday School Christmas Program

Today was the girls' Sunday school Christmas program at St. John, which turned out to be a relatively low-stress affair all around. None of them had much to do in/for it: Suzanna handed out bulletins to comers-in but wasn't otherwise in the program; and Abigail and Hillary sat with Susan and me, getting up just once to join others in preschool through grade three to sing two group numbers. That was it. No group rehearsals in advance to practice for the program; no special costumes or dress codes required; no extra-super early time to have them at the church in advance. It wasn't even that crowded in the church; if grandparents and extended relatives did come to see Junior and Sissy in the program, they certainly didn't come an hour early and reserve all the front-pew spots for photography priority, as we were accustomed to having happen at our previous church. In fact, we quite easily found spots near the very front with a minimum of waiting before the service began.

The service consisted of congregational hymns, Bible verses read by the Sunday schoolers, musical numbers performed by the Sunday schoolers, and a puppet show performed by Sunday schoolers. Except for getting all the seated-at-random preschoolers-through-third-graders up to the front and lined up appropriately to sing their songs, the entire program moved along at a fine pace and lasted about 45 minutes. Here are our cherubs participating:

As Sunday school music leaders are wont to do, the kids' teachers have them enact "sleeping" for the congregation so as to clarify for us just what the children (including Abigail, here) mean when they sing "asleep" in the song lyrics. So helpful.

Hillary waits her turn to head back to her pew after singing.

We didn't snap a pic of Suzanna "in action" before the program/service, so here she is re-enacting her duties afterward with the help of Abigail posing as an appreciative bulletin recipient.

After the program, all the children received Christmas treat bags: brown paper bags filled with salted-in-the-shell peanuts, candy bars, candy canes, red apples, bookmarks, Bible stories, and assorted suckers and other hard candies. Such a nice Lutheran church tradition that I remember from my own childhood, and that my own parents told me their churches did for them as children at Christmastime.

After church, we visited Susan's grandparents, Laura and E.J., at the nursing home (read the first comment here to know why Laura is now there; E.J. has lived there for about three years). They have separate rooms but were both asleep in his single bed in his room when we arrived! (Sweet!) We gave them time to wake up and get dressed before stopping in to visit. E.J. seems to enjoy visits from the girls, calling them "cute little guys" and always remarking on their resemblance ("God d@*&, they sure look alike, don't they, Laura?!").

Dinner at home today was leftover broasted chicken, potato salad, cole slaw, and borscht from Jack's Family Restaurant (the other half of which we ate for supper last night--delicious!). The girls are now enjoying hot apple cider and Scandinavian almond cake; Susan is finishing a batch of caramel puffcorn; and I'm listening to instrumental Christmas tunes on Pandora as I type. Next on the agenda: the annual Christmas letter. You have been forewarned.