In which I curse those shiny lights

So the kids had a Christmas program today. To prepare for said performance, they have been practicing every single week at church for a while, and they did a pre-performance at Ava's school Christmas party on Thursday. I was very entertained by Jace's hip gyrations, and impressed at how well both kids knew the choreography.

So imagine my surprise when we showed up at the rehearsal Saturday morning and Jace glued himself to my legs and refused to dance, sing, or even stand in line. It took me standing on my knees next to him and completely dorking out on the dance moves to even get him to throw a half hearted jazz hand into it.

Luckily, the more they rehearsed, the better he got, and thank goodness Ava had no such stage fright and did not need any hand holding. She threw a very interpretive vibe into the dance...a lot of closed eyes and slow, fluid movements that did not match the dance but were cute anyway.

This morning he was in a much better mood and we headed for the stage with these two adorable children:

They proceeded to sing and dance their little hearts out all the way through two services without a single mishap or wardrobe malfunction...until, of course, Jace decided he needed to touch one of the shiny lights on the stage...and  burned his hand pretty badly. I looked up and he was getting carried off the stage screaming and we had to gather up our things, the sleeping baby, Ava, and carry Jace out of the sanctuary where he refused any treatment because he "just wanted to cry about it." He proceeded to make up a song on the way out to the car about how "It still hurts, my hand still hurts." with a lilting melody.

Luckily he seems to have recovered nicely!