Matthew's First (possibly last) Christmas Musical Performance

So Sunday was the big day. Matthew participated in the Christmas musical at church. I have always enjoyed productions including small children because you know there is no way it will go off without a hitch. I have always enjoyed the "hitches"..... that is until Sunday when my son was the "hitch".

I really wasn't nervous about this performance. Matthew had zero scripted lines. He was a sheep. His job was to sing with everyone else. I knew he wouldn't really sing all of the songs. After witnessing a practice I figured the worst thing that would happen is that he would replace all the words of the songs with "baa" since he seemed to be taking his sheep role very seriously.

When the children first entered on Sunday I was a little nervous because Matthew looked like he had been crying and was the only sheep without ears. I worried that maybe he didn't want to be a part of the show at the last minute and he would just stand and not sing at all. Well if I knew then what I know now I definitely would not have wasted my worry on that.

The children got on the stage and took their positions. There were 3 microphones and the children were a couple of steps back from them. Before the music started Matthew stepped up to the microphone and tapped it a bit just to test it out. He was obviously concerned with the sound quality so after the tapping he did a few crazy sounds with his mouth. I ensure you those mics were working and everyone heard and there was lots of laughter. If only he had stopped there. But no, my son had tasted victory, he had made people laugh so he felt the show, his show must go on.

In the end I believe the sheep who was originally scripted zero lines somehow had spoken the most. He told jokes. He did tricks. He was definitely under the impression that this was an "open mic" event. Mercifully, some very smart people turned the mic off closest to him after some time.

Many people mentioned afterward that their favorite part was in between songs when he stepped up to the mic lifted up his shirt pointed to his midsection and sang a little number which I would guess, was titled "belly button", since those were the only words. My personal favorite was when he decided to make a nest out of the hay on the stage. That was the only part in which I could breathe. That however was short lived. After the nest building he felt the need to tidy up the stage, so he collected the hay off the floor and returned it to the haystack nearly knocking over Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and the huge backdrop.

He did sing a few words. The few words that he did sing were so loud you wouldn't have known any other children were singing at all.

Poor Erik's heart couldn't take the stress so he was in and out and completely missed the belly button part. Thankfully, my parents were there. I was torn between running to the stage and herding my little sheep off of it or hiding under my seat. My dad and I are alot alike so I assumed I would find him hiding under the seats too and we could talk about our best exit route, but he was too busy laughing himself to tears to join me.