Merry Christmas...Again!

Merry Eastern Christmas!

Because we're American and live in the Middle East, we get to Celebrate Christmas for several weeks each year. Eastern Christmas is January 7, so the kids' preschool had a big Christmas shindig tonight. The people in charge of this preschool obviously are lacking in judgment, as they asked the only American father to MC the party. Actually, they asked me to "present" the party, which made me think I'd be sponsoring it, like a big bowl game: "The Preschool Christmas Program Presented by Jason" or something.

This morning, Lee Anna and I went to school to set up some sound equipment, and that's when they asked if I could sing a song at the beginning, too. So I went home and got my guitar. I enlisted Lee Anna to sing along, but you've probably already seen the video of that. Actually, I had been expecting them to ask me to sing at the last minute, since they did it that way last year, so I'd been practicing with the kids to sing that one.

After my eloquent, tri-lingual introduction (I said "good evening" in English, Arabic, and Spanish, just for fun) we had a guest speaker to teach the parents about raising little ones. Then the fun began.

Sarah Claire's class came up and looked cute while listening to Twinkle, Twinkle and watching their teachers do some motions. They really did look cute.

See how cute they are?

Then the others got their turn. I'm not sure exactly what was going on here, but it looks a lot like Lee Anna and Sawyer are square dancing. Right after the square dance, we were treated to a moving presentation of the Hokie Pokie. I honestly have never seen anything quite like it.

After all of the classes had their moment in the sun (not the sun, really. More like a couple of 75 watt bulbs off to the side of the audience.) Anyway... after that, we were subjected to a rather lengthy video of the kids at play inside the preschool. Here's how my thought process went:

First five minutes: "This is actually pretty good. Glad to see my kids having fun at school."

Next five minutes: "Isn't this the 7th time we've heard the 'Rudolph' song?"

Next five minutes: "Okay, this is too long. That would have been a good stopping place."

Next five minutes: "Man, I really wish the video projector would catch fire."

One dad actually left because his kid wasn't featured adequately in the video. Wow.

Then Baba Noel came to visit. Our Western readers will know this guy as Santa Claus, but I bet you didn't know he played the saxophone! He came bearing gifts and playing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Well, sort of. That, too, was like nothing I have ever heard.

And a Happy New Year to all of you.