Sacrament Debacle

Leave it to our crew to make the Primary Program interesting. And, I must admit, we weren't as bad as the guy who was snapping pictures of a baby blessing a few months ago. That was awesome. But, nonetheless, we had our share of the spotlight today.

It's was a proud and anxious moment as we watched 3 of our children stand up in front of the whole congregation to sing and recite their part of the program. We immediately looked for each one of them, so we could make eye contact while they were singing and they would know we were smiling and loving every minute. We spotted Ethan first. He was smack dab in the front row, leaning on the railing. We found Tab next - right between the piano and organ. She was all smiles.

But, "Where was Ellie?" The first and second songs came and went and we resigned ourselves to thinking she must have been behind the organ. She is pretty small. Then all of a sudden she came running up the isle and took her place on the stand. We noticed she had blood on the back of her shirt and her shirt was turned around, backwards. Poor thing must have gotten a bloody nose on the way up and ran to the bathroom. We didn't even know. But of course she handled it on her own like a pro.

Once Ellie was settled I focused in on Tab, who was hiding from me, popping up and down behind the kid in front of her. She stopped as soon as she got the "you're dead" look from me along with the "slicing my neck" gesture.

And then, of course, there was Ethan. Apparently he had choreographed the whole program. He had some funky hand gestures, which I think included some local gang symbols, that he kept flashing, throughout the singing as well as the speaking parts. One move included a finger point to the ceiling, eyes following. I guess he then found the lights fascinating because he began counting them. He told us later that he was making "quiet signs" to make everyone quiet and using his powers to put the lights out. It still looked to us like interpretive dance.

The best though, and what brought laughter from everyone around us, including shaking shoulders from our row for several minutes, was when he did his part. Right before his part, I guess he decided he'd had enough. His head was tilted all the way back on his chair, with his eyes closed. When the teacher brought the microphone to his row, the little girl next to him said her part just fine, but he didn't move. The teacher had to shake his shoulder to rouse him. His head flew up, and, yes, he was the kid to practically shout into the microphone. Although this time, it was in an almost "evil" voice, "BE NICE!"

I must say, that when he did focus on singing, he knew the words and sang so loudly that we could actually hear him distinctly from the crowd and his mouth formed an actual "O", the formation of the specific words lost in the effort of singing his heart out. Way to go, EVANS!