December Recitals

December is always a performance heavy month for us and this time around it was complicated by the fact that the whole family took turns for a week period being sick with a stomach bug.  Luckily, I got it first and was so sick I literally didn't get out of bed all day except to throw up.  I actually felt grateful that I got sick first and then was much recovered the next day because then Derek got it and then Liv.  I was able to take care of them which would have been impossible with how sick I had been a day or two before.  Poor Liv, threw up once on the morning of her ballroom dance performance and then insisted she felt better and wanted to still go to school and perform in the ballroom assembly.  I sent her with hand sanitizer, but didn't believe for a minute she wasn't sick.  After the assembly, she told me her stomach hurt still and she thought she was gonna throw up, so I brought her home and she did just that all day.  She really wanted to go to the evening performance, and she hadn't thrown up for a while, so I told her to take a bath and then we would decide.  But, while she was in the bath she told me she didn't think she could go and then threw up some more.  Poor girl.  She was so sad to miss the evening performance!  Luckily, I got one cute pic from the morning performance with her friend/enemy Blake whom she convinced to join ballroom as her partner so she could secure a spot (they only have as many girl spots available as there are boy partners to dance with).  One cute story I heard from the Mom who helps with the group is that these two were always partners, but as it got closer to the performance they paired the kids with the best partner for their height.  This totally threw poor Blake off.  He was looking lost and without a partner the instructor yelled Blake, "Where is your girl?"  and Blake yelled back, "Olivia is my girl!"  I understand her poor little face turned bright red in embarrassment.  

Camden had his first ukulele recital with Amy Monroe.  They did it at the church.  This was kind of a fun recital because Amy teaches almost all the neighborhood kids either piano or ukulele, so we knew almost every performer there.  He did great.  He played Jingle Bells, How Much is that Doggie in the Window and the Little Drummer Boy.  Carter sang the first song with him, Liv sang the second one, and the last one as a group performance number with the Paskett kids.  They ended the songs by rhythmically tapping their ukuleles like they were drums.  Camden had never been practicing that at home on purpose and was so excited to surprise us with the grand finale ukulele drum tapping ending of the recital.

Then, was Liv's voice recital.  She sang Once Upon A December (not a true Christmas song I guess, but we were trying to avoid duplicating anyone and it had been a song she had been wanting to learn).  We went to the wrong location for the recital and then were told it was at the studio and it wasn't there either, so when we finally arrived at the right location we were late and Liv was supposed to almost immediately sing.  I was so flustered that I didn't get a video.  I wish I had.  She did fabulous.  In fact, Linda Hale came up to us after the recital and said it was the best she had heard it sung.   Here she is with her good buddy Wren after the recital.  She was so excited to finally be in the same recital as Wren.

Last, was Liv's violin Christmas concert.  Her violin concerts are one of my favorite performances to attend, because the talent of some of Shauna's older violin students is incredible.  It's like attending the symphony seriously.  Liv did great and worked her tail off all year to be able to play one song (Elves Dance) which is a couple levels above her actually playing ability.

Sweet little Liv made the December performance month even crazier by insisting that she must support a couple friends performances too.  She used the last of her cast member season tickets at the Hale Center Theater Orem to see cute Kelsey Plewe in A Christmas Carol.  That was actually the day I was laid up in bed, so luckily Megan Riley came to the rescue and took Liv to the play for me as it was completely sold out and I couldn't change the tickets for another day.

Then, she begged me to let her see her friend Holland dance in the Nutcracker at the Covey Center in Provo.

That performance ended up being extra special  because her violin instructor, Shauna, was also playing in the orchestra for the show.  At intermission, Shauna took her down to the pit and introduced her to everyone and let her sit in her seat and let her stand in the conductor's spot and wave his baton.