The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Lorien & Taya were SO excited when we moved here when they found out there was a local community theater here in Prattville that did plays that included kids/teens.  About 3 weeks after we arrived, they held auditions for the Christmas play 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

There were over 50 kids/teens at the audition & only 10 leads for the play.  That made all of us really nervous.  There is a lot of theater talent here in AL.  To our surprise, & also to much excitement, both girls got a lead role in the play.  

Lorien got the part of Maxine, the goody-goody-two-shoe teenager who narrates the Christmas pageant.

Taya surprised us all & got the part of Gladys Herdman, the youngest of the crazy Herdman clan.  The Herdmans were the worst kids in town.  They swore, smoked, chased, stole, & bit anyone that got in their way.  The entire play is about how they accidently wind up in Sunday School & hijack the Christmas pageant.  It's a beautiful story of how they learn the true meaning of Christmas & through their parts in the pageant, they make the entire town remember the true meaning of Christmas too.

We aren't allowed to video or take pictures of the actual play during performance week, but I did catch a few cute candid photos during their 3 months of rehearsals.  I wish you all could have seen the actual production.  It was phenominal.  I was SO proud of the entire cast. 

They performed 10 official shows & 1 friends & family show.  ALL 11 shows were completely sold out within 3 weeks of ticket sales opening.  (I went 4 times & it was SO fun.)

They set up the cutest little photo booth area in the theater for the audience members to go & take pics.  I thought this was such a fun idea.  My kiddos loved it.

Taya totally stole the show.  Gladys is such a HILARIOUS character.  Just her "Shazam" lines just cracked everyone up.  Even though the character of Gladys is only 6-7 & Taya is 11, she was the PERFECT choice for such a feisty, crazy, LOUD, Herdman girl.

Taya really grew to love her "Herdman" family.  Those 6 kiddos were inseparable & worked so well together.  She was the youngest, but they sure treated her like one of their own.

I was REALLY proud of Lorien too.  She had a LOT of lines that were basically Luke Chapter 2.  Scripture is hard to memorize, especially that much of it.  She did a wonderful job & fit her part perfectly.

I love these Herdman girls.

I also loved how the theater did headshots & bios for each of the cast members.  It was fun seeing professional photos of my girls as well as see full paragraphs about them in the programs.  I couldn't have been prouder.

It was a great & super memorable experience for both of the girls.  Words cannot express how proud I am of them for their dedication (LOTS of hours of rehearsals, LOTS of memorization, & LOTS of nights of performances  . . . even on school nights.  And they managed straight A's in the process!), their hard work, & their amazing performances.

It really was

THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER!

Shazam!

December Happenings

December was a crazy busy month (December always is), but we found a lot of time for family, friends, fun, & the Savior.

Aldi opened it's store here in Prattville, & I very much enjoyed it's selection of German goodies.

Trek took the boys to St. Nicholas Day (December 6th) with his German class.  They had a bonfire, German food, & St. Nicholas even came & filled the kids' shoes with presents & candy.  They had a great time.

Cadence enjoyed making Gingerbread houses with her friends at Young Women's.

As a family we made several trips to downtown Prattville to look at the beautiful lights there.  The large Christmas tree was my favorite part of Christmas this year.

Canyon managed to lose his very first tooth in December.  He was SO proud.  The tooth fairy brought him a whole dollar for it.

Trek & Lorien actually decorated the outside of our house this year.  We haven't done lights on the house in ages.  It looked beautiful.  I especially loved the Mickey Mouse projection lights Trek bought me for this season.

Trek flew to UT the week before Christmas to pick up Cadence's car from my parent's house.  They sold us their old car so we'd have a 3rd vehicle for Cadence.  It's old, but it's a good strong car & I think it will be great for getting her to & from school & seminary every day.  While he was there, Trek picked up 10 loaves of his favorite UT brand bread as well as every apple beer in the entire Lehi area.  (Apple beer is carbonated apple juice that is the closest thing we've found to German apfelschorle in the States.  We love it & you can only find it in UT.)

It was a great month & it passed way too quickly.

Prattville Christmas Parade

I can't say how much I love this small town enough.  It's so cute & does the coolest things.  A few days after the tree lighting, they had the Prattville Christmas parade.  I figured since it was such a small town, that it it would be a small parade, but it was MASSIVE.  It was over 2 hours long & it was incredible.  I'm a huge parade goer & I actually rate this one up there in my top 10 parades ever, which is so funny to me.  A CHRISTMAS PARADE.  I've never been to a Christmas parade before.  I'll never forget it.

Cadence got to march in the parade with the marching band.  She marched with cymbals for this parade.  We couldn't wait to see her.  We found the perfect spot to watch by Canyon's Kindergarten School when our friends showed up & sat with us.  We had 3 families from church all with us & it made it even that much more fun.  The adults sat in chairs while the kiddos sat & danced & collected the bajillion pieces of candy EVERY float threw at them.  It was a great night.

Prattville Parade with Friends

Olaf & Snow