Mele Kalikimaka

Photo courtesy of Robin Beaudoin

At St. George's there is a tradition that dates back about 50 years. Each Christmas, students in Kindergarten don their first ever cotta. Since I am public school bred, I had no idea this tradition even existed. My 7 years at St. George's I always saw the great prepartion that went into the cottas; sizing for the cottas, labeling the cottas, storing the cottas, dressing the kids in cottas, etc. It takes teams of volunteers. These cottas are worn every year by various grades for the Christmas program.

Now I am going to admit something. Something I have never said out loud. Something that could even get in trouble with the masses. For 7 years, I disliked the cottas. I didn't get it. At. All. I would mutter under my breath as I saw the racks being rolled down the hallway, "for the love of everything holy...let's move into the 21st century!"

That was until my son put on his first cotta.  ohmygracious. He looked so cute. He acts so big and grown, but in his sweet cotta he looked like a little angel. The precious little gift from heaven that he is. So now, I say cottas for everyone!! Cottas galore! Cottas every year for the rest of time!!

Evan's Christmas program was a blast. One of the many many perks of working where you child attends school is you get 'sneak peeks'. Some people choose not to watch the rehearsals, but I am way to nosy not to. I also want to watch and make sure Evan is doing everything he should. Evan would NOT count this as a perk of me working there.

Weeks before the event I was trying to entice my usually talkative son into telling me about the program. Now mind you, the boy rarely is not talking. Rarely. But it is next to impossible to get any information about school out of him. I don't know if this is a boy thing, or not, but he'll go on and on and on about the function of every Skylander or zombies or other topics I carry no interest in. But school....zippo.

For example -
Me: Evan, how was your day?
E: good
Me: Whaddya do?
E: nothing
Me: Nothing, huh. Did you eat lunch?
E: Yes.
Me: Well that's something.
E: Moooooom, you know I eat lunch.
Me: Well then tell me something I don't know about.
E: ....pause...Did you know that zombies will only eat your brains if you are not looking at them? If you look at them in the eyeballs they can't eat your brain. So if a zombie comes after you, stop and look at them in the eyeballs and they won't eat your brain.
Me: ...*sigh* Okay E. Will do.

So, as usual, I was pulling teeth to get him to tell me anything. This is what I got - he was standing behind a 1st grade girl and he didn't have a special part. He wouldn't tell me any songs, do any dances, nada. So I dropped it knowing I would see it soon enough.

When I get to the dress rehearsal I find out that he is not behind a first grade girl, but actually on the front row AND has a part!! I swear...this boy!

During one of the transitions, I see Evan move from his spot and I immediately get nervous. Why is he moving? Where is he going?? So I lean over to his teacher and hiss, "What in the world is he doing??" Miss Monroe looks at me so confused and said, "He's going to his spot for the dance." After the look of shock and awe on my face she immediately put a hand on my arm and said, "He didn't tell you?"  NO HE DOESN'T TELL ME ANYTHING!!!  So I sneak down to the floor to record him.They sang Mele Kalikimaka and these 6 or 7 students hula danced and did other moves during the song. Watch it once and try not to smile.



The rest of the program was a great success. He had a blast and they all looked so dern cute!

 

As usual, Evan had a huge cheering section. All his favorites were present. 

 

 

 And of course 2 of the best teachers in town!