There is nothing more stressful, headache-inducing, nerve wracking, “why me oh Lord?” or precious things to do than direct the children’s Christmas program at church. Takes nerves of steel and a sense of humor. Hats off to CrossPoint’s Mindy Stapleton for taking on the challenge. See, the thing with CrossPoint is we have a lot of kids. A LOT of kids. Like 3 kids per every adult or something like that.
Last Wednesday they had a dress rehearsal for the program. It was the first time they had worn their costumes and also the first time they used the props (a manger and a baby Jesus). Mindy was doing a fine job of directing and we had finished the Innkeeper’s (Landon) big scene where he shakes his head and tells Mary and Joseph “there is no room in the inn” – actually I think Landon just shakes his head and points to the “barn”. So Mindy’s telling Mary and Joseph (Anna and Ryan) to go to the barn and sit beside the manger. Mary (can’t blame her, she IS his momma) decided she wanted to hold baby Jesus so Mary (Anna, age 3) reaches down to pick up that cool looking baby doll, er, baby Jesus, from the manger and gets her costume hung on the manger (we have a REAL manger, cool huh?). Mindy’s already instructing the angels (we’ll get to that in a minute) to make their big entrance unknowing Mary’s hung on the manger. Finally Ken V. (who was doing a great job as a stagehand) sees Mary’s dilemma and yells out “Mary’s hung on the manger”. That along with the three wise men seeing who could shoulder shove the other the farthest, one of the shepherds letting everyone know he needed a potty break, and the little donkey (Paisley) doing a reggae-rap version of “Go Tell it on the Mountain” about two songs too early…it was a moment that defines Children’s Christmas programs. Hats off to Mindy.
Now back to the angels…Emma and Ava. Absolutely beautiful angels. Emma’s my little performer. She’s a natural on stage. Ava has that curtsy thing down pat. Very graceful. As one of the angels, Ava has a part where she steps forward and tells the shepherds about Jesus Christ being born. Well, Ava just steps forward…the narrator will tell the shepherds what’s going on. But anyway, Ava’s standing there in her little white robe and silver sparkler halo, with her little hands upturned at her sides (she and Emma have nailed this pose!) and the little shepherd boys all bowing at her feet. Nina pointed out the look on Ava’s face…hmmm…boys…bowing at my feet. I could get used to this.
It’s showtime!
