Tis The Season... to be Bloggy....

Oh, how did we get to December 3rd with no posts?? A long standing (OK, this is the 3rd year) tradition I've had here on my blog is to do a post a day during the entire month of December. Obviously this year, I've been a slacker. Oh, don't think I didn't think of it... I sure did. Each of the past two days I gave it thought. When I was in the car, driving to the market... when I was in the shower... when I was doing a million other things.. other than being near my computer. I'm sorry.



So for December 1-2.. I give you a Middle School band concert. Thursday evening we made our way over to the Jr/Sr High School for my son's first "non-elementary" band concert. He's a funny kid. When he was in 3rd grade, our wonderful music teacher told me when he got to fourth grade I should sign him up for band. He had a natural talent and would go far with it. I asked him and he wasn't interested. She mentioned it again in 4th grade. I told her that I wasn't going to push him into something he didn't want. 6th grade rolled around, and band sign ups came up. Ms. Thang announced that she wanted to join band and play the clarinet (my SIL used to play clarinet).. and Mr. Man piped right up and said that he wanted to join band also. Most kids don't join beginner band in 6th grade, but why not. I asked him what he wanted to play and he said, "Trumpet. It's a manly instrument."

He is a very gifted musician. He picked that trumpet up in record time, and joined the "big band" (2nd and 3rd year) before the rest of the group. He practiced, when he felt like it, a few times a week, and that was that. This year he has band every day. What a difference it has made for him. He plays a lot, and he practiced a lot for this concert. I enjoy listening to him play upstairs. I never have to tell him to go practice, or nag. He plays because he loves it. He is coming back to our school to play in the 2 shows this year, because we don't have a strong trumpet player, and our music teacher (not the same one who wanted him to join years ago) invited him personally.

As we arrived at the show, I reminded him to tuck in his shirt. He hurried down the hall off to the music room. We sat, and chatted and waited. All of a sudden, a minute before the show was scheduled to start, 2 trumpet players appeared before the curtain and played an "announcement" piece as a duet. 2 young boys. One looking so sharp and put together.. and the other looking so proud of himself... with his shirt un-tucked. (sigh). I was so proud of him. He didn't tell me he was opening the concert.

The 7th grade band is much smaller than even our "big band".. but the kids did fabulous. Then we listened to the 8th grade band, and then they played 2 songs together, for the first time. It was a lovely way to spend a Thursday evening.

(if you click the large photo, and count over about 4-5 kids from the left, you can just make out the top of his head, and his un-tucked shirt.