Holiday Ice Show

 Well, it has warmed up here, so the two littler kiddos are finally back at school. It was -7 (-19 real feel) when they got to school this morning, so it is not exactly swimsuit weather yet, but warm enough for life to resume. I have spent the morning memorizing my times tables. Don't laugh, I am serious. I have a math class this semester and our first assignment is to memorize addition up to 15+15 and multiplication up to 15x15. Seth teased me by buying me some flash cards for grades 2-4 to help me out. Thankfully I already knew all of my addition and multiplication up to 12x12. Turns out you do retain some of what you learn in grade school, but I had to tackle multiplication for 13, 14 and 15 today and now I can resume catching up around here so on to the Ice Show.

After doing the Spring Ice Show last year I proclaimed that we would only do that once a year, but the shows have become Alyssa's favorite part of ice skating and historically the Holiday Show only has one performance so I figured it would be less stressful and cheaper than paying to attend 3 times. Just our luck, they added a second show this year, but even still the Holiday Show is shorter and a lot lower key than the Spring Show so it wasn't too painful.

Alyssa was in Basic 3 in the Spring and is now in Basic 6 so she was in the 5-6 number. They skated to Blue Christmas (version by Lady Antebellum). There were 9 kids in her group and I have a group picture in the program but I can't seem to find that right now so these solo shots will have to do. I also have her professional shot coming to me in the mail, but again, that will have to be added when it arrives.

When we first got their costumes I think every single mom in our group brought them back in and thought we had ordered them too small, but it turns out they were supposed to be that short.

 
For the first night, I got to be the locker room mom. We just hung out and played games and then I had to get them out to the ice on time and make sure everyone had skates on and tied. It was pretty simple stuff. They also bring the bin of gifts in and the locker room mom has to pass them out so the skaters can take them on the ice for the finale. Only one kid in our group did not get anything so Alyssa gave him one of her gifts to carry and the next night we sent giant candy cane tubes with Pez dispensers and candy for each kid in the group so no one would be left hanging. They ate them in the locker room and didn't even end up carrying them out for the finale. Oh well, at least everyone got a delivery. Some of the politics in skating drive me crazy and Alyssa said even the parents go around competing and pointing out who has the most gifts. I even heard moms berating their children after the show for not performing as well as they should have. I try to tune it all out though, because Alyssa loves to skate and we are just in it for fun.
 
On the second night of the show, anyone who participated or attended was invited to skate with Santa after it was over. Can you see him?


 
In the next shot Alyssa is just finishing a one foot spin. We are so excited that she is finally spinning. Ice skating is a sport where progress is very slow since they first have to learn to just stay upright on a blade on a sheet of ice, but she is now starting to do some of the stuff that is fun to watch. No jumping yet though, but soon.





 
I was trying to get a group shot of my kids and I think Alyssa is the only one who noticed when Santa skated in to the frame.



It was another successful show. Lyssa had her first public fall on the first night. Three of the kids in her group fell that night and when we got to the locker room the other two were a wreck but Alyssa was cracking up. She was the oldest in her group though and while I sometimes wish she would have started younger, I know Alyssa. She would not have been emotionally ready to go out and perform in front of people and I think she would have quit. She got right back out there the next night and managed to stay on two feet, or one foot in some parts, but never on her butt. We are very proud that she is sticking with skating and happy that she is enjoying herself. She is already talking about the Spring Show, which we have to sign up for in two weeks.