Santa's No Matchmaker, Sorry.

Ah, pre-Christmas Eve cookie baking day...so fun! Our great time in the kitchen was only made greater by this:

Track 4 delivered Mariah's delightful "All I Want For Christmas". Singing along, one lyric caught Kiefer's attention. "Mom... she doesn't care about presents?!?"

I took a stab at explaining that all Mariah wants is the love of her life on Christmas and that's it...

"Well, Mom. Santa CANNOT make people fall in love."

A small inquisition followed regarding why he thinks this or how he knows this fact... Conclusion: he just knows.

We sang along to the rest of the song and toward the end Kiefer shook his head and said, "Wow, that lady is gonna be REALLY disappointed on Christmas."

Performance Face

Kiefer recently had his first performance in front of an audience. He sang holiday songs with his Kindergarten classmates and the First Graders at his school's "Holiday Shop".

He was nervous. Leading up to his big gig, he mention several times how worried he was about his first REAL performance with an AUDIENCE. He had also mentioned prior to the event that he needed a prop so he picked out a flashing red reindeer nose while we were out shopping one day. After lots of singing around the house and practicing at school, he was ready! But nervous.

The Holiday Shop was well attended, so Kiefer's first audience was a big one. When it came time to sing, we shuffled Kiefer to the stage area, said our "goodbyes", returned to the audience and I immediately noticed almost-crying eyes. Luckily, to the rescue... his best buddy Samantha - the only other child with a flashing red nose for a prop, as it turned out. They exchanged giggles and it was on!

Once the music started, he went for it. He was singing loudly enough, I could pick out his voice. Aannnddd then I cried.

Well, what mama wouldn't with this Performance Face staring back at ya? Add this to the list of reasons I feel like such a lucky mama.

You Better Not Cry!

Haha! I almost started this post with a comment about how long it's been since I posted here, but that was my opening line on the LAST entry - from Dec 2010. So, that comment is officially getting old. I'll just summarize with, "Kiefer quips are fast and easy to post to facebook for fun" -- yeah and then I can't go see them without making a lifetime commitment of "view more posts"-ing. So, let's get something on the blog for crying out loud.

Speaking of crying. Kiefer's school is preparing for the holidays and hosting a Holiday Shop complete with a visit from Santa and musical performances from the kiddos. We listen to a lot of Christmas music every year when the season rolls around, so these songs are nothing new but now Kiefer has to PERFORM. So he's taking this seriously and learning lyrics.

Last night Kiefer started in on "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" and said, "wait, Mom... 'you better not cry?' I have cried before...like when I get hurt." So I tried to break this down.

You better watch out,

You better not cry,

You better not pout,

I'm telling you why...

Who wrote these lyrics? If you cry, Santa won't bring you presents? Confusing for me, let alone a five year old. I stumbled around then went with, "I think it means you shouldn't cry like whining crying." We decided that was legit and reasonable.

On the subject of Kiefer's holiday music stylings, I must give a nod to his creative mash-up of Deck the Halls (Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la) and Lady Gaga's "Rah-rah-oh-la-la Roma-roma-ma" lyrics. It was awesome. It only happened once and I couldn't recreate it if I tried. I overlooked how bizarre (and I'm sure WRONG**) it was in lieu of the the fact that it was incredibly creative. Watch for Kief on Broadway someday.

**I know, I know...Gaga? Lame disclosure/excuse: He learned the Glee cover of Bad Romance from Glee: The Music, Volume 3 Showstoppers. I have a small addiction to everything show choir.