A Christmas for my children to remember

It all started when I casually checked with Rachel, "Do you want to perform in front of Daddy's friends during our Christmas party?"

Without hesitation, Rachel responded with an enthusiastic 'Yes!'.  It was a couple of months ago and I had helped by asking her violin teacher, Ms Koh, to let her practise a few songs so that she would be ready for Christmas Day.  I was hoping that these little performances will help her in terms of building up her confidence and adding up interest in learning the musical instrument.

As Felix and Kayleen did not have such 'talents', I had not considered them to be a part of the day's programme.  Preparation to make the events possible for Christmas Day commenced.  Yen and I set up the tree, and we got our darlings to decorate it.  While Rachel continued with her weekly lessons under Ms Koh's patient guidance, I invited my closest friends, thought about food and presents.  Yen joined me in the preparation whenever she could, but she was busy with work and was sometimes too tired to get things done.

About two weeks before Christmas, it took another nonchalant occasion to land Felix on board the performance bandwagon.  We did not have a lot of time to prepare an item, but since he had learnt how to recite 'Tang' dynasty poems in play-school, I seized the opportunity to get him to recite four short ones.  Seeing how enthusiastic they were to perform really brought a smile on my face.  It would be invaluable experience for them, I thought.

So the Christmas tree was put up, presents were secretly bought and wrapped, invites and reminders were sent via SMS a few times, food was forcibly bought (I bought food without Yen's agreeing to it - well, I had to kick-start the process lest we had no food for the dinner!)...

Finally, the big day came.  My a little more than a handful of best friends turned up with their partners and, some who had children, brought their young tots, streaming in a few at a time.  My brother, Eddie, and his wife, my mother, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, Jason, bolstered the number of people present.  We soon had an impressive number of people and partook in food while catching up on each others' lives.  Our children played with their new friends, Rayanne and Emma - daughters of my good friends.

After our last guests had arrived and settled, time of reckoning finally came.  Felix began with his recital of poems and his boyish charms brought smiles to our faces.  Nevermind about his inaccurate pronunciation in Mandarin!

Rachel started her medley of five short songs with a little stutter - she got a note wrong for the first song and was stuck momentarily.  However, egged on by Yen and claps from my friends, she restarted her performance and managed an impressive show until the end!

I had thought that that was the end of the performances until someone called for Kayleen to perform too.  Kayleen stood up and went to the front with a reluctant look, but much to our surprise, started moving her body while humming a tune!  She danced to the routine she had put up during her play-school's year-end performance!  It was impromptu and I guessed everyone was adequately entertained to have minded!

The children played somemore until our guests took their leave, a group at a time.  By the time the event ended, it was past their bedtime and they were tired out.  I was glad that my friends had arrived to met up, were supportive to form the crowd in the continual education of our precious gems, and our tots had a chance to make new friends and gained new experiences.

Snippet of Felix's recital and Rachel's full violin performance