Anya's First Communion

For those of you not paying attention at home, we decided to put Anya in a Catholic Grade School (Go St. Catherine's Tigers!), and as you would expect, they've been Catholigizing the kid.  Which is fine with us, we were both raised Catholic. Our theory has been that if she wanted to go through the sacraments with all her class mates, more power to her, and she has done so with gusto.  This year alone she's been baptized, received her first reconciliation, and now her first communion.  With out really being harassed by us at all, she did all of her first communion home work, learned all the songs and even attend several months of class with out us having to drag her kicking and screaming.

Anya with her God-Parents/Grand Parents Lynn and Steve. (The guy in the white behind them is Jesus)

Anya with her actual parents, with a side of Jesus

This is not Jesus, but Father Mark.  He's a great guy and really makes all of our Church goings-on very meaningful and downright enjoyable.  He's funny and fun, and very sincere.  We're lucky to have him.  He even shows a great deal of patience with our child (more on that later)

The Graduating Class.  

All the children got to play with real candles.  Which apparently is no longer common as they run the risk of lighting things on fire.  But Father Mark insisted they get real candles with real flames.  They all were nearly hypnotized by the fire, Anya went cross eyed.  The boy across the way (Warren)'s candle blew out and Anya crossed the isle and re-lit his candle.  Everyone went, "Awwwww", and Father Mark thanked her.  

Now I'm a pretty cynical and scientifically minded guy, but even I took note of this photo.  Even though I understand EXACTLY what happened here--that being that a flash went off 1/2 way through the photo registering on the photo sensor of my phone--I am totally amazed by this photo.  Right at the very moment of her getting her first communion, she is bathed in a beam of light.  That's pretty cool.  I sent this one to Father Mark. As I did with the next gem.  

I shall call this one: Anya wins first communion.  Along with a "Happy Birthday," card with  puppies on it, Anya's Great Grandmother Eileen decided to give her a chicken.  No it is not a real chicken, it is merely a decoration, but it's made of real chicken feathers, and looks real enough that Father Mark was very worried about what was about to transpire.  Take a close look at his face as he tries to comprehend what this crazy child is going to do to his church.  Anya ran up to the alter in a frenzy with the chicken in hand to which I stated, (none too quietly or calmly)  "Chickens do NOT belong on the alter!" Father Mark adamantly agreed that we were, "Not that sort of church". And so we once again narrowly avoided the church roof falling on our heads.  

In the end all was well.  There was a huge dance and Father Mark cut a rug with our kid.  

The chicken did make a final appearance before the night was over.  I do believe that this weird chicken decoration had a far better fate than anyone could have possibly imagined for it when it was being constructed with Styrofoam bailing wire and glue in some 3rd world country.  

Talent Show

Every year, the St. Catherine's 8th graders host a talent show. Anya decided she wanted to participate this time and show off her jump rope skills. She had about a month to practice her routine before the big day.

For me, the past month was an exercise in biting my tongue and stepping back.

Anya discovered a third grader jumping rope after school one day and the girls decided they would do the talent show together. Great. I emailed her mom and got permission for her daughter to stay after school some days and practice with Anya, since they asked me to. And then, nothing. The girls never practiced after school or during recess. I asked Anya from time to time how the planning was going and usually received a vague answer or that the other girl didn't want to practice (not that Anya was practicing much herself or ever really having much of a plan).  I tried to stay out of it as much as possible and let the girls run it, since this was their performance and not mine....but I was also kind of nervous for Anya to get up in front of the whole school with zero preparation. I recall dressing up as the lead singer and lip syncing to Def Leppard's "Love Bites" in 5th grade. It was pretty bad and I cringe every time I think of that memory.  Part of me wanted to spare my kid that same embarrassment, but another part wanted this to be a learning experience about the importance of preparation.

On the day before the event, I asked Anya if they had their music picked out, since it was due. She told me that they had decided that afternoon and it was taken care of. Great. But that evening I thought about it and wondered how Anya got her music to the teacher....she never asked me and barely spoke to her friend about it. So to be on the safe side, Chris burned the song to a CD. Good thing he did because Anya had no idea that you had to physically give the music (cd, ipod, phone) to anyone. As far as she's ever known, when she wants to hear a song it magically appears, thanks to the magic of the internet. So we got it to school just in time.

Anyway, here is Anya's talent show performance . The girls did fine. As it turns out, the bar wasn't set too high for the K-4 performances, so even if they did terribly, it would have been OK. The audience was quite supportive, so it was a terrific environment for kids to put themselves out there. Anya was thrilled with all of the compliments she received the rest of the day. I don't think she learned any lessons about preparing, even though she had a moment of regret the morning of the show. Mainly, she just had fun and that's a good lesson too. So there ya go.