My Son's Class Had Their Christmas Program Yesterday

The kids did a production of Frosty the Showman. There were several songs, and a few kids with speaking parts. One little girl dressed in more adult clothes, sat in a rocker, and "read" her lines from a storybook. (It was pretty obvious that she had her part well memorized, because she rarely looked at the book.) Raven's buddy Connor was Frosty, wearing a costume which tied on like an apron. He got a bit warm during the performance, but he was great in his cute little costume! There were several songs during the performance, with those choreographed hand movements which are traditional in kids' musical performances. The kids were all really adorable, watching the teacher to help them remember what to do as they sang with great enthusiasm (and some, including Raven, with great concentration, LOL!)
Watching them come in, I thought at first that this was a multi-class performance. Raven is 9 years old and in the 3rd grade. He will turn 10 in February. I am 5'9" and last summer at my cousin's wedding, I discovered that my "baby" is able to lay his head on the front of my shoulder while standing next to me. O.o The first kids who came into the gymnasium yesterday were about the size Raven was when he was in Kindergarten. I keep forgetting that some kids start early and he has some 8 year olds in his class (including some who just turned 8), not to mention the fact that he is one of the 6 biggest kids in his 60-something kid grade. :P Some of his classmates are only tall enough to reach his chest. Needless to say, Raven is one of the kids in the back row of the risers.
As soon as he saw his dad and me sitting in the 2nd row he smiled. I caught him walking in before he saw us, though, and got him just being Raven. That pic was badly backlit, so it's got some noise, but the pic still shows him looking relaxed. You wouldn't know he was going up on stage.
He really sang his heart out up there. It was so cute watching him. We got a kind of preview a couple of days ago as he practiced the songs at home, but singing with his class, he put a lot more energy into it. Though he loves to be in the spotlight, and has a habit of "performing" for friends and family, it didn't seem to bother him a bit that he was in the chorus rather than in a speaking part. As Brian said yesterday, I can totally see him getting involved in Drama club in middle and high school... and as I said to Brian, we'll find a way to make time and come up with the money for whatever he wants to do.
Knowing that he is also interested in sports, particularly football and baseball, and in photography and writing, I figure if his interests stay the same I might be an even busier mom in the future than I am now, LOL!
I got pictures of the performance, of course, though they are not my best. :P The school's lighting wasn't bad... I was able to keep my ISO down to 1200 and still get pretty fast shutter speeds. We got there nearly an hour early and the front row was still all ready taken, LOL! Our school has some really enthusiastic parents, and a lot of really good kids. ^_^ I forgot to take my 80-200 f2.8 with me, though, so I had to shoot with a wider angle lens than I should have used from that far back, and I got the heads of the people in front of me in several photos. I shot on fine instead of jpeg quality, but I think you can still tell the photos had to be cropped.
The photos are in my album, Raven's 2008 Class Musical.