Its beginning to look a lot like....Christmas?

Well, on the inside maybe.

Christmas lights are going up....Christmas tree lots are bustling....the work Christmas party is tomorrow....and still no snow.

I must say as lovely as I think the white stuff is, it has been heaven to drive around in relative safety...and often without the aid of a winter jacket!

The Christmas spirit is certainly alive and was kicking pretty darn hard last night at the Scera theater. My friend's youngest daughter was performing in the Youth Theatre's Annual Christmas Revue (the 7th annual to be exact). It was over 300 kids ranging from preschoolers through 12th grade performing Christmas tunes with a lot of dance thrown in as well.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I arrived to pick up my Will-Call ticket...certainly not the huge line of parents and friends hoping to get tickets to the performance (which ended up selling out for both shows). I finally found my seat with plenty of time to spare, settled in and made small talk with the grandmother next to me who was digging out her camera and hoping her batteries would last. Finally the lights dimmed, the curtains opened and the show began.

Admittedly I enjoyed the first number's ballet dancing but was wincing at some of the wildly-off notes the singer was trying to hit...but you got to give him an A for effort because that kid was singing his little heart out. Then a few medley numbers, one tear-jerker, an absolutely adorable bunch of preschoolers who not only knew their song but were belting it out and nailing the little dance choreographed for them....in fact I was even more impressed with the pint-sized bunch when they were followed by a group of gals who had no clue what move to make and were vainly trying to follow the person dancing next to them.

There were some amazing numbers....the teen swing dancing drew some gasps, and the "Baby its cold outside" number had people laughing and whooping at the antics of the two teens singing the tune. The show closed with an incredible finale that managed to pack all of the kids back on the stage by the end....I was surprised at the end of the show to see that an hour-and-a-half had gone by!

I walked out of the theater with my friend's daughter in tow (I was taking her home since her mom couldn't be there for both performances) but it was with a different mood than when I came in. Before I wasn't really thinking about Christmas at all (in fact, being the typical Shawna that I am, I really hadn't wanted to attend the concert in the first place but a promise is a promise).

I'd been so busy with all of the little things that I hadn't really given Christmas much of a thought. I left uplifted and happy that I had gone, and feeling a little more charitable in my heart. Nothing major, but the mood has stayed with me today as well....there may be no snow on the ground, but there is certainly a feeling of Christmas in my heart.