Christmas time is here

Tonight the two big kids and I went to the Messiah singalong at the DC stake center. I brought them with me last year too, and they did great both times. They each had their own music book and followed along as best they could. We sat in the front row, and they studied all the instruments and pretended to play the violin or trumpet about half the time. They also went through two rolls of Life Savers during the performance, which I'm sure helped a lot.

I love love love the Messiah. Nothing says Christmas like it. The baritone who sang tonight was awesome and totally killed it on "The Trumpet Shall Sound." Gave me chills.

Afterward, we made an impromptu visit to the temple grounds, which are adjacent to the stake center, to see the lights. The kids hadn't brought coats, so they bundled up in a blanket I keep in my trunk.

And then they took a little ride on the camel.

There's a concept I identify with about happiness which I always understood to be true but first saw expressed in Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. Basically, sometimes (or a lot of times) you have to do things you don't want to do, in order to be happier. I really wanted to go tonight because I love the Messiah so much, and I want my kids to love it, and I'd been planning it for awhile. However, it was a long day and I was so tired, and it's 40 minutes away, and it gets dark at 5 pm, and the thought of putting on my PJs and watching TV instead was so tempting, so I thought about not going. 

In the end of course we went, and that was a way better choice than staying home because we all had fun and felt happier for going. Either way would have been fine, but pushing myself out the door was what I needed to do. That feels like the story of my life sometimes! #introvertproblems 

Now it feels like Christmas is really here!