In my own head I was not going to post anything new until the night before Christmas.  Then I went to the Devil’s holiday show.  We knew that nothing good could come from a show in which my boy was expected to perform.  For the last week we’ve been trying to mentally prepare the little grouch for today and we thought it was working.  “Devin, we can’t wait to see you sing and dance at the holiday show.”  “Devin, on Thursday Mommy and Daddy will watch you perform all the great songs you’ve learned.”  “Devin we can’t wait to see you sing and dance!”  Blah, blah, blah.  We thought he was ready.  Apparently you can never be ready to perform in front of a crowd of strangers when you’re my son. 

My wife and I are off this week, so we figured we’d bring him in late just for the party.  I actually asked the teacher if this was a good idea and she said it was fine.  Big mistake.  We walked in at 3:30 to find all the kids seated and ready to start the show.  For some reason my son is kind of popular and whenever he enters his class he’s greeted like Norm from Cheers by his classmates (“Devin!”).  This time it was his peeps and a bunch of parents.  Devin fell into his usual “I hate you all” mode and acted like he didn’t want to be there.  Maybe it’s shyness.  Only his favorite teacher was able to coax him into his chair on the makeshift stage with the others. 

Once my boy took his place he folded his arms and scowled at the crowd.  The show started.  The scowling continued.  The kids sang, most of them anyway (the ones not picking their noses, staring blankly at the ceiling, crying, etc.), and he kept busy by scowling.  Scowling.  Still scowling.  More scowling.  And even more scowling.  Then the kids started a holiday train of some kind with a dab of hip shaking, which made the boy crack a smile.  He’s ALIVE!  He sang the last three or four songs and even managed to look like he was having fun. 

This whole family man thing is bizarre, and on occasion disgustingly fun.      Â