So Long, Farewell, 2013!

31st December has always been a special day for my family. That's because it is my Dad's birthday. Yes! My father's birthday is actually on the last day of the year! He turns 64 on 31st December 2013, and we have much to be thankful for. He is healthy and well, and has been traveling for leisure (with my mum!) a lot in recent years, much to his and my mum's delight. He's a great grandfather to the kids, though my sister and I wonder how come the kids barely get a fraction of the scoldings from him that the two of us used to get... :p 

Now, for my sister, 31st December is a doubly special date. That's because, it is not only the date of her father's birthday, it is also the date of her father-in-law's birthday! Yes, how coincidental is that?! It's just the sort of thing you imagine a 17 year old telling a girl he's trying to ask to 'go stead' : "See, our fathers' birthday is on the same date! It's a sign from God! We're destined to be together! You must go stead with me!" hur hur hur... just kidding. I dunno whether my brother-in-law actually said that to my sister... maybe he did? :p

Blessed Grandpas celebrating their birthdays with their grandkids and family around them! :)

This year, my sister's parents-in-law invited my parents and us, to their home for a gathering together with their extended family. Yes, this is quite usual, and it often happens vice versa as well. Partly due to the fact that both the patriarchs' birthdays fall on the same day, and also because both our families enjoy having big extended family gatherings. So we actually know my brother-in-law's cousins, aunts and uncles, and they know us as well.

You know, as mentioned in this post quite a few months back, my sister and I love The Sound of Music. And it's always been a kind of dream or fantasy of ours, to make our kids sing and act out one or more of the songs in the musical, particularly So Long, Farewell! The twins have so far been a tad young, but this year, given the double celebration party, my sister thought of asking the kids to perform this song during the gathering. We managed to convince the kids to do it (they say they shy!?!?) and we even managed to squeeze in rehearsals in our busy busy December amidst the Kohs' traveling, and me fulfilling orders coming in for My First Games. 

Before we bring you Behind the Scenes, here is the live recording of the performance that took place before an audience of approximately 30 people :)

Thanks to the internet, we easily found the lyrics to the song, and there were even YouTube videos of the actual clip from the movie which we watched with the kids. The singing of the song was not a problem at all, even for the 3 year plus twins Asher & Shawna. But we had to improvise the positioning and dance steps as we were short of one child, and we had to plan for a highly probable contingency - that the twins would refuse to perform. As you can see from the video above, it was wise that we had planned for that. Asher came through beautifully on the actual day, even though he was the one who was acting up and refusing to perform during rehearsals prior to the actual day. Shawna, unfortunately, had a shorter than usual nap that day and hence she was throwing a silent tantrum on stage, resolutely refusing to perform. Rebecca, Isabelle, Natalie and Isaac all performed very well indeed . Here's a video of the kids in a rehearsal the day before the actual day - Shawna's fine in this one! :)

Very proud of the kids we are! So long, farewell, 2013! :)