Last night was the kid's Christmas musical at our church. Before the service several kids got up and either played the piano or sang. We have some wonderful talent in our church and all of the kids did a great job.

Evan has been taking piano lessons for about 15 months and this was his first time to play in public. To be honest, we had been a little concerned that he would end up getting cold feet. When his teacher told him that he would be playing that evening he came home and told us that he wasn't going to do it.

Now I can totally relate to him not wanting to do it. I used to play the piano in public quite frequently. I used to accompany the chorus in school and also play along with the orchestra. I played for the youth choir at church, the preschool Sunday School class, and along with my Dad when he sang solos at church. I also played solos once in awhile. Now when you are playing along with a big group it is not really all that bad because you don't stand out too much, but playing alone can be quite frightening. I used to get nervous and no matter how well I played at home I seemed to get so worked up about it that I wouldn't do as well in public.

Evan, however, didn't seem overly nervous and he did a great job. I know he is my son and all and I have a biased opinion, but he truly has a gift for music. He has great rhythm and picked up reading music very quickly. Even his teacher says so. I was just so proud of him for doing his best and trying something that he was afraid of. Way to go Evan!