NOT Play Christmas Eve?!?!?

Lovey is big on performing and loves being on the stage and entertaining the masses. It's the practicing that she doesn't much care for! When the minister phoned last week to ask if Sweetie would play again on Christmas Eve, I told her it was actually Lovey that played violin and that she hadn't prepared anything and wouldn't be able to do it this year. It was only a few days away and we weren't interested in fighting with her to get ready! Yesterday, two days before Christmas Eve, she and her sisters were discussing what her piece would be for the candlelight service. Bracing myself for the impending meltdown, I let her know we'd already told the minister she didn't have anything ready and wouldn't be playing. Cue the drama....

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?!?!?!?" she exclaimed.

Murray backed me up and asked what she'd thought she could possibly play when she hadn't practiced anything at all!?!?? She indignantly marched over and got out her stand, the violin and rummaged around frantically for the book of Christmas violin music. She confidently began to play her first choice. It bombed. She could only get the first couple lines before running into trouble. No problem, 2nd selection annnnnd pfffffffffft. No dice. She youtubed it, tried a couple different versions but couldn't get it to work. We left her to her own devices and she sorted herself out and finally found a piece she could get through without too much trouble. Holly Jolly Christmas was her final selection and she asked how we'd rate it on a scale of 1-10. I gave her a 3. Murray was about the same. "THREE!?!?!??!" she squealed.

"I'm not even asking the church unless you can make it a 10!" I told her.

She played it again and wanted to know how I'd rate the most recent effort. I asked if she was sure it was ready to present for a final mark or if she thought she should work some more. She stomped back to the living room, stopping to ask for ratings after every run through. It still had some errors and Murray told her we wouldn't consider letting her do it unless she could play it without a single mistake or hesitation five times in a row. "arrrghhhhh!" was her reply on her way out of the kitchen.

She must have spent almost an hour on that one song. She would get one perfect, then a second good run through and... glitch! Back to the start. 1, 2, 3, oops! Her desire to play was so strong that she didn't once complain about working on it over and over. She would groan when she had 4 good ones and then slip up in the 5th and have to start over but it was impressive  to see  her determination. Come hell or high water she was getting herself ready to play Christmas Eve! Finally she got 5 in a row and I had to ask the minister if she could be squeezed into the service after all. We didn't tell her we'd already asked and told her she'd have to give us 5 good practices in a row every day, including Christmas Eve day! She seems ok with it so far!