THIS CHRISTMAS SHE GAVE US HER HEART

Stella's Christmas performance this year was by far my favorite of all time. I loved the songs. I loved the costumes. I loved that she is now old enough to be in a group that performs more songs and I can see her the whole time. The songs that she sang this year are what I like to call the Christmas classics: "Santa Baby," "All I Want for Christmas Is You," "Hey Santa," and my personal favorite, "Last Christmas."
       
Stella's solo was at the beginning of "Last Christmas." She stood up there all alone looking beautiful, and then this adorable tiny girl with the voice of an angel would begin to sing her momma's favorite holiday song. It made me cry every single time.

Other highlights were how dang cute the costumes were and how absolutely darling all of the girls looked wearing them together on stage.  Also, Stella is the shortest, and thankfully for her teacher clearly one of the best, so she's front and center most of the time. And in my humble opinion, that is where she belongs.

For Stella's first performance at Trolley Square, we were honored to have a great group of fans: Grammie, Papa, Ashley, Ava, and Finn, along with Grandpa Sallay, Kathy, Mark, and baby Louise. After the show we made it upstairs for our Trolley Square tradition of going to the Spaghetti Factory. It was a totally fun night with family.

I wish Stella had more shows this season, because I really could not get enough of them. Her last show before the final recital was at Valley Fair Mall. We had a huge turnout of fans at that show. Tyler, Courtney, Porter, and Lottie. All of the Douglas crew, Lindsey and Asher, Beth, and Grandma Sallay. After the show we all went to dinner at Cafe Rio. It was super fun.

I always like to take some cute pictures of Stella in her costume. I didn't want to just take them in front of the house so we went up to a little shopping center that is close to our house. It was the perfect spot, but the only trouble is that it was absolutely freezing that day. I mean SO COLD. I tried to give Stella a pep talk, and she rallied as much as she could, but it was almost impossible. I could barely move my finger to push the shutter button, so I knew it was too cold. Still, I was mean and made her pose longer than she wanted. Once she started full-on crying I finally said we had had enough. You'll see though that the pictures are cute.

That night was the final show and it was the first time I watched it without taking pictures or making videos. I just sat in my seat, totally stunned as my little girl's beautiful voice filled a full auditorium. She was a star that night and not just to me. Apparently Ava didn't stop talking about how amazing Stella was for days.  I'm so proud of my little girl, and so thankful we have her taking dance from such an amazing place.