An interesting day at church

I mentioned when I wrote on Friday that I went to my sister's house in Logan this weekend to see my nieces' dance recital. I had a lovely weekend, and as always, it was great to spend time with my sister and her family. I also surprisingly enjoyed watching winter descend, in the form of a bad snowstorm on Saturday, which might distress me normally because I hate driving in the snow, but this time I quite enjoyed it (probably because aside from a trip to the gas station to fill up my car, I didn't have to drive anywhere until today).

Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. What I'm leading up to with all of this is that I went to church with my sister today. I was struck with just how different a family ward is from a singles ward, and since I think this will make an amusing post, I'm going to write about it. First of all, there was the little drama with my niece. The five of us (my sister and her husband, myself and the three kids) were arranged in the bench. My nephew was originally sitting next to me, but his 6-year-old sister wanted to sit by me so badly that he was finally persuaded to trade her places. She was having a grand time until she started singing a song during the Sacrament, and I told her she couldn't sing because it wasn't reverent.

She was mad enough at me that she traded places with her brother so she could sit next to her mom again, giving me the "I can't believe how mean you are" look. Oh well, that's what I get for being such a strict aunt. Imagine telling her not to sing during the Sacrament of all times!! Later she forgave me and sat by me again after the Primary children sang until she and my nephew got a little too rowdy (which I'm ashamed to admit was kind of my fault because I was playing find the ring with them, where I put one of my rings in my hands and hide it and they have to figure out which hand it's in) and their dad had me sit between them.

Today was the ward Christmas program. The first number was the Primary children singing a couple songs. My sister is the Primary chorister so she has been working hard to teach the kids the songs they were singing for the program. (In fact, the song my niece was mad that I told her not to sing was one of the songs the children were performing.) The number would have been cute and rather uneventful except that during the second song, this little boy saw his sister up there singing and decided he wanted to go say hi. He escaped from his mother and walked over so he was standing right underneath, waving at his sister. She was singing so she didn't really look at him. Finally he got bored, so he grabbed the ends of the little podium thing and started hanging from it. There was a ripple of laughter throughout the congregation, until the boy's mom finally recaptured him and brought him back to the bench.

Don't worry--his antics weren't over yet. Both his parents sang in the ward choir so when it came time for them to perform, he was up on the stand with his mom. He escaped again (I don't really blame his mom because my sister told me that he's pretty much a busy little boy) and came over to the chairs at the front. At first he was just standing behind it and then he started trying to climb over it. His mother had to leave the choir to come over and bring him back to where she is. I felt bad for her.

The adventures didn't end after Sacrament meeting. Since my sister is in Primary and my brother in law is the executive secretary and it's kind of weird to go to RS and Sunday School by myself, I usually just go to Primary, which is a fun change. To help the Nursery kids transition into Primary, they are having them come for music time for the next couple weeks. My 3-year-old niece is in that class. Of course since her mom is the chorister, she felt the need to be her shadow and then while my sister was trying to teach the kids to lead music, which was the activity she chose for the day, she grabbed her mom's arm and was wrapping it around her. It looked mighty difficult and distracting for my sister to be teaching with that going on, so I walked up to the front of the Primary room and picked her up so she could come sit by me. She can be quite a handful because she's such a smart little girl, but she's so cute that you can't resist having your heart melted when you're around her. It was interesting trying to entertain her, but she is pretty well behaved for the most part.

I went with my sister to do music with the Nursery kids. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be participating in the song (a.e. standing up and spinning around) but I was anyway. I must be the interesting new commodity because all the little kids were watching me, which I just found funny/cute. Plus, let's be honest, it's just amusing to be around a group of kids all age 3 or under. I went back into Primary for my sister's music time with the Senior Primary. Nothing really eventful happened, except I have to wonder why it is that boys find such fascination and need to balance their chairs on only two legs (which the class sitting directly in front of me did in both the junior and senior primaries). The boys used to do this in Primary when I was growing up, and I've witnessed for myself that the trend continues. If anybody has any suggestions for why this phenomenon is, please let me into the secret!

I don't mean to poke fun at the family ward or to say that it's inherently irreverent or anything. I just sometimes find it to be such an interesting contrast to the silence of a singles ward. Although you sometimes hear an interesting talk here or there, generally speaking the most eventful thing in my normal ward is a random comment in Sunday School. However, when you bring small children into the mix, things can often spin in a new direction.