Christmas Piano Recital: Nikon MOM Captures Memories #NikonMOMents

Over the course of the next 7 months follow hash-tag #NikonMOMents for social shares from the Nikon MOMents team. Each of us will be posting five personal events where we will capture our memories at the heart of the image! This is my second NikonMOMents event from my five part series.

1. Read my first Nikon Mom post here: Family Camping

The last few years we started a new tradition in our December line-up. This tradition is one that give me pure pride as a mother and one we prepare for well into the fall. This tradition is one that brings our family together in a local church to enjoy the beauty in music put on by 10 little fingers from local girls and boys who work hard round the clock to prepare. The skills the child learn leading up to the day boosts their self-esteem provides them with discipline and patience, followed by a much longer list such as hand and eye coordination etc…

Mr L (6) has sat on the side lines the past few years watching his big sister click the plastic keys on our keyboard. This year we added a new piano pedagogues to the family. Before his first lesson he already taught himself a few songs with the help from his big sister. He is a natural when it comes to carrying a beat and playing by ear – not sure where he got that from?

The day started bright and early as we ran around the house getting all four kids dressed and ready for the big show. Mommy had her list of “don’t forget” including my Nikon D3300 which was charged and ready to grab. Although there were many moments in our morning madness I wasn’t sure we would be able to beat the clock in, but we did it!

Once we got the truck the kids went silent and you could tell nervous kicked into high gear. Both Mr L (6) and Miss C (8) studied their music books reading the notes to the two songs there practiced daily for months.

There was a moment Mr L went up to daddy when we arrived and he said “daddy I am so nervous.” It is moments like this as a parent you get to see your little person forming from a little kids to a big kid. They have fears, worries and get nervous just like we do and guiding them through those strong emotions is our jobs as parents.

My biggest goal when we arrived was to grab a pew up nice and close to the front. To my luck, my pray was answered and we got to sit right in front of the beautiful baby grand piano they would be playing on.

This year our piano teacher ran two classes and a new location for the performance, which was a much smaller church and in my opinion it would be less nerve wracking for the kids. However the look on Miss C’s face says otherwise.

Each child had two songs they learnt over the course of the last few months, first up was Miss C she played one of mommy and daddy’s favourite songs “Amazing Grace”.

She did amazing her performace was flawless. Miss C didn’t give any emotion when she was finished she raceed back to her seat. Next up was Mr L playing “Jungle Bells”.

His focus was strong and he nailed each note with grace. There was not a single sign of worry or nervous that took place one his fingers touched the ivory key just a tone we all recognized and smiled along with.  The expression when he was done was priceless and this is my favourite picture. It gave me a few welting tears of pride when I seen how happy he was in this moment.

A smile as wide and rare as that above reminds me that although practicing takes hard work and discipline it pays off when you can feel this great about your accomplishment.

This year our music teacher added a few games to the piano recital, which were a lot of fun for the whole family to take part in.

In the picture below we were one of three groups who had one minute to wrap Miss C up for Christmas. Now since I didn’t get permission to use other children in my pictures I did feel obligated to crop them out of this one. The photographer here obviously wasn’t me since I am in the picture, it was daddy.

We are already into the piano recital about 45 minutes and for two little kids sitting in a pew for that long brings out the restlessness. Typically mommy has many tricks in my bag but this time around I wasn’t as prepared as I hoped to be. Thank goodness for a great app for our Kindergartener to enjoy.

We needed to do a little seat shuffle with Little O (3) but for the most part he did amazing for the high expectation we put into place for the morning.  

Our two piano pedagogues sat quietly in the pew behind me studying from their music books. I find it absolutely adorable that they can carry on between them like this during break time.

First up after break was Miss C playing “Here comes Santa Claus”.

Next up Mr L playing the Indian song. Now their is some background to this song for our little man. He taught himself this song by ear before even starting lessons, this song is taught towards the end of the second book. Which means there were many steps in-between he had to accomplish to fully play it. With a lot of hard work he accomplished his goal in a short two months. He dreamed of playing this song at the Piano Recital and he did it. I was so proud of this moment.

When each child performed two songs and all the games where played we got to enjoy some treats. By this time we needed to extract the two little guys they had energy to burn and now we added sugar to the chaos. They look so calm is this picture but with the Nikon D3300 is takes a split second to click a picture and the story after I will leave to your imagination.

For me I really wanted a prefect family shot in front of the gorgeous Christmas tree but in life we need to accept that things don’t always turn out the way you see as perfect. Daddy took the boys to the truck and I captured this amazing picture of my two piano pedagogues. By the smiles on their face this days was a success and perfect in every way.

I feel very blessed that we have had the opportunity to share music with our children and share this new tradition with you.

I am five months into my Nikon Mom campaign and I have to say I still in love with my Nikon D3300. Since the season’s have changed I am noticing the huge difference in the lack of light when using my DSLR in doors. I did struggle with lighting in these pictures, they don’t have the same glow that I felt they did when shooting outdoors in the summer light. I feel like I personally need to do a little more training to continue to get the best from my Nikon in different environments and lighting. Please keep in mind this is the first time every for me owning a DLSR and although we learn so much during our training day we could never of learnt all the ins and outs of a DLSR in a partial day. I will be making it a goal of mine in the New Year to take an on-line course and sharpen my photography skills.

Learn and explore with me through Nikon’s Learn & Explore series and tag with #NikonMOMents 

Where did the last memory you captured on your camera take place?

Thank you for reading In R Dream! 

“Disclosure: I am part of the Mom Central Canada Nikon MOMents team
and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.”