This was sometime last year with enough months to practice so that if we got good at the song, we could sing it for Mimi for Christmas. This particular song is a duet with both parts having some words the same but then diverging at other parts. The parts where the song diverges has one singer singing many words quickly while the other person sings measured words slowly. It's a tricky song to sing because if you listen to what the other person is singing, you can get tripped up and either forget your words or start singing their words.
My daughter was seven-and-a-half when we started practicing the song, named "Peggy O'Neil." I had been hoping for last Christmas and also hoping that our cousin/aunt Rebecca might be with us for Christmas at some point because it was my mother and her sister, Rebecca's mother, who had sung the song together when they were younger.
Rebecca and I heard them sing this song when we were young and we would practice singing it, trying to get the words and tune and timing together. I have very fond memories of my mother and Aunt Pat singing that song. I can picture them in my mind, standing beside each other singing the song for us as we listened with rapt attention.
Christmas came and my daughter and I weren't ready. My daughter had some interest, but not enough to put in the practice to get the song down well enough to sing together. She would forget after a lapse of time and we'd start back learning the song again.
Over this year we've practiced again every so often. My daughter has recently taken a leap in her singing skills in her ability to stay on key more consistently and to do that tricky bit of not hearing me sing while she sang her part.
We wanted to sing the song tonight because Mimi and Gramps were going back to the mountains and we didn't know when we'd see them again. She and I had been practicing and while she had her part down, I had to sing more quietly. She also had problems holding to the tempo. I had an idea of tapping her leg or arm while we sang to give her an anchor to hold on to. That helped a lot, but there was one part she still got hung up on right at the end. Still, we decided to do our song tonight and both do the best we could.
After dinner, we told Mimi and Gramps we had a performance and had everyone come into the living room. I told her I would stand by her and tap her shoulder with my arm around her. I was prepared to sing my faster words more softly but when we got started, I knew she had it. There was just this confidence in her voice. She may be one of those people who does better under pressure instead of collapsing under it.
She and I made it through the whole song and she didn't miss a word. I was so proud of her. The expression on Mimi's face of joy was something I wish she could have seen. Mimi came up and hugged us afterward, telling us it was a surprise she never would have expected. I wish Aunt Rebecca had been here, but we will just have to sing our song again for her when we next get to see her.
The Big Boy Tiny Girl Sugar Rush Dessert: After dinner, we invited my parents into the garage for dessert. They wondered what we were going to serve until we told them dessert was fresh cotton candy, courtesy of the Christmas present my daughter had gotten from us. We had purple (grape), Blue (blue raspberry) and pink (pink vanilla, whatever that is). Everyone loved it, including the dog. I loved it too, but I'll love it more when we can make it outside and I have less to clean up. Sugar does not discriminate where it goes when you're making cotton candy.
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