Christmas at CAJ means concerts, parties and stunning dresses?

Christmas at CAJ (Christan Academy in Japan) means concerts. We've been to three in under two weeks. The final one was yesterday, the elementary school concert (grades K-5). In Australia the children would probably be in their school uniforms, but as the school doesn't have a uniform the children were asked to wear "nice" clothes. This meant the girls brought out their dresses. And there were some pretty amazing dresses.

Wisely most mums sent the dresses rather than the girls in the dresses, so they stayed intact for the concert. Before the concert they went out of their classrooms and got dressed. 

My 8 y.o.'s teacher told me later that when the girls in his class returned he couldn't stop looking. He said, "Their dresses are so beautiful."

Then he said, "I cannot decide which one is the most beautiful."

I think that in the end he decided on the dress worn by the girl on the right in the middle row of the first photo was the best!

The second photo is of the kindergarten and first grades. The thing that struck me the most was that our youngest is the only blonde in the whole group!

After school we attended another CAJ Christmas traditional event: the staff/board/PTA committee Christmas party minus children. Thankfully children were catered for this year. 

I do think that I need to get a new publicist - look at this dreadful photo! Only me, of course. My friends look just fine. The lady in black, Pam, is one of the few southern hemisphere friends I have at CAJ. We'll overlook it that she is from those islands to the east of Australia, we have more in common that we have in common with folk from that place on the other side of the Pacific. She understands what school uniforms are, calls cookies biscuits and knows the rules of netball. What more can I ask?

The lady in red, Mary, is the former teacher of my eldest son, who gave us such encouragement about ten days ago.

Now I only have one more class-based Christmas party to do (and run) and it is almost over. On Friday the children have a half-day and on Saturday we head to the mountains for six days for a much needed rest.