Tree Lighting Ceremony at Astor Hotel

November 29, 2012 –

The IST Children's Choir was invited to sing at the Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Astor Hotel in Tianjin.  Obviously we had to come check out the festivities- especially since Annika is in the choir! 🙂  Sadly, it was just Ava and me that could come as Mark was on a business trip to Shanghai that evening.  

Annika arrived by bus with all the choir kids a couple of hours before the evening program as the hotel also provided a nice dinner for them.  Nice!  Ava and I arrived just in time to grab a mug of gluehwein (for me) and a mug of hot chocolate from the fancy hot chocolate bar (for Ava).  The hotel also had several lovely treats and an excellent ham for noshing.  We got to mingle with the other IST parents that braved Tianjin traffic to come listen to their kids sing.  Ava had a blast hanging out with her friends.  At times it was difficult keeping track of her!!!

Finally!  It's time to listen to the IST Choir sing a variety of fun Christmas carols.

Josianne F. is the choir director- she's also the primary school librarian. She's an all-around amazing woman with many talents which becomes obvious when you hear these kids sing!

It was truly difficult getting any decent photos from this event as the room itself was dark and there were TONS of people with ENORMOUS cameras using their  blinding flashes.  It's any wonder that the kids could still see after that concert from all the flash photography!

Do you see Annika in the middle there?

The (elective) choir is comprised of students from grades 3, 4 and 5 from IST.  

Check out that ENORMOUS tree in the background! (it's fake)

The kids also sang "Jeremiah was a bullfrog"…

Ava and her friends raced around the tree. Apparently they got permission to take the candy canes off the tree. Or …at least I hope they did!!!!! I think she got a few too many but she did give half of her stash to her sister.

Ava also got to see one of Santa's helpers- he gave her a small bag of goodies.  

It's getting late and tomorrow is still a school day! Time to go! The choir kids also got to see Santa's helper (see him in the back?). Yay for Christmas!

What a way to start the Christmas Season off with a BIG BANG!

Thanks for a great evening!!!