For at least three years, Gracie has asked for a violin for Christmas.  Each time, though, she could be persuaded to put something else at the top of her wish list.  Steve & I felt she was just too young to start playing the violin.  What do we know?  I’m sure there are kids out there who start playing at 18 months, but the truth of it is, I wasn’t ready to deal with lessons and practice and everything that entails.  So, we managed to convince her that Santa would rather bring her something else.

Until this year.  Thanks to a special that we saw on The Duggars on TLC.  Okay, I think I’ve said this before, but I should never let my children watch television.  One Saturday in November, Gracie was talking about how she wanted a violin.  Steve & I were telling her that she might need to wait until she was in the first grade before she got an instrument.  Then, there on the TV were the Duggar kids, all 12 million of them, playing the violin.  Even the little ones…the ones that are easily years younger than Gracie.  And Gracie looked at Steve & I and said, “See?  I’m old enough to play.”  And I looked at Steve and Steve looked at me and we knew our goose was cooked.  So, this year, wrapped in beautiful red paper, Santa left Gracie a new 1/4 size violin.  And she was over the moon.

The first few weeks of this year have been a little crazy (yeah, that’s the understatement of the week), so it’s taken me a while to find a place for her to take lessons.  But, thanks to some wonderful recommendations from friends, we found Gracie’s teacher.  After two lessons, I can tell you that we both love Ms. Cori.  I think these lessons are just what Gracie needs.  Kindergarten has been a little difficult for Gracie lately – I think she’s a little overwhelmed by the chaos of twenty kids with cabin fever all trying to learn their letters and numbers.  The quiet peacefulness of violin lessons at Ms. Cori’s house is the perfect contrast to that.  I can see contentment wash over Gracie as soon as we walk in the house. 

Gracie doesn’t really want to play the violin….she wants to play the fiddle.  She loves, loves, loves fiddling.  I’m not sure if it’s from watching Celtic woman or Pa on Little House on the Prairie, but she definitely prefers fiddle music to orchestra violin.  And she’s already told Ms Cori that and Ms Cori has agreed to help her learn to fiddle.

My girl has been doing pretty good in the practice department, too.  She’s done it most days without too much prodding.  Our biggest problem is that she gets mad at me when I try and play her violin – it’s like a strange temptation to me – I’ve always wanted to play and having a real live violin so close is just too hard for me to resist!  Gracie admonishes me, telling me that I’m not to touch her violin because I might drop it.  (Maybe I’ll have to get my own one day ).  I hope that she’ll continue to be excited about playing and practicing.  At this point, I’m pretty glad that Santa came through this year and brought Gracie her very own little violin.