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Elfis and The Sleigh Riders
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Neighbors | Sarah Foor .The stars of the first-grade Watson Christmas program, Elfis and his band The Sleigh Riders, looked like stars even in a pre-performance rehearsal. It's apparent, however, that the Sleigh Rider's keyboardist Aiden Verdinek (front) considers himself the star of the show.
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Watson first-graders watched as music teacher Debby Fabian (front) opened her thank-you gift from the first-grade teachers. The gift was a decorative guitar that played Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender."
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During their Dec. 8 performance, Elfis and his drummer and keyboard player rocked and rolled at the North Pole. They are Ryan Wayland (left) on bass, Aiden Verdinek on keyboards, and Nathan Pope as Elfis.
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With some advice from Santa Claus (left, Jacob Corll), Elfis and his band put aside their differences in favor of friendship and understanding each other. In front, Elfis (right, Nathan Pope) keeps the beat with his bassist Stanley(center, Ryan Wayland).
By SARAH FOOR
For many parents and grandparents attending Watson Elementary’s first-grade Christmas program on Dec. 8, the king was definitely in building.
But instead of Elvis, the audience received a performance from Elfis, a rock-and-roll elf with great dance moves and the same catch phrase of “thank you, thank you very much.”
Watson music teacher Debby Fabian was the driving force behind the holiday musical, but preferred to give credit to the first-graders.
“I was consistently amazed at how much my they could remember. We’ve been practicing since November, and they’ve had to learn song lyrics, dance moves and many had to memorize lines,” she shared.
The hard work of the first-graders paid off, as the story of Elfis and his sometimes-troubled band, The Sleigh Riders, played out. Elfis, played by Nathan Pope, formed the Sleigh Riders, but immediately ran into trouble when everyone wanted a solo.
Santa, played by third-grader Joshua Corll, shared that the spirit of Christmas was all about love and working together, and the Sleigh Riders successfully came back together to rock the North Pole.
After the performance, the first-grade students and teachers bought Fabian a Christmas gift — a decorative guitar that plays “Love Me Tender.”
“It’s perfect,” Fabian said of her gift.