Laughing with, not at

Tonight my dear mother tricked me into going to what I thought was a performance but turned out to be a rehearsal of my niece (and others) playing cello.

The hardest part was not falling asleep, but rather not bursting out laughing at wrong notes.

Now I know this is wrong, Sister Krista knows it's wrong, and mommie dearest knows it's wrong.

But we sat there silently chewing knuckles, lips and anything else we could find to stifle a guffaw. It was awful. Not all the little girls hit wrong notes, but sometimes when they missed it, it was by miles. Painful.

Here we are giving it a shot:


Here is Krista and mother trying their best not to lose it:



And lastly my niece Kashi about to play. Few bung notes, but nothing that made my eyes water like some of the other performances:


After it was over I said "I haven't cried like that since Dad's funeral..."