Nutcracker Girls

Last year I thought maybe the girls would only take ballet for that one year. But finally we decided to do one more. (And perhaps that will stretch into one more. Who knows. I can't, just can't, plan more than a year ahead!) So that meant they got to perform in the Nutcracker again, which is the loveliest Christmas thing…except for all the extra rehearsals and having to drive them back and forth at night and in the snow and through the constant never-ending construction. And because they all had more than one part this year, those extra rehearsals multiplied even more until I was wondering what on EARTH we were thinking when we settled on this schedule.

But then…they are so happy when they get to try on their costumes. And wear make-up! And sit backstage and play games. And it's so lovely to watch them and hear that familiar music…so I guess maybe it's worth it after all.

Junie told me "It's so hard to smile with lipstick on! It feels so weird and I just can't get my lips to do the right thing around my teeth." I empathized…I hardly ever wear lipstick myself for similar reasons. And their teachers insisted that they all wear the very reddest red we could find. But they looked darling, anyway, funny smiles or not!

Dancing with her doll

Junie was the Soldier Captain and Goldie was a Soldier this year, along with being Party Girls. Junie was quite pleased she got to wear "the fanciest hat" of all the soldier hats. She was worried about being able to look serious enough (poor girl! First not able to smile properly, then worried she wouldn't…NOT smile properly!) but I think she did quite well here, don't you?

They want me to note that in the real performance, they did NOT have their curls down like this, but pulled their hair up into buns, of course!

Daisy had four parts this year…Party Girl, Party Boy (in the other cast), Chinese Dancer, and Snow Sprite. She worked hard to learn all those different dances! I liked the Snow Sprite costume best.

I didn't get to go to the dress rehearsal this time, and they don't want you to take pictures during the performance, so I don't have any pictures of their beautiful dancing, but it really was lovely. I love the Nutcracker! Seb was reluctant about having to go watch it again when he'd wanted to make plans with friends ("We already saw it last year!") but he did very kindly tell the girls afterwards that they had done a great job, so that was nice.

Poor Gus had the most awful fall on the way into the show. Teddy was carrying him piggyback and slipped on the ice, and Gus FLEW into the ground facefirst. (I was already inside and didn't see it, thankfully, but Sam did and it sounded horrible.) Teddy, of course, was even more upset than Gus (espeically after being yelled at by each sibling in turn for carelessness…I hate it when the kids pile on like that) and had to be comforted himself. I went out to the car to help put ointment on Gussie and I could hardly bear to see his chubby little happy face covered with blood! He took it quite well, and was cheerfully watching the ballet a few minutes later, but every time I looked over at him my stomach did flips. I thought for sure he'd be scarred and scabbed for several weeks, but by three days later you could hardly see the scrapes. It was amazing. I wish I could still heal like a two-year-old! At any rate, we were grateful it wasn't worse and we could all still mostly enjoy the performance! 

And we did manage some late-night hamburgers for the ravenous dancers afterwards! Which is sometimes the best part of the whole evening—that re-living and relief and talking-it-all-over time.