Ah, the ballet. During this time of year, my head spins with beautiful ballerinas and my mood is lifted by listening to one of my favorite classical suites - The Nutcracker. We knew our kids were too little to take to the ballet, so last year we got the storybook and NYC Ballet's version on DVD to see if they enjoyed the story and the dancing. I thought for sure they'd be bored with the "movie" version but to my surprise, they loved it! Several times throughout the year we have watched it, and when they unwrapped the book again this year in their stack of advent books - it was sheer delight at remembrance of the magical story. We almost took them this year. I found a ballet school production that was only 1.5 hours long - about half the time as the traditional ballet when performed by a professional company. I think Sawyer would have been able to sit through it, and be excited about it without a problem. Aspen gets a little more wiggly though, so I thought maybe better to wait a bit longer. And Hazel, well, you just never know with a baby. BUT I feared if I just took Sawyer, that Aspen would be utterly heartbroken if she didn't get to go, so we put it off for another year. Next year will be the golden ticket to the ballet.
This year, to have fun with it, I had this bright idea of putting on a little performance ourselves. I made each child a tutu and some themed masks (Sawyer wanted a black one and after I went to the trouble of making it he decided he didn't want to wear it, imagine that - but I bribed him with a candy cane, and now I have some video of him that is priceless!) I got the idea for the masks from an etsy shop - no wonder they were expensive, while the supplies are inexpensive, it took me all day to make those masks! But they turned out rather darling, I must admit. Especially on my little ones!
Side note: Aspen's best girlfriend, Ruby, sent her a package in the mail a couple of months back. It was so sweet and Aspen was overjoyed. Besides some other fun stuff, Ruby sent Aspen this ballerina necklace. Her mom said she picked it out just for Aspen. Ruby knows that Aspen loves ballerinas. It's such a sweet little reminder of her special girlfriend. She wears it all the time. It has surprised me how much she misses her dear little friend. I thought she was young enough that most of her memories of people in Seattle would fade rather quickly, but that has not been the case at all. She still thinks about/talks about her "Ruby Duby" all the time. Sometimes when she's having a hard time going to sleep she will tell me that she misses Ruby. It makes me so sad. Anyway, thanks Ruby, for being a sweet friend to my Aspen Jane. And thank you for the ballerina necklace!
Without further ado, here are some of the cast in our family production of the Nutcracker...
Aspen - The Sugar Plum Fairy
Sawyer - The Mouse King
Hazel - Waltzing Flowers
The kids were excited all day long about doing our performance the other evening. We tried on costumes and I even dug out my old leotard, tights, and bloch slippers and squeeeezed my way into them. We practiced and had so much fun. We watched the NYC ballet version during the day and listened to Tchaikovsky all afternoon. To add to the festive and happy mood, I made egg nog french toast for dinner...everything was sparkly and shiny with all the Christmas lights and tulle around. I think Jacob was slightly shocked surprised when he walked in the door from work and there was his wife and children all dressed like ballerinas. He was a good sport and joined in the fun - he's pretty awesome like that. To add to the drama, Aspen fell asleep at the dinner table! We let her take a cat nap and then woke her up for the big production. It wasn't as seamless as I'd envisioned - I would probably describe it as more "interpretive dance" than an especially graceful ballet, but it was fun nonetheless and that's all I was hoping for. I caught a few glimpses on video and put together a little souvenir of our show. It's a very condensed version of our evening performance - so if your littles are too little to sit through the ballet, feel free to show our version (it's barely over two minutes long). Please laugh freely at our silly family and don't hesitate to ENJOY THE SHOW! *and don't you doubt that one day Aspen and Hazel will grace the stage...gracefully! (if they're interested, of course;)
Family Nutcracker 2012 from Tysha on Vimeo.
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