The Nutcracker 2014

Kayla's ballet studio puts on a semi-professional performance of The Nutcracker each December.  She is too small yet to dance in it, but I wanted to take her to see her very first ballet.  The problem, of course, was that my due date was December 16th and the performances were on the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th.  I took a gamble, and bought tickets for the 20th.  I had a range of possible scenarios for how it would all play out.

The best case scenario was that I would have the baby early enough and be feeling good enough to take Kayla for a little Mommy/daughter date (we hope that perhaps we can make this a tradition in the future; Mommy taking the girls 5 and older to The Nutcracker).  Next best scenario for this year was that Chris could take her.  And worst case was that my godfather's wife could take her if Chris and I were at the hospital because I was in labor.

We were fortunate enough to have the best case scenario this time around.  I had little Sophie on Dec. 13th and was feeling just fine a week later when it was time to use those tickets I'd purchased.  So I took Kayla (and Sophie) and we went to our very first Nutcracker performance.  I'd never been either, so we got to experience this first together.

Take 1 on Chris' phone camera

We got all dressed up and headed out.  I thoroughly embarrassed myself getting totally lost on the local community college campus, so we were a few minutes late, but were easily able to stand in the wings and still watch and then sneak quickly to our seats between dance numbers.

Take 2 on our other camera--yep, we are still excited!

An older gentleman sitting next to us struck up a conversation with Kayla during the intermission.  He was probably not expecting to find out that there were not just two little girls in her family, but 4!  But he had raised 4 daughters, so he was pleased as punch to talk all about the joys of little girls.  He kept asking Kayla if she'd like to dance in The Nutcracker someday and she would just look at him with her biggest smile and her eyes shining brightly at the very thought.  

Sophie was the perfect angel and slept through the entire performance.  Kayla, on the other hand, sat on the edge of her seat and waved her hands and "danced" in her seat to the upbeat, exciting music.  It is a fairly small theatre, and we were in the back row in the middle which was perfect.  She could do her thing without worry of bothering or distracting anyone else.  We;d read several book versions of The Nutcracker prior to attending the ballet, so she already knew the basic story line, but she thrilled at all the beautiful costumes, fancy dance steps, and elegant ballerinas.  

A lady a few seats down insisted on taking our picture during intermission, probably partly because she could see the excitement on Kayla's face and partly because she was so amazed that Sophie was only one week old attending her first ballet.  

We made some beautiful memories together, and I am so thankful that God gave us the best case scenario.  :)