The Nutcracker

I've been so excited to start the tradition of taking Caroline to see The Nutcracker. This is her first year to go, and I figure we have one or two more years before Charlotte will be old enough to go with us.

We went to a production by The Houston Repertoire Ballet at Tomball High School's auditorium. In the weeks leading up, I'd reserved as many nutcracker books from the library as I could find. I think we had six in all. One came with a CD that we listened to during some of our school time. We even got an Angelina Ballerina video about the nutcracker from the library as well.

One of Caroline's favorite things was the nutcracker that I bought for her at Target. He's asleep in her baby bed as I type.
Before the show, we had a special dinner of Chic-Fil-A and La Madeline. We even splurged on dessert.


Then it was off to the ballet. Caroline was pretty patient waiting for the show to start a few minutes late. She was very concerned that the curtains were still not opening during the overture.
We had stopped at a Walgreen's and selected a special treat for intermission... gummy lifesavers.
Here's our intermission interview:




Caroline's favorite part was the mice that came out of the fireplace. They came out and grabbed some pins out of pin cushion to fight the toy soldiers. She also commented about there being a "nutcracker that walked." She seemed a little disappointed that the snowflake fairies had long skirts instead of the short tutus with a snowflake design like one of her storybook illustrations. Her most common remark about the show was that it was funny. I don't know how something so beautiful can be funny, but she loves to laugh about all the parts of the show. Oh, except for the person she doesn't like... Fritz... because he doesn't share and breaks Clara's nutcracker (mommy likes to point out the object lesson in that one).

It was a lovely night and I'm looking forward to next year. Caroline already wants to go again this year.