Sunday, December 16, 2012

Nutcracker, 2012

Clara with "Clara" , "Franz", and a Snow Fairy
My little girl and I made our second annual trip to the Nutcracker yesterday. I love live theater and I am thoroughly enjoying fostering this love in Clara. The community theater in Elizabethtown is the perfect place to start. The Nutcracker performed by local dance groups and "Clara's Tea Party" just before the show are a highlight of our holiday season.

Clara just loves the tea party. She can meet and talk to the dancers and take pictures with them. There was such a difference  in her personality from last year. Last year she wouldn't approach any of the dancers on her own, but desperately wanted to take pictures with them like the other girls were. This year, she could have cared less about eating; she only wanted to go talk to all the dancers and take picture, after picture, after picture, with them all! She confidently approached them, introduced herself, asked questions, and posed beautifully. I was so proud of her.

Me and my girl
As I expected, she was enthralled with the performance. I loved watching her sitting on the edge of her seat with an ear to ear smile on her face. I absolutely love taking her to shows. Now that she's getting bigger and understanding that she needs to be quiet and sit still, we'll start finding more shows to go to together. It will be fun to explore the local theaters in North Carolina when we move there.




Monday, December 10, 2012

Christmas Cookies with Cousins

The yummy, over-decorated delicious
cookies of childhood
One of my favorite family traditions since we've been in Kentucky has been Christmas cookie baking with the Sandersons. Knowing that this is our last year doing it makes me pretty sad. It has been wonderful having family so close. The memories and time spent together these past three years have been great. Whether we were having sleepovers, watching each other's sick kids, babysitting for a date night, having dinner together, hanging out, or baking cookies, I have loved every minute of it. Michelle was there to help me adjust to baby number two and cope with deployment number two. She was always there and I knew I could count on her, no matter what. I'm gonna miss her so much. Well, back to the baking...

Nick, Colton, Scott, Clara, & Hailey cutting out cookies
Colton, Hailey, Michelle, Clara & Nick hard a work decorating
Colton, Daddy, & Clara icing the cookies