Christmas ballet

You do realize that the Christmas Blogging Extravaganza was only beginning last week, right?  Now that Christmas Day has come and gone, I have two million pictures on my camera--and no place better to put them than here.

So, while my kids are busy with their new toys and the washing machine hums and Greg quietly recovers from a night of puking his guts out, my hope is to post nearly all two millions of those pictures.  Patience--this is for my family.

I begin with this super awesome video clip.  I recorded this precious minute and a half after our Christmas Eve feast.  Greg was doing the dishes, and the kids were getting ready for our Christmas Eve play of the Nativity.  Mary got dressed as Mary, and she picked out the costume herself.  Meanwhile, David (who hates costumes but was the idea man) is rushing around setting up the different locations for the play.  You can see a basket manger on the sofa, where Baby Jesus is waiting to be born, and surrounding the manger are various animals that may or may not have been in the stable that night.

As we're all listening to Christmas music and waiting for Daddy to finish the dishes, Mary decides to do a Mary ballet dance.  Mary is so serious that I had to record it.  Meanwhile, David has decided to build a bookstore next to the inn (the Christmas tree), so Mary and Joseph can stop buy some Christmas books on their way to the stable.  This little video so captures my kids' personalities--Mary's intensity (and the sweet kiss she stops to give Baby Jesus) and David's enthusiasm (and the nonstop talking).

I needed to record Mary's Mary ballet because I didn't get to record her dance class on Thursday.  Mary has a rather traditional dance instructor this year: proper dance attire at all times, hair pulled up tight, and no parents allowed.  Thursday was parent observation day--finally!  I was ready with my camera.  But just outside the dance studio, Mary declared that her tummy hurt too bad to dance.  So we went home, and you can guess how the rest of the night went.  Even though I didn't get to go to parent observation night, I still managed to get a video of my graceful girl!

In other Christmas ballet news, David's current obsession is The Nutcracker.  Who would have guessed?  David has a wonderful music teacher at school, and they have been studying The Nutcracker.  (David is a very excited learner.  And since there hasn't been much to get excited about in his classroom this year, I think he threw all of his enthusiasm into music class.)  They learned the story and are familiar with the music, and they watched different clips of it, comparing and contrasting.  The effect is that David knows the thing inside and out.  If you play a little part--any part--he can tell you which dance it is and what happens.  And he LOVES it!  

Simultaneously, Mary has been learning about The Nutcracker at school too.  They learned the story too, and at group time for the past couple of weeks they have been dancing to it.  Anna, Mary's teacher, has taught them how to dance to the different songs.  So Mary loves The Nutcracker too!

Christmas morning Mary danced to Tchaikovsky while David narrated each detail.  Then this morning we watched clips on YouTube.  And over second breakfast (yes, my kids are part Hobbit), we discussed important head-to-head match-ups like the Nutcracker versus Jar-Jar Banks (the Nutcracker) and the Rat King versus Obi-wan (Obi-wan).

For all of the preparing and planning that goes into creating a memorable, meaningful Christmas, sometimes the best parts are those that are completely unexpected--that organically, almost magically, appear.  Like a magical godfather and a carved wooden nutcracker.

Or my kids and their love for ballet this Christmas!