December ballet, 1

Still bitter cold. Woke up to 1F (-17C) out there. And no, I don't think one degree is much of an improvement over yesterday. 

Well, this too shall pass. We'll be back to "normal December cold" next week. In the meantime, we are grateful for an exceptionally easy to heat farmhouse. It's over a century old, and you can't say that it's very well constructed, but the living room is at its core and the outer spaces -- once-porches turned into play spaces, keep that core insulated and snuggly warm. 

Speaking of warm, here's a photo of the tree, just before I went upstairs to bed last night. It hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves!

If yesterday was loaded, well, today and the two days that follow continue in that trend. You'd think I could have done better with the spacing of events, but mostly things fell in this way because of external forces far beyond my control. 

Tonight is Madison Nutcracker night for my daughter, Snowdrop, Sparrow and me. This ballet production has been part of family lore and legend for many a decade (my younger daughter danced in it for half a dozen years when she was younger) and it has established itself as an important part of our holiday fare. Last year Sparrow came along to watch it (he continues with dance classes which are actually the only extracurricular activity that he truly loves) and we made a big night of it last December.  Sometime this fall we decided to repeat the whole thing, with a dinner out before, and the ballet to follow. Just the four of us. Who knew it would be this cold!

Of course, all that is evening stuff. Morning walk to the barn --freezing.

Breakfast? Delightful because I'd picked up some treats yesterday as I was hanging around downtown waiting for Snowdrop's show to begin.

And yes, in the afternoon, I pick up the kids and bring them to the farmhouse for some well earned downtime.

Toward evening, we undergo the Great Transformation. The kids shed their school clothes and dress up for our night out. 

 

 

Off we go! And it's a beautiful outing. The lights reflected in the lake, the skyline at night, the Christmas decorations on homes that line the road -- all lovely. 

We eat dinner just off the Capitol Square, at Cento -- an Italian eatery that has the virtue of being right across the street from the theater and having Italian food that both kids can really get into.  

And finally, time for the performance. She loves the story, the staging, the orchestra. He loves the dance.

It's an emotional powerhouse for me. It always has been. I first saw it as a little kid, in New York, in the years before it became the cash cow of all ballet companies. I cried then -- I found the story in the first half enchanting and the music, especially the Pas de Deux in the second half, downright soul piercing. In the years that my girl danced various parts in the ballet, I was mesmerized for different reasons of course. But even then and since then, I've continued to be totally sucked in by the power of the music and today we were especially lucky since my daughter's old viola teacher was putting in her zillionth run in the orchestra pit as one of the orchestra performers.

I could never tire of it. Honestly. Always powerful and beautiful.

 

And now I am home. Warm, wonderful little spot where the heat is just right and the company (of Ed and sometimes a cat) is sublime... Tomorrow, I head down to Chicago.