In His Steps: The Nutcracker

I took my sweet baby girl to "The Nutcracker" this year. Jeremy got a hold of some free tickets through his work, which was awesome, because I really wanted to take her, but we didn't have the money to do it. Yay God! Anyway, Jeremy told me about the freebies and then I was super stoked. I had a feeling Natalee would love it. She will be three on the 29th of this month, so I was a little nervous that she wouldn't sit through the whole thing. Boy was I wrong! She was sad when it was over! I loved the date that I got to take with the cutest girl on the planet! She picked out a pink glittered ballerina ornament for our tree, with a little help from mommy. She originally was pointing to a ballerina ornament that had on a blue dress (like Cinderella), but when mommy saw the price tag on it, I quickly picked up the pink ballerina ($4) and spun the string she was hanging on around and told Natalee, "Look! This one dances!" She fell in love. Tricky, right? This was my first trip to The Nutcracker...or any ballet for that matter! We got dressed up in our Sunday best to start our fun mommy/daughter date. When we first arrived, there were TONS of ornaments sitting out on huge display tables. There were ballerinas, king mice, nutcrackers, swans...and the list could go on. The ballet lasted about three hours, I think, and my little ballerina loved every minute of it. She sat on my lap and watched in wonder as the girls danced around. She yelled to them, "Watch out, there's the King Mouse!" and we got several giggles from the rows ahead of us. She talked about the ballet for three days straight! She plays with the ornament she picked out (it's plastic). It is one of her favorite things for the moment. She tells everyone, "You must be very careful. She's breakable. You have to be responsible." I guess she has heard those words a time or two. I loved having this moment in time with her. I hope to be able to take her every year as a special mommy/daughter tradition.