the nutcracker

Lilah and I enjoyed one of our annual Christmas traditions this evening!
In fact, this is our third year seeing The Nutcracker (Alberta Ballet) at the National Arts Center.

We made it a special 'date night' together. First we went out to dinner - we ended up going to Le Café together, just for convenience as it is situated in the NAC building. It's so nice having some time alone with my girl. She can really hold a sweet mature conversation now and she can also put on a really good show in a fancy restaurant, that's for sure. Well, aside from giving the butter knife a quick lick (which she's never even done at home before!) she did just fabulous!

I had a good laugh too. Around the middle of the ballet, just before the intermission, there is a very magical part of the story: The Russian Palace is set in the background, beautiful snow is falling and the dancers dresses are absolutely twinkling with gems - it was at this exact stage that Lilah turned to me and asked: "Is this movie real?" Heh! I love that girl of mine.

I should add, for mentions sake, I bought Lilah the dress she's wearing in Beijing, when we were there a few months ago. It's by a Chinese children's clothing brand called: "A Jie Bang NI". I love the quilted look, the velvet peter pan collar, the little leather bow belt and the richness of it.

[ the Nutcracker pictures are here ]

the nutcracker ballet

One of our yearly Christmas traditions is to see The Nutcracker. This year it was put on by the Pennsylvania Ballet at the National Arts Center. I'm not a biased Canadian, but I definitely have to say that the Alberta Ballet put on a much nicer show last year! The props and costumes weren't nearly as regal and fancy this year... but that's just my two cents!

It was still amazing and the ballet dancing was second to none. I very much love this tradition.

My fancy little ballerina, Lilah Grace, loved twirling around in the beautiful dress that Nono bought (her) many moons ago. In fact, I'm pretty sure Nono bought this dress even before Lilah was born. She picked it up in a Sale! To be honest, Nono always used that reasoning/excuse - "I picked it up in a Sale" - when she was awaiting her grandchild!

[ the flickr set is here ]

it's beginning to look...

...a lot like Christmas!

We're heading to N.Ireland on the 15th December, for Christmas. So in light of that, we decorated nice and early this year! Lilah is mostly excited about the Lindt chocolate advent calendar I purchased at Costco. She calls it her "Counting down to Christmas!" and can't wait for December 1st!

She also really enjoys playing with Mr Nutcracker, and I enjoy listening to her imagination, out loud. Lilah got this nutcracker last year after watching The Nutcracker being performed by the Alberta Ballet. We have our tickets booked for The Nutcracker this year as well! This year the performance will be put on by the Pennsylvania Ballet, so I'm hoping they'll be selling their own special Mr Nutcracker too. It's becoming a very special yearly tradition for us.

'the nutcracker'

I think we've just started a beautiful Christmas tradition!

Tonight Lilah and I went downtown to the NAC (National Arts Center), to watch the Alberta Ballet perform 'The Nutcracker'. It was a stunningly fabulous production, the costumes were incredible, the orchestra was amazing, to be quite frank, I have never seen anything quite like it. Lilah was glued to all 2 hours of it, only at one point she couldn't stop asking me: "Did he break his arm? Did he break his arm? Did he break his arm?". She really loved Mr. Nutcracker and was a little concerned for him breaking his arm!

After the production was over we stopped by a little sales table and given her choice of either Princess Clara, King Mouse or Mr. Nutcracker. Yes, she only had eyes for Mr. Nutcracker! And then she twirled and twirled and loved on Mr. Nutcracker for the rest of the evening!

[ more pictures here ]