Nutcracker Sweet

BALLET TODAY: Today was the day Bee has been waiting for for weeks now. We had tickets for a matinee of The Nutcracker at Pacific Northwest Ballet.

I was going to take them but when I heard Rick had the day off, I assigned him the duty. :) He'd never seen The Nutcracker (my bad!) and so this was his opportunity, too.

I dropped the three amigos off at McCaw Hall. They were way early, so they headed to the Seattle Center Food Court for a treat before going into the show. I think the pre-show pretzel was the highlight of the day for CJ. ;) The kids had good seats - on the floor, row P. They said they could see everything really well.

We rendezvoused in the Food Court after the show. Right away I asked CJ how he liked it.

"It was mediocre," he deadpanned.

I immediately turned to Rick and said, "Did you tell him to say 'it was mediocre.'?" He laughed and said he didn't. I had no idea CJ even knew the word mediocre.

I asked to elaborate on his impressions. He did, saying, "I think it's the most boring play I've ever seen, because it took like 20 minutes to do their play." (It was more like two hours.)

He did say his favorite scene was "where the Mouse King showed up. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King had a sword fight."

Bee's review of the production was more favorable. Her favorite part was "when the ballerina and the guy who was in the soldier costume without the hat danced together."

Rick's take was, "It was good, but the story's confusing." Poor Rick. I should have given him a Nutcracker storybook to study up on.

Later in the day we talked a bit about sets and props - what they are and how they were used in The Nutcracker. CJ said his favorite set today was a sailboat on the ocean. Annabelle was impressed by an Egyptian looking set after "the ballerina and the soldier guy got out of the boat."

After the show, we checked out the great big train display in the Center House.
There were lots of neat little vignettes within the snowy town.

LEGOLINE: Today Annabelle asked if LEGO has a Web site. I told her I'm certain it does, guessing LEGO.com to be its URL. She navigated her way there and quickly found lots to keep her interested.

While she could have played Toy Story or SpongBob themed games, Annabelle's favorite was a game under the LEGO Kingdoms category called Prison Carriage Pursuit. Interesting choice.


While poking around the Web site, I found a cool feature under their CreateAndShare tab. Called DesignbyME, it's free, downloadable software that allows you to design LEGO creations with your computer. That's something we'll have to check out in the near future!


THINGS ARE GOING TO CHANGE: Out of nowhere this a.m. CJ declared, "When I'm president I will say dogs should not go in the alone down place of planes. They should be up with the humans. I don't want them to stay in cargo all alone and in the dark."


"They should be in a cage," suggested Annabelle.


"They will go up with the human - well up in a cage with the humans," he clarified. "They could go in a pet kennel."

LETTERS, WE'VE GOT LETTERS: The day's writing assignment was a missive to Jolly Ol' St. Nick.

I didn't give they kids much direction, other than to start with Dear Santa, and to not mIx UP their CapiTal and LOWerCase letters, and to use punctuation.


Their letters were succinct.

Annabelle's:

Dear Santa, I want a Xbox 360 thanks. Love, Annabelle. .P.S. Give me an acorden too please.


That's accordion for those of you wondering.


CJ's:

Dear Santa, I want a Krang Toy. Please with nothing missing that's 11 inches tall.


The reason for CJ's clarification is because this toy is vintage and most of those he's been oogling on eBay have missing parts.

DRAMA-RAMA: This morning, even before the play, CJ asked what a drama is - as in the drama genre of movies/shows. I explained by first telling him what it isn't. A drama's not a comedy (like the "Home Alone" movies), it's not a horror movie, like "Friday the 13th," it's not a mystery - like "Scooby Doo." "A drama is just a story," I concluded. According to a few resources I checked, it's a "serious" story. I found that an interesting distinction, and I'm trying to think of drama movies that would be exceptions to that definition. Anyone? ...


SWEET SOMETHINGS: The holiday festivities continued this evening when Christian took the kids to the annual "gingerbread" (graham cracker) house decorating party at the Magnolia Community Center.