The Nutcracker

So I have a confession to make..... Before today I had never been to the Nutcracker. The two major metropolitan areas I lived in growing up really didn't support a ballet so I never saw it as a child and when I was an adult there was always too much to do around the holidays to fit it in.

But once I became a mother I really wanted my children to experience it so this year I bought our first Nutcracker tickets. After I bought them I wondered how the kids would react to two hours of an event where nary a single person spoke. I thought it might be helpful to them to know the story beforehand so last month I went out and bought an abridged children's version of the Nutcracker. For the last week or so we have been reading it and discussing it and we were all set. Then on Friday I was talking with a friend of mine at Greyson and Quinn's school: Anna Claire told me how much she loved seeing the Nutcracker as a child and always left the ballet dancing around like Clara all the way home. Clara??? Who is Clara?? The child in story of the Nutcracker is Marie. The only mention of Clara in the story we read is a one line mention of Marie's favorite doll. So I went on-line and did some research. The original story of the Nutcracker has little to do with the actual ballet. The Nutcracker ballet only encompasses pretty much the prologue of the story that we read. How the Nutcracker becomes the Nutcracker - how he breaks the spell of the Mice Queen to free Princess Pirlipat and then how he himself falls in love with Marie completely excluded from the ballet. The story that I drilled into my kids head for the last week in anticipation of the ballet - totally irrelevant from the ballet's perspective. To make matters worse I learned as we walked in tonight that the Nashville ballet does its own interpretation of the Nutcracker based on the city. Arghhh I thought - were the kids going to be confused and was this going to be a complete cluster???

As usual my fears were unfounded - from the moment the curtain went up they were enchanted. Greyson sat wide eyed at all the magic that appeared before him. Quinn laughed and giggled all the way though it telling me about a thousand times that this was so silly. I did feel a bit sorry for those sitting around Greyson as he asked Raif a million questions about everything that was going on including my favorite "Why isn't the Nutcracker wearing any pants?" Greyson loved it so much that when the lights went up at intermission he got misty eyed and asked "It isn't over is it?"

I think we have found a Christmas tradition.