Date night - The Nutcracker

Lindsay, Caroline and I went on a Friday night date to see Ballet Arizona's production of The Nutcracker. Lindsay has seen a couple smaller regional productions but this was her first time to see "The Big One" and I soon realized Caroline had never seen anything in a theater like this before - have I failed her?? We had so much fun together that we decided it is for sure going to be an annual tradition. We were not able to leave with enough time for a nice dinner out (darn that busy Apollo Group IT department) but Steve felt bad we got going late and gave his blessing to find whatever we could to eat at or near Symphony Hall. One mini (mini!) cheesecake, 3 chocolate dipped strawberries, to bottles of water and $22 later, we still went to Cracker Barrel on the way home!

We arrived as one of the dancers was sitting at the tree reading the story - her costume was so lovely. Lindsay knew immediately she must be a snowflake.

The lobby tree was grand and the girls and I loved soaking up the atmosphere of Symphony Hall. (darn it broken camera!)

The girls had been learning about The Nutcracker in music class at school and both were quite well versed on the story. Caroline would lean over to me and tell me what was happening and who each character was. All three of us were fixated on the stage - it was all so lovely.

The following photos were lifted from the official website gallery.

The mice costumes were a riot.

Lindsay's favorite - The Sugar Plum Fairy and Caroline loved the Angels.

My Favorite - Marzipan. I just cannot imagine the construction required to make a dance costume like this!