Making Memories

 This week was very busy with piano lessons, basketball, catching up from being gone the previous week, dance and symphonic band rehearsals, running errands and going to the gym. I did go watch Olivia's kids one morning so she could go Christmas shopping and we had an electrician come one morning to put some plugs into our unfinished basement area so now the 3D printer, refrigerator and computer/cricut can all be plugged in safely. Mom got us the refrigerator for Christmas and it has already been so handy. I took Lily to the physical therapist to try and figure out what is going on with her ankles. He's the same guy that helped Josh so we're hoping she'll be able to jump and dance on pointe without pain again soon, it just means twice a week appointments for a little while. I already feel like I am running that girl all over town but at least it means we get to hang out. I'm trying not to be stressed about the next two weeks because this is such a wonderful time of year but there is so much going on that I can't help but wonder how I am going to make it all happen. Oh, and Emma was top dog this past month so I got to go have lunch with her on Friday at school and she got a doughnut and she was really happy. 

The best part of the week was Saturday. Months ago my girls were invited to perform in The Nutcracker with their dance studio for an optional performance. Unfortunately, the performances were both on a Sunday, actually they are both today, so we opted not to participate. It is important to us to keep the Sabbath day holy and in an effort to do so, we don't participate in recreational activities on Sundays. My girls were disappointed but handled it really well. In fact, we didn't even discuss it. They just told me the performances were on Sunday so they knew they wouldn't be doing it. I was really proud of them and so I went ahead and got tickets to take them to see The Nutcracker in D.C. by the Washington Ballet. I told them about it on Thursday and as expected, Lily barely reacted and Emma was excited but nervous because it would be a new experience. Friday I was checking our tickets and found out since Emma isn't vaccinated yet that she needed a negative covid test so we spent two hours getting that taken care of Friday afternoon. I was starting to feel stressed about parking in D.C. and getting there on time and was wondering, why was I going through all of this effort?

Well, it turned out to be so wonderful and I'm so glad I made the effort. Curtis had a basketball game in the morning and he played so well and his team won! He scored 8 points and rebounded and hustled and I was impressed with his improvement from two years ago. I think it will be a fun season, except for the fact that a fair number of his games are at 8am, which stinks. But then Josh took Brandon to his practice and I took Curtis to meet up with Michelle (she took him to Six Flags with her and he had a fabulous day) and then the girls and I headed into D.C. Everything went smoothly and we got to the theater with time to go to the bathroom and look around and get settled. It is a cool little theater right near the White House and it was fun to be in downtown. I really love cities and being around nicely dressed people and doing fancy and fun things. 

 

The performance was wonderful and my girls loved it. Emma must have thanked me about 40 times for bringing her and for such a fun day. I teared up a few times thinking that it was worth the effort to get there and make that memory. They had never seen professional dancers before and yet spend so much time dancing. I think it was inspiring and fun for them and I loved that I had someone to share it with. I've never had a friend or anyone who enjoys ballet like I do but now I have two daughters who do and it was so fun to share that experience together. Plus the Nutcracker is such a fun ballet and an easy story to follow. The dancing was so beautiful and fun and we loved it. We got some cookies at Potbelly to sustain us on the way home, Lily successfully navigated me out of downtown despite a holiday market and we had an easy drive home. Josh and Brandon had already eaten dinner so we stopped at Chick-Fil-A (they are always so busy and it takes forever so I really don't like going there but my girls really wanted it) and made it home in time to hear what the boys were up to all day, take showers, read stories and get the little kids to bed. Lily and I watched some British baking show holiday edition and waited for Curtis to get home. It was a really wonderful day and I'm so grateful things went smoothly and that this world is filled with beauty, talent , music, dance, bodies that are capable of such amazing things and color.