The Nutcracker

Again this year, we decided to take Sophia to see Alberta Ballet's "The Nutcracker."  She is absolutely fascinated with it and knows the story inside and out.  She was very excited, especially because she got to wear a new dress that I picked up for her in New York.  It even came with a matching dress for her doll.

In front of our tree, all dressed up and ready to go.  Maybe practicing some ballet moves?

Move ballet moves.  She is able to watch the DVD that we have (The NYC Ballet with Macaulay Culkin as the Nutcracker), and imitate what they are doing.  It is awesome to watch!

 This year my parents came along with us.  They too were quite excited to see "The Nutcracker" again as it had been many years and new choreography.  This choreo is very similar to what Max and I saw in Moscow when we got to see the ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre and it is fabulous.  Very true to the real story of the Nutcracker and very Russian.  The costumes and themes are very typical of Russian New Years/Christmas.

 She was all smiles, the entire time.  After the first 10 minutes or so of the ballet, in which she sat on the edge of her seat with her mouth wide open, Sophia hopped up onto Mom's lap.  From there, Sophia proceeded to tell Mom who all the characters were and what they were doing.  Every so often she would  whisper/yell the same to my Dad.  I think both my parents enjoyed watching Sophia even more so than the great ballet.

Wow, does this girl ever have height on her toes! Maybe a ballerina is in our future:)

After our lovely ballet, we decided to try out a newer restaurant in Bowness called 'Notable.'  Since we were there around 4:30, we managed to get in without a reservation as they are book up weeks in advance.  Sophia had sat so well at the ballet so I was kind of curious to see what she would be like having to sit in a restaurant.   We were seated at a table towards the back of the restaurant right beside a wall of mirrors.  Thankfully Sophia kept herself entertained with them.  Right before we were to leave, Sophia hopped up on the bench and was checking herself out in the mirror.  While she was doing that, she decided to lift her dress and hike up her tights.  Mom and I kept trying to pull the dress down to cover her naked bum and Sophia kept fighting the opposite.  Yes, her tights were a little on the small side and kept sliding down, but...at least we all had a good laugh.  Many of the other people were smiling at Sophia as we left.  I'm not sure if they were smiling because she looked so cute or because she had just mooned them!  (The food was great, insanely huge servings, but very tasty.   Sophia shared a few of our meals and we all still had more food to take home and I think mine was even better the second day).