Nutcracker Camp

Here's our little girl at Nutcracker Camp - or at least after the camp, during the group presentation.  It was a two-hour "camp" where children met Clara and I guess a Snow Fairy or something?  Anyway, they created frames for pictures that they took with each of the Nutcracker celebrities, and then they practiced for a brief performance in front of all the parents.  And I mean, all the parents.

There were certainly a lot of enthusiastic parents there, many of whom knew the drill about waiting in the hallway instead of the room where we were asked to wait.  The end result was Daddy sitting in the back row, standing on top of a chair in order to get a good view of Madison dancing.  She did very well, considering there was so little time to prepare.  You could say this was her first Nutcracker performance, although certainly not the first one she's seen before.  We've watched "The Nutcracker" several different places so far, and this year we'll be seeing it at Brenau (Mommy got tickets today!).  Last year, we tried "Babes in Toyland," which was very well done.  But you can't go for too long without coming back to see Clara...

After camp, Daddy went back to work - in fact, he was there in the morning, racing across town to catch Madison's performance.  Then it was back to church for a volunteer appreciation luncheon, which went very well.  Madison continued using her fashion plates at home, and creating artwork all over the table.

But Daddy got home early enough for us to go do something special.  We all put on our Santa hats, hopped in the car, and drove down to the Mall of Georgia for the Santa-bration, the parade around the Mall, and the lighting of the Christmas tree they have there.  It was a crisp, cold night, but a lot of fun - here's a photo of a giant walking cookie:

Madison liked the parade - although nothing even close to a Disney parade, it was still fun to watch characters go by, and throw things at Mall Security.  Just kidding about that last one.  We cheered for everyone that went by, saving our biggest cheers for Santa at the end.  Of course, all along the way, parade participants were giving out free candy.  Yes, more free candy for Madison.  We could start a confectionary store here with all the candy we've accumulated in the last few weeks!

We went over to the tree next, and that's where the dancers were performing and introducing the big man himself, Mr. Santa.  When he got there, he noticed something was missing - the lights on the tree weren't on!  So, just like last year, he had us all count down from ten.  And that's when the lights came on and the music played - and everyone cheered.

It was a really fun and spontaneous night.  We had Christmas music in the car, which Madison was singing along with - we enjoyed that all the way home.  When getting there, it was time for a quick bath - and time for bed.  Pretty close to time for bed for Daddy too!  It's been a busy day - ho, ho, ho!