A Night at the Ballet

There's Madison again, our lightning bug on stage.  She had a great day, although she was astoundingly tired by the end of it.  Who wouldn't be?  Mommy and Daddy were wiped out too!

Today was our big, long day.  Madison had two performances today - although they didn't start until 2:30 this afternoon.  And yes, Madison had to get there a lot earlier than that.  We dropped her off at Brenau with little trouble or stress, and she was up and ready to go.

Here she is with one of the other ballet moms.  Madison did really well today.  Mommy and Daddy were able to come to the second performance, the one scheduled for 7:30 pm.  Nana and Ye-Ye also came to that.

There's a degree of emotion to these, as the kids have been working for so long, and working so hard on it.  And now as it draws to the end, there's a bit of bittersweet emotion there, especially where the seniors are considered.  Madison will miss a few of them deeply.  Of course, she was quite tired by the end of the night.  But there was so much emotion there too.  Bedtime came easily tonight, although it came much, much later.

As for the ballet itself, it was beautiful.  This was the first time that Mommy and Daddy could see it in its entirety.  The concept is simple enough, a marriage of the many different stories of Grimm, from Snow White, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Hansel and Gretel.  The performances were spot-on, and something that we're really enjoying more and more.

As you might suspect, this was it for the day.  The parents do a bit of waiting.  Daddy was working for a short time, and then returned to get Madison after her second performance, only to discover a misprint on the return time had him there an hour early.  Therefore, he had some time to kill while waiting around.  Here he is with Lessie, a painting of a woman from 1903 or something like that.

And once that was over, it was a race home, eating some quick bites of food, and a race back to the drop-off time, which was an hour or so before the performance time.  Remarkably, we had favor for parking in all these situations, getting those prime spots that nearly require parallel parking in front of the auditorium.  They also made it easy to leave the auditorium area quickly, and get home as fast as possible for a good night's rest.  Everyone is tired!

But it was magical again.  I don't think it was quite as magical as the Nutcracker, but that's a tough one to beat considering the Christmas spirit and larger crowd size.  Still, the performances were just as good, and there is this sweetness and heart present in the productions that can't be quantified.  An audience member is simply in the presence of so much heart, you sort of get swept away with it, even if it isn't your own daughter on the stage at the time.  The truth is, you know all the daughters and parents, because like a band of brothers (and sisters), you've been through a lot together.  And though there might be a tendency to complain about long hours waiting (which Daddy did this week!), the truth is, all that is erased when you see the beaming faces of our daughters as they gracefully glide across the stage in their beautiful costuming.  And for a few moments, all the troubles of this world are gone, as contentment and peace come dancing in as well.