Sells Mill Park and the Nutcracker

Here's Maddie at a place called Sells Mill Park - you can see Sells Mill right behind her across the river.  We were there to do a photo shoot for a family I know.  There are a couple volunteers at KidPak that are super helpful, so I wanted to go the extra mile and snap some family photos for them for Christmas this year.  They were all together and just needed someone to click the camera for them as they posed in some unique place.  So they knew this place down in Hoschton, which was about 50 minutes away or so, but I went with Maddie, who was my assistant for the day.  And sure enough, she found a great spot to take a picture on this log.  It worked out so well that we took some great shots of the family there.  But you can see I was taking a few test shots of Maddie while I was there, which also came out nice!

Sells Mill

This tree is part terrier, part genie.

Maddie had a swingin' time!

The photo shoot turned out well, and we got home quickly because we needed to get ready for another excursion, this one back down to City Springs Theater to see the Roswell Dance Theater's production of "The Nutcracker!"

We missed the Gainesville version of it this time, and we love that theater down there in Sandy Springs, so we thought we'd check it out.  We were looking at tickets a bit later, so we couldn't find some of the usual spots - but then we saw three box seats there, and we've never sat in box seats before.  So why not?  We got our box seats!

We leave early to get down there just in case we encounter traffic, but for some reason there was zero traffic today.  We had super favor with traveling, and got down without any incident at all.  That left plenty of time to see the lights outside!

Soon it was time to get inside.  That was because it was so cold outside - the temperature has taken a sudden Canadian plunge this week, and winter is announcing its presence with great fanfare.  We made our way inside, and Maddie got herself a delicious dolce el leche gelato.  We looked around, and I snuck Mom a Christmas present that she was enjoying the smell of, a bar of candy cane soap!  

We took some pictures on the photo wall, and soon after we were on our way to the box seats there, which were pretty close to the stage!  

To begin with, there was no one there much, but not long after, the place filled up pretty nicely.  Big crowd!  Everyone was ready for the ballet to begin.

This was a really outstanding production!  The Rat King led his troops against the Nutcracker and his soldiers, and Mother Ginger hilariously rolled in - she's been a big point of discussion of late.  What's up with Mother Ginger?  Anyway, the individual dances were great and more elaborate than what we're used to, and the snow!  Yes, it snowed at the end of the first act, but it didn't just snow on the stage - it snowed on the audience as well!  The music is always wonderful, but the costumes and talent were wonderful.  All three of us enjoyed this so much.

We went home after this, and amazingly, we got home from here in less than an hour.  Still, we were ready for bed today when we got home.  It was late.  We read from "Hogfather" some, but got to sleep early enough.  Soon it was time for sleep!