Girls' Day Out

The girls are studying Tchaikovsky this year in music, and for the past nine weeks, we have listened to various pieces from The Nutcracker.  They fell in love with the story and enjoyed listening to the music during lunch, so taking them to see a live performance was pretty high up there on my list of things to do in December.  I was delighted to learn that the Beaumont Civic Ballet put on a performance, which meant I wouldn't have to deal with Houston traffic!  Score!!  Plus I ordered our tickets early enough that I was able to get us front row seats!  (This ended up being great for the eyes, but the ears may have paid a small price for it since there are speakers along the edge of the stage at the Julie Rogers Theater.)

The girls and I decided it would be fun to invite the grandmas to join us for a Girls' Day Out.  I'm not a "girlie" girl by any stretch of the imagination, but I did think it would be fun to eat lunch at a tea room, then head to the ballet.  It turns out that none of the tea rooms in our area are open on Saturday, though, so we all agreed on Olive Garden instead.

Before we left, the girls each gave one of their grandmothers a nutcracker ornament to hang on their tree so they would always remember our special day.

Here are the girls and the grandmas.  Meemaw is holding her Nutcracker ornament.

Here we are, all dressed up and ready to go!

 I didn't know what the quality of the performance would be like since we stayed in Beaumont rather than heading to Houston, but it was truly wonderful!  Millie got excited when she recognized the Mouse King, and at one point I looked a few seats down to see Hannah's face, and she was literally on the edge of her seat, beaming with excitement.  My heart soared!

I thought the performance was spectacular, as did the girls, but it brought a smile to face when I opened the mailbox yesterday and found these two thank-yous waiting inside.

I definitely think this whole experience was a Christmas tradition in the making!