This is our third year in this production.  I didn't realize it but Dancing for Joy has done this production for 10 years.  I have to say that it has totally replaced the Nutcracker for me.  I like the story of the nutcracker but I think that this story has a power that the Nutcracker doesn't.  It is so moving and emotional.  We've seen it three times now and each and every time John and I cry.  It gets to the core of us.  Oh we love watching Lona dance and we get excited to see her but it's the story that holds us.  I can't imagine Christmas with out this ballet production.
Lona was an Angel again this year but this time she was one of the older girls.  There were two of them and they had some special parts.  The dance was essentially the same as last year.  Lona and Grace knew the dance already so Grace came out and danced with the Angel Gabrielle before the other Angels.  She did a fantastic job!  Then the rest of the Angels came out and did their part which was so graceful.  Then there was another time that Lona and Grace danced with Gabrielle before their dance ended.  It is fun to watch her perform and I think that her Dad is a wee bit proud of her.
We attended the Sunday performance and unfortunately the Seahawks were playing at the same time.   Isaac needed John's phone. As soon as the curtain came down, he would grab John's phone to check the game. I think there were many dads doing the same thing. John said that at intermission the talk in the bathroom was how the Hawks were doing.

I helped out backstage Saturday night and the sheep and donkeys were my undoing.  It's been 7 years since I had a three year old.  Getting the donkeys to stay out from under the mirrors was nearly impossible.  They were in their "stables".  I was waiting for a mirror to break.  Then we were told that the donkeys were on one side and two of the took off, one was still getting her ballet slipper on and the boy looked at me while we were chasing down the two and said, "I peed my diaper."  The grand finale was about to happen and the donkeys were on the loose.  We catch up to the other two, and the boy decides to head out on stage.  Luckily the shepherds came by and I asked them to grab that donkey.  We get lined up, I catch a glimpse of the last donkey to arrive backstage when I'm told we were on the wrong side.  So we "herd" the donkeys back to the other side of the stage when they decide it's time to go out.  I tell you, keeping sheep and donkeys together is a huge job.  I hear just then the boy say he's done, he wants to go home.  Finally it's their turn and they go out on stage but the boy heads to his mom and dad instead.  But it was almost over and the sheep and donkeys give it a light hearted touch to an emotional heart wrenching rendition of the true Christmas story.

I love how these "stars" where watching the older girls - the shepherds and angels, like one day they might get to do that.  Passing the torch.