Merry Christmas from us ... to you

December has been a whirlwind of activity for us. The girls performed in the Nutcracker for the first two weekends of December (8 performances for Emily & 10 performances for Hannah - she did 10am Friday shows for schools in addition to the other 8 shows) and since I help backstage for most performances (and attend the few where I'm not helping) I was busy that whole time too. Emily was a skater and a soldier this year and Hannah was a party guest.

Right after the Nutcracker was done, it was time for the annual school Christmas show at Hannah's school. Even though Emily has graduated and no longer attends the same school, she was also in the show this year (as a special guest) since the music teacher at the school is still her voice coach. Spencer Davis was in attendance at the show and he commented to his wife about Emily's performance and her stage presence - he said that had he closed his eyes he would have thought it was a black gospel choir singing (it was a gospel song). Spencer also told his wife that Hannah has a great voice and will be giving Emily a run for her money in a few years!

The day after the Christmas show was the last day of school before vacation for the girls and I was busy with the class party for Hannah's class since I'm the room mom this year. I'm happy to report that even with all that, we do finally have our tree up and the presents are all bought (though not all wrapped yet) and the cat has knocked the tree over once already so I guess it's officially Christmas time for us!

We want to wish everyone the merriest of Christmases and hope that you enjoy the time with those that you love.

Mark Your Holiday Calendars!

I know it's early to be thinking about Christmas but in just over a month, the girls' ballet studio is putting on their annual production of The Nutcracker. It gets bigger and better each year and this year will be no exception! If you typically make The Nutcracker part of your holiday season, please think about making it RZBC's Nutcracker this year. And if you haven't added The Nutcracker to your holiday traditions, this is the perfect year to start that tradition!

Performances are held at the Madrid Theatre on Sherman Way in Canoga Park on December 8th at 7pm, December 9th at 2pm & 7pm, December 10th at 2pm and December 15th at 7pm, December 16th at 2pm & 7pm and December 17th at 2pm.

This year Emily is a skater, which is the opening number of the show, and a soldier in the fight scene near the end of Act I and Hannah is a party guest and will be on stage for much of Act I. They will be in all performances of The Nutcracker and they'd love to have you attend.

You can buy tickets online or at the Madrid Theatre box office. Most shows will probably have tickets available at the box office the day or evening of the performance though in the past there have been some sold out shows but this is the first year with 2 weekends of shows. This year it is also reserved assigned seating rather than general admission.

Will you see me at all of the performances? Well, I will be in the audience once again taking pictures of The Nutcracker (yes those are my photos from last year) for at least a couple of the shows and I'll be backstage helping out for the others!

Wow only 12 days until Christmas!

RZBC 2005 Nutcracker Cast

For me, the Christmas season is really here once my daughters have performed in the Nutcracker and that happened last weekend. Starting with dress rehearsal on Thursday followed by a Friday night performance, two Saturday performances and a final performance on Sunday, it was a busy and exhausting weekend. I attended the Saturday night performance and helped backstage at the other three performances and the dress rehearsal. I also take a lot of photos at the rehearsal and the performances and in fact this year's promotional materials for the Nutcracker used my photos from last year.

Hannah (dressed as Mimi the Mouse) & Emily (dressed as a party guest) ready to go on stage!

Neither Emily or Hannah is advanced enough in ballet to have a starring role yet but they still have fun and are looking forward to the day when the get to do the bigger parts. They're already talking about what parts they think they may have next year.

This year Emily was a party guest and a mouse in the battle scene. The mouse was a new role for Emily. She has been a party guest every year so far. Next year, she's hoping to be able to be one of the skaters.

Hannah was a polichinelle, an angel and an enchanted butterfly. Hannah has been a polichinelle and an angel for three years now and in fact she wasn't going to be an angel this year but there weren't enough angels so Hannah volunteered to do it again. The enchanted butterflies were a new role this year as part of the Waltz of the Flowers. Hannah also was the understudy for Mimi the Mouse - Mimi is part of the party and battle scenes and is a larger role than either of the girls have ever had. The girl who actually had the role this year was unable to make either Saturday performance so Hannah actually played the role of Mimi for two shows. When she was Mimi, she wasn't able to be a polichinelle or an angel but she was still an enchanted butterfly for those shows too.

Hannah as an Angel & an Enchanted Butterfly

Now that the Nutcracker is over it's time for the school Christmas Program & Christmas Parties coming up this week and next. And, oh yeah, there's that pesky thing called shopping that I need to get done sometime before it actually is Christmas.