AN EVENING AT THE BALLET

(The first two pictures are of our ballet ticket and me trying to de-ash the stove and keep Thomas away at the same time. The video is a perfectly good example of using state of the art technology for a wicked stupid reason. Enjoy)

My wonderful wife, whose belly is protruding more and more each day, totally suprised me today by taking me to see The Nutcracker at the Waterville Opera House. The Nutcracker is one of my favorite things in the world, and last year we had such a terrific time seeing it performed by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and the Robinson Ballet studio, and this year we were bummed because they cancelled it (due to the reconstruction of the performing arts center at UMaine). We look forward to continuing with this tradition next year, but for this year, we saw it performed by the Bossov Ballet Company. All other sports and athletic pursuits are "teams," but for some reasons dancers are a "company." It sounds smarter I guess. Maybe Baby Bails can explain . . .

Anyway, it was a super evening, complete with dinner and everything. Tickets were only 13 bucks a person, and when you compare seeing a live ballet performance in a historic opera house in downtown Waterville to seeing some stupid movie for 9 bucks . . .the choice is pretty clear to me. The Bossov company did a much more "abridged" version of the ballet than Robinson did last year, but nonetheless it was very well done, and very cute. They had dancers young and old, from people in their 50's to kids who were 4 or 5. The little ones played the parts of "cupcakes" for the sugar plum fairies. It gave us a good costume idea for little Jared or Charlotte . . .

It snowed pretty much all day today, although we didnt get as big of a storm as Mass got, where, according to my dad, they sent in the SEALS to do some shoveling--it sounded nasty! We only got about 6 inches in Fairfield, but it has been super windy tonight. I drove home with the mindset that I had to shovel the driveway . . .only to find out that my neighbor Dana had already taken care of it with his snowblower. What a great neighborhood! Dont you think Ortiz and Babs should move up here?

Going to the ballet tonight really got me in the Christmas spirit, although we are both upset that we wont be heading down to Mass this weekend like we originally planned. Sorry Aunt Patty!!! We are bummed, but with the storm Mass just got, and the impending storm starting Saturday afternoon or night, we decided it wasnt worth the risk (and aggrevation) of driving with our little bean in a snowstorm. So hopefully next weekend . . . .