Little Girl Wishes

When I was a little girl I loved reading the books written by Jill Krementz.  There was A Very Young Rider, which was my favorite.  But there was also A Very Young Circus Flyer, A Very Young Gymnast, A Very Young Ice Skater and A Very Young Dancer.  It was reading A Very Young Dancer that opened my eyes to the story of The Nutcracker.  And I have always loved it.  The holiday classic story of a little girl, Clara, who recieves a toy Nutcracker as a gift enchanted me.  I found the music at the library and listened to it.  I made up my own dances to it, watched videotaped productions of it on PBS, read books about the Nutcracker and have just fallen in love with the story. One of my lifelong dreams is to go to New York City during the holiday season to see The Nutcracker.  And, to experience New York during the holidays.  Ice Skating under that huge tree in Rockefeller Center, taking in a play or musical (like The Christmas Carol), eating sundays at Serendipity,  The grand finale to the weekend would be going to see the New York City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. Yep, it's been a lifelong dream of mine.  Buuuut, things being what they are, I've never been. Actually I've never REALLY been to New York City (not including airports and that one weekend in 1977 when lightening hit and there was the great blackout.  I was supposed to go into the city with my Grandma on that day but we ended up not going, because of the Blackout.)     Actually I've never seen a real production of any Nutcracker either.  That is until a few years ago when a local dance collective started to produce it yearly.  So, for the past few years we've gone to the local production of the Nutcracker and have simply loved it, even Theo loves it and looks forward to watching it.  We've all been enchanted with the show and consider it a beloved holiday tradition now.  I toyed with the idea of going to Denver to see the Nutcracker, or even Aspen.  But I couldn't afford the tickets.  So, we go see the local production of The Nutcracker which is remarkably good..  And fun.  And Adi likes getting dressed up.  And it's part of our holiday tradition now...  maybe someday I'll get my dream vacation to New York City.  But until then, we love our local show.

Adi all dressed up and ready to watch The Nutcracker