Performances

We started the day at church with the children's Sunday School Christmas Program. Ben refused to go up on stage with his group, but Abby did a good job singing and doing the motions to "Away in the Manger" with her group.

Abby and her friend Katelyn

She didn't do so well singing the other carols with the larger group, but, hey, she looked cute. :o)

Black and white Christmas dresses were definitely the "in thing" this year!

In the evening, Abby got to be on the other side of a performance as she enjoyed her first ballet! My good friend from high school Leah (who herself used to perform in the Nutcracker ballet) bought us tickets for our Christmas present. We'd heard that another mom and daughter duo from church were going to the ballet as well, so we had Leah get us tickets next to them. The girls' comments about the ballet were so funny! Right at the beginning Abby said to me, "The music is LOUD!" and I agreed and later was quite thankful as it served well to cover-up Abby's whispered questions and comments that became more frequent and grew in volume as the ballet progressed. 

Abby next to her friend Katelyn again! :)

Abby and I had such a wonderful time on our "date"! Both of us decided that our favorite part of the ballet was the Waltz of the Snowflakes (of course, Abby especially liked the fake snow falling from the ceiling of the set! :).  It was a very memorable and special evening. In fact, I didn't want it to end so, after a quick call to Daddy to see how baby Jake was doing, we got the okay to extend our date a bit and grab a quick snack. I left the decision up to Abby and so the evening ended in 4-year-old fashion: sharing a sundae at McDonald's! :o)