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Friday, November 21, 2008

Nutcracker Confessions

Our older son (OS) is the age when both my husband and I were taken to see The Nutcracker. I remember back when OS was a baby. The Big Giraffe's cousin told us to treasure these early Christmases. For the fond memories? No. The cute Christmas outfits? No. It was another reason: cheap toys. At this early age, toys are relatively cheap. Glancing at OS's Christmas list confirms this. The most expensive item he wants is $10.

The Big Giraffe and I decided tickets to The Nutcracker would be our "big gift" to OS fully realizing that he's five and thus still expects gifts to come in packages with wrapping paper. The notion of ballet being a gift is purely for us at this stage. However, we did feel it would be a fun outing and plan on further disappointing OS by subsequently taking him out for a nice dinner (read: not McDonald's or Friendly's).

OS seems pretty excited about it. As excited as can be expected considering he had no idea what I was talking about, even before I delivered a somewhat rambling version of the story, covering the fact that it was about a dancer named Clara who wears a nightgown and a crown on her head and dances with a nutcracker who becomes a prince after he fights off rats. We headed out to the library to get a book about it as well as a CD of the music. We do own a Nutcracker CD, I think, but it's buried in the Big Giraffe's Celine Dion CD collection CD collection, including a Celine Dion CD.

We found four books in the children's library, and the boys curled up around me on the library's couch so we could read them. As I read story after story, I realized that I had never fully understood the story line behind The Nutcracker. After reading the boys the book that we ultimately checked out of the library, the Big Giraffe told me that he had felt the same way. Furthermore, I had no idea that the person identified in one of the books as Clara's cousin Nicholas "bears a striking resemblance to the Nutcracker prince." (Yes, the prince who chose her to be his princess.) Hmm...I missed that one. Fortunately the other two stories identified Nicholas (or in one case Nathanial) as being her godfather's son leaving me with the hope that he may not have been her cousin. We won't think about about the tendency for parents to pick their siblings as godparents.

I'm really looking forward to The Nutcracker. I can't wait to see OS's face as he watches it. Plus now that I actually understand the story I probably will enjoy it even more. No, not the Nicholas part! I mean the part where I thought there were rats not mice because that makes it much less scary. I'm totally kidding. More importanly I think I finally understand who all the characters are!

A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Even children's stories include some strange happenings.

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posted by Alex Elliot @ 8:01 PM   5 comments
5 Comments:

  • At 11/21/2008 9:55 PM, Blogger Kate said…

    Oh yeah, I was totally lost, too. But it didn't matter when I was a kid because I just loved the music and grandness of it all. I love the Nutcracker.

     

  • At 11/22/2008 7:18 PM, Blogger Heather said…

    My kids have the Barbie Nutcracker DVD. It's decent. They both really like it.

     

  • At 11/22/2008 8:23 PM, Blogger Sally HP said…

    Good one, taking the kids to a wholesome show with incestual undertones...nothin's says holiday love like that! :)

    Enjoy the show! I think it's one of those that saw when I was little and didn't really get and then never have seen it since...I'll have to check it out as well!

     

  • At 11/23/2008 1:49 PM, Blogger Tracey said…

    Have fun! I hope he loves it.

     

  • At 11/24/2008 1:10 AM, Blogger painted maypole said…

    i took MQ last year when she was 5 - and we did the book thing, too, which helped. Still, she only made it through 3/4 of it (but admittedly, it was a pretty poor production)

     
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Name:Alex Elliot
Home:MA, United States
About Me:Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
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