Nutcracker with Miss M

Everybody has their own Christmas traditions. As a parent, you often want to do ALL of these traditions because you read about so many wonderful things. But in the craziness of the season, it is hard to do ALL of these wonderful things you read about on so many blogs or books. However, one tradition I have wanted to do is take Miss M to the Nutcracker every year at Christmas. We started it last year when we were visiting America and we went to see the ballet with my best friend from high school and her daughter. The girls are the same age and they seemed to like it. It brought back fond memories of elementary school as I remember going to the ballet on a school field trip to the same opera house. This year however we decided to stay in Tokyo for Christmas. I checked online and was able to find the ballet at the New National Tokyo Theater. Our tickets were a bit more expensive than our tickets to the ballet in Lexington, Kentucky, obviously, and the ballet was a bit more impressive (no offense to Lexington). :) It was like seeing it with the New York City ballet company. The costumes were much more elaborate and Miss M did not like the details of the rat costumes. But overall she really enjoyed it. We went with her friend who she takes ballet with and had a little mother daughter date. As I was sitting in the ballet, I realized why I wanted to make this a tradition. It was so nice to just sit, for 2 hours, listen to beautiful music and watch wonderful dancing and just "be" during the busyness of the holiday season. It meant so much to me to just take a breather, enjoy my daughter, enjoy God's gifts he has given to people through their musical and artistic talents, and just relax. We had a fabulous time and whether I am in Tokyo or another city at Christmas, I will do my best to keep this tradition.