The Nutcracker!

Riley has been wanting to see "The Nutcracker" for at least a year. One of our favorite restaurants, Mellow Mushroom, is right across the street from The Stevens Center, the theater for the UNC School of the Arts. Last year, when the big Nutcracker posters went up around the theater, Riley took notice. He has loved the music and nutcrackers in general ever since. So this year, Grandma and Grandpa gave Riley and me tickets to see "The Nutcracker!" I showed Riley the tickets and had him sound out the words. When he realized what it meant, he was ecstatic!

December 5 finally arrived... We put on our Christmasy sweaters and were ready to go!

The weather outside was frightful, but it didn't diminish Riley's excitement.

We sat on the second row of the balcony. We both liked it that we could see everything, including the orchestra pit!

Riley loved the experience... though he would have been content to leave after the part where The Nutcracker turns back into Sascha. He says his favorite part was when The Nutcracker stabbed the Mouse King. He asked me several times in the second act when it was going to be over, and I could tell he had used up all his attention, but he remained quiet and listened to the music. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I also kept thinking that, even when Donovan is 5, I bet he won't be that still and quiet!

Before the show, Riley didn't want to stand by this big nutcracker in the lobby for a picture, but he changed his mind on our way out.

After the show, Joe and Donovan met us at Mellow Mushroom for dinner. The Winston-Salem Christmas parade went by while we ate, so we had to step over to the windows and watch for a few minutes. We had dessert at Kernel Kustard (conveniently next door) and watched the end of the parade there.

If you look really closely at the background, you can see the red and green lights atop the Reynolds building, which is the smaller-but-older sister of the Empire State building.

Thank you so much, Grandma and Grandpa, for a wonderful outing! ♥