CHRISTMAS SEASON BEGINS WITH THE NUTCRACKER BALLET

Dear Family,

Cheryl has her daughters in the Ballet West ballet school.  Each year they perform the Nutcracker Ballet with professional  ballet dancers and some of the students qualify for the performances.  Cheryl's kids seem to make it in there each year and this year she had four who made all the performances.  There was Annabelle, Mary Clare, Loren and Olivia.  Olivia was the buffoon that comes out under the skirt.

Cheryl purchased tickets for many members of our family to a Friday night performance.  First of course we met at Sigfried's next to the Capital Theater for a Wurst and Kraut.  John and Kaley came up from Florida for a visit and joined us at the performance. Doug and his wife came with Douglas who brought a date.  Mike and Rayann came with several of their daughters,  Emily and John came  with a few of their daughters.  i did not count them all but there was quite a group who occupied the front section of the left isle.  Paul of course was there with Johnny; Paul has seen this about 40 times. Gemina was in town and joined us in the performance,

Here is a picture of most of us sitting in front.  Little Johnny had the best seat in the house and loved the ballet.

I thoroughly enjoyed the performance.  The music and dancing were perfect.  (It seems like some of the men's tights are getting tighter each year) but pother than that it was great.  These dancers are in top physical condition and the performance is graceful and also athletic.  I enjoy it very much each year especially because four grandaughters are in the cast.

Here is Annabelle in her costume.

Here is Mary Clare who was one of the party girls.  She was on stage for a long time   and I must admit, she was the only dancer I watched during the opening scenes.

Here is Lauren as one of the soldiers and then there was Olivia as one of the buffoons that come out from under the giant dress.  She is really a little ham always emoting and like the others, has great stage presence.  Notice how she points her toe!

At the end, I think Cheryl finds all the driving and practices were worth it.  It was so much fun to see them in a professional performance.

This always ushers in the Christmas season for us and our seats were our Xmas present from Cheryl and Paul and much appreciated.

Well Mom is getting out  million Christmas gifts all wrapped and mailing them to each family.  We will start on the card soon and that has been a huge project.  We have a final picture of the entire family from our summer reunion with the four teenagers who were not there, photshopped into the pictre for completeness sake.

Paul and Alison  are coming for Paul's company Xmas gathering.  Scott is here now and Scott and Suz and all their kids are coming for Xmas and will stay in the downstairs apartment until they buy a house here in Salt Lake.

I should not forget that we celebrated John's birthday while at Sigfrieds  Mom bought him an entire vey rich German chocolate cake.  Here are John and Kaley and expensive chocolate cake.  It was very good and worth it.

We love you all,  Dad and Mom