December Daily® 2014 | Day Nineteen

Welcome to December Daily® 2014 | Day Nineteen.

Just want to give you a heads up that the schedule for posting my pages the next couple of days will be a little more sporadic than it has been up to this point as I get ready to celebrate with my family.

Last night I surprised Anna by taking her to see The Nutcracker. Here's the story that I printed on out onto 4, 3 inch x 4 inch cards:

One of the things that Anna asked for this year was the chance to get to see the Nutcracker Ballet again. I took her a few years ago and she brings it up regularly - specifically the black dress she wore and the snacks in the Lobby and the pink Nutcracker I bought for her whose head had to be glued back on last year. I love going and decided to take her again so we picked up a new dress at H&M and then I surprised her but letting her know on Friday morning before school. She was excited and I was excited as I went about my work day. By the time she got home from school and activities she was tired and grouchy, the kind that’s a little hard to recover from and often happens on a Friday night after a week of school and activities and the holiday season. She did the best she could after getting into her dress and having dinner. Ideally she would have gotten a nap or at least more of a rest in the afternoon but that just didn’t happen. She was still excited, but touchy (I so know how that feels) and worried that we were going to be late. We got there plenty early (started at 7:30pm), bought her a new Nutcracker for her collection, picked up a couple snacks and found our seats. She was pretty much ready to go home towards the beginning of the first of the first act when she remembered that it was only dancing and no talking. She’s five, almost six. I understand sweet girl.

During intermission she danced up behind the seats and asked my to sing her a song while she danced. We visited the bathroom. I asked her if she wanted to leave and she still said no so we took our seats for the second act. Within two minutes she was in my lap and in the process of falling asleep. Within five minutes she was asleep and slept through the rest of the performance. I so get it. While she slept I watched and remembered going to the Nutcracker when I was a child with my Mom. I remember it as a magical event and while I was watching this performance I could remember the feelings of excitement and wonder I had felt during the mix of dance and music. I wonder if I was tired and grouchy when we went but today I have a glossed over memory? I wonder what Anna will remember of this adventure? Her beautiful pink dress? The new purple Nutcracker? Falling asleep in my lap? I woke her up as the last bows were being taken, a little afraid I was going to need to carry her in my high heels. She woke up just fine and then remembered that she had wanted to get her photo taken with the Sugar Plum Fairy. We walked out of the theater and headed right over to get her photo taken with her and then headed towards the car. This morning I asked her, “Anna, what will you remember about the Nutcracker?” “Taking a picture with the Sugar Plum Fairy.” she said. That sounds pretty great to me. NOTE TO SELF | Attend a matinée next time.

Here's a look at the pages in my album:

I had more content that I wanted to include compared to some of my past days so I ended up adding an "insert" to hold the story in the form of a page protector cut in half.

I cut the page protector using my paper trimmer and then broke my story into 4 parts to fit on 4, 3x4 inch cards and slipped them into the pockets.

Along the outside edge I added a 2-inch plastic label and stamped "the story of today" in pink on the white paper insert.

The photos (with the exception of the Sugar Plum Fairy) were taken with my iPhone. Definitely grainy but really the simplest option when it's just me and her and my bag and her stuff.

Here's a look at each of the pages outside the album:

Glitter star + embossed #19.

In the pocket next to the photo of Anna and me I layered one of the gold glitter hearts + a red plastic heart + a red puffy heart.

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