The Nutcracker

 One of the things I've been looking forward to as a girl mom is taking my daughter to see "The Nutcracker" ballet. I have fond memories of getting dressed up in my fancy Christmas dress and going to see it when I was younger, and I even danced as a Mouse in the Nevada Opera's Nutcracker!

This was the first year that I've felt like Maren was old enough to really enjoy and appreciate the ballet (given the cost of tickets!) but I just couldn't find a time for us to go before Christmas, and then we were headed to Salt Lake City directly after the holiday. Then I realized that Ballet West's performances of "The Nutcracker" extended beyond Christmas and even better, going in Utah meant that my mom could go with us!

We started our outing with a ladies' lunch at the very delicious Blue Lemon and a walk through the new City Center shopping mall, with a stop in Nordstrom to check out the lipsticks at the MAC counter.

 

From there, it was a short walk to the Capitol Theater, where we posed for pictures before heading into the opulent red-velvet-and-gold theater to watch the performance.

 One other nice thing about going after Christmas--the theater was fairly empty so it was no problem to get great seats! We were very close and a had a great view of the show. I purposely chose a matinee performance because I didn't know if Maren would be able to stay awake in an evening show, and it was a good thing because it wasn't too far into the second act when her eyes got heavy!

It was such a fun occasion, one I hope we can repeat for many years to come!