Christmas mood

If I was not in the Christmas mood already, I certainly was after Thursday. I took my mom and grandma to the VanAndel to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. My grandma had never seen them and loves to see them when they are on TV or in a parade, so we made the trip up despite the weather. It was great. There were so many people there and it was such a mesh of young and old. I regretted not taking my older girls to see it, but I am sure they will come back again in the future. There were amazing special effects and REAL animals. Yes, there were two camels, three sheep, and a donkey for the navity. I was truly impressed. Now I am ready to finish Christmas shopping and put up the tree. Yesterday, I took the girls to see the ballet of Cinderella. Our neighbor was in the show and the girls were able to go on stage after the show to give her a rose. They were very excited. It was beautifully done and the girls seemed to enjoy it. I loved that when Cinderella came out in her wedding dress, Mackenna gasp and said "she is soo beautiful" It was very sweet.

art

I have always loved the fine arts. I danced ballet for many years as a child and still enjoy watching a great musical. I am easily moved by great classical music and I find art galleries to be breathtaking. Today, my children were able to experience some of these great gifts that artists give us. We went to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts for their Sunday Funday and it was amazing. A young neighbor of ours is in the Ballet Arts Ensemble which is a very prestigious ballet group in the area. They performed in the KIA's little auditorium and their instructor based their dances on some paintings that were featured at the exhibit. The exhibit was called "Saved from the Storm" and was a collection of paintings that were rescued from the museum in New Orleans during Katrina. The songs that the young ladies danced to were mostly jazz and blues to reflect the New Orleans feel. My favorite was based on the painting "Dancer in Green" by Edgar Degas. After the performance, we went through the gallery and saw works by Degas, Picasso, Monet. They were beautiful and the kids enjoyed seeing names of artists they were learning about in school. They also had people dressed as some of the artists or subjects who were great at keeping in character. (Mackenna's favorite was Marie Antoinette) . Haylee, who is my little budding artist, was awestruck and asked again and again when we could go back.