These are letters to Jack, my son, and my daughter, Audrey. You have given me the gift of motherhood. This is just a little gift back. I want to share my experiences with you of your childhood from my perspective of watching you grow - of being your Mom.

Friday, December 19, 2008

The Nutcracker Concert

Jack,

Your class put on a Christmas play this year of the Nutcracker.The kids were thrilled and all extended family was invited to come and observe the performance.We invited both Grandmas who accepted, although I confused them by quoting the time of 7:15 to 8:45 and failing to mention that was in the AM and not the PM so Grandma Rose was surprised when Dad came to pick her up in the morning as she thought it would be in the evening, which DOES make sense (I guess I should have thought about that a little more...).You were playing the part of Godfather Dresselmeyer who is the kindly uncle that gives Clara the gift of the Nutcracker doll at her Christmas party.You were dressed in a suit coat that just SWAM on you, and looked completely precious.You had a great time rehearsing with your friends before the performance began.From the beginning, the play went smoothly.You stood nicely and quietly watching your peers play their parts in the play.You looked so small and sweet in that coat standing there so patiently.Well, the play, although CUTE - went on for 23 minutes and there were TWO performances.But you were all attentive to when you would be "on".You stood quietly by and watched as the girls did their dances with their dolls where they made fun of the boys and the boys ran back and forth with their pretend swords and acted like they were angry with the girls.You took note that your classmate playing the part of the Nutcracker Prince, Liam, had a lot to do and was "performing" most of the time.Here you are giving the doll to Clara...And then you went back to "fix" the doll after it was broken...And your part was done.You were shy and proud of the attention.You were then given your sword so you could next participate when the soldiers chased the mice army away and waited for the cue to go back out on stage.The issue was that your part ended about 2 minutes into the play and there was a full 21 more minutes to go...You waited...And waited...And waited some more.It was about this time, that you decided that being Godfather Dresselmeyer wasn't so great and you asked if you could be the Nutcracker Prince and your teacher told you no.That's when you decided that this kind of sucked.You came to realize that your part in the play wasn't that big after all and you wanted to do more, but it was too late.You were devastated.Poor little guy - I tried to hug you and comfort you, but you were just so sad.It does suck when things don't work out the way you want them to.

Love,

Mommy