Josie's Nutcracker Debut

For the past two years, Josie has begged us to let her tryout for her dance school's production of The Nutcracker.

The first year she was too young and rumors of a rigorous rehearsal schedule kept us from doing it last year.  This year we decided to let her give it a try and while she had her heart set on getting the part of the dude that dances with a hula hoop, she was pretty excited to get to be a Snow Flurry.

The rumors about rehearsals were somewhat true.  We spent an hour or so every saturday for the past couple of months at the dance studio, but it wasn't so bad.  Josie loved every minute of it and thought getting to dance with the big girl ballerinas was the greatest thing ever.

The week of Thanksgiving was intense.  

Full dress rehearsals and 6 shows in 4 days.  

But it was awesome.  

I went to see the show twice and was near tears each time she ran on to the stage.  I had no clue it was possible to be so proud of a little girl skipping across a stage.  I know that I would have been scared to death to be up there, but she loves that big stage.   

Josie with the Snow Queen

There she is!

She looked so tiny up on that big stage next to the big girls!  Ugh!  My heart can't take the sweetness!