Sunday, November 30, 2008

a magical evening

When the girls were little (4 ish) my parents began a Christmas "tradition" of taking them for an afternoon or evening to see a play or ballet, and then going out to dinner. It was the highlight of the Christmas season and went on for many, many years. They saw a number of different plays, but mostly saw the "Nutcracker" ballet year after year. The girls never got tired of seeing it, and with some really outstanding ballet companies that we have around here, you can always be sure to have an excellent show. As they got older, other things were more important and it wasn't "so cool" to attend such things, but they always had the best memories of it.


Now that they are adults, they really do appreciate the things that they got to do and see as kids.. and Ed and I hear it all the time....."remember when we did this...." or "remember when we did that..." it's nice to hear that sort of thing when you are a parent... and rest assured to any of my blog friends out there raising teenagers!!!! this too, will pass!!!! and great young adults will appear on the "other side!!!"

Our Kas is definitely a "romantic" and all the times that she was waiting for Nate on one deployment or another, she would talk about all the things that they would do together when "he got back" or "when they lived in Maine again"... well, seeing the "Nutcracker" as a family was high on her list... and so, last evening, we traveled up to Portland to see a performance. We stopped for dinner on the way, found the Auditorium without any troubles, parked close and enjoyed a great performance by a very talented ballet company. The Auditorium was grand, our seats outstanding.... but for me, the whole night was about how blessed we are as a family!!!! To have our girls and their guys such a major part of our lives... to have come thru the teen stage fairly unscaled... to really and truly enjoy each other... is a gift that is almost beyond words.


The "boys" were good sports... a ballet isn't generally something a guy would chose to do... but Ed, Nate and Matt went along with it, and for the most part seemed to enjoy themselves. The "girls" understood it better, having seen it a "million" times, and I knew the story from reading it to them ... but the guys really didn't get it. Still, though it was great fun and we will certainly jot this one in our memory books.



The other "thing" that happened is I finally got Duke into his harness and did some work with him. Please don't look too closely... this harness is a bit different from Tonka's and only after I had worked with him for nearly an hour, did I realize that I didn't even have the harness on correctly!!! Which might account for him being a little hard to handle. We certainly need some time together, he needs to get used to me and I to him. This picture here proves it... his head is held way high and his pace is jumpy... I can tell you, about this time I was thinking " THIS is a lot of HORSE!!!"



But, after a little bit, he began to feel better with me, and even started to relax a little. I find him to be super sensitive, and have to be very careful where I place myself. Being a carriage horse, he knows his work and is probably wondering "who is this person behind me?? and what in the world does she want me to do??" He is very different from Tonka and I need to remember that!!! I felt a little disappointed in myself for not doing a better job with him, but I felt that way when I first started with Tonka too, and I know that time and practice will make a big difference for both of us.


All in all, it was another wonderful day.. full of great things