The Craziness that is The Eby Family: The Nutcracker

When I was a little girl, maybe 8, my grandmother took me to the Nutcracker for the first time. And I LOVED IT. After the show we met my grandfather out at Charlie's crab in Grand Rapids for a nice dinner. It was the first time I had swordfish, and I LOVED IT. These are childhood memories that are still very vivid nearly 30 years later. I didn't have a lot of bonding moments with my dad's parents, but I had this one. I loved the Nutcracker and I loved having a nice dinner with both of them afterwards.

Last year I decided I wanted to start this tradition with Rylan. Rylan and I haven't always been able to bond easily. She is somewhat of a girly-girl and I'm....not. She loves princesses and tells me she wants to be a ballerina and wants her nails painted and wears dresses and well...I'm not so good at that stuff. But I love the Nutcracker which has ballerinas and tiaras and princesses and people get dressed up to go see it and well....maybe this could be our "girl" bonding time. Not that I won't take the boys to see the Nutcracker at some point, but for this first time and hopefully every year after, we will do this.

Chris's mom is also a huge fan of the Nutcracker. Since this was a tradition I had with my grandmother I thought it would be nice if she could come with us as well. We were fortunate to be able to make all of our plans sync up with her short visit up north before Christmas. So it was planned. Rylan, Ginger, and me for an afternoon at the The Cincinnati Ballet's performance of the Nutcracker followed by dinner with everyone at Mitchell's Fish Market in Newport. It felt like childhood again :)

I bought Rylan a new dress and shoes for the performance. I even managed to put on a dress myself! Rylan, Ginger, and I headed downtown to the Aranoff Center for an afternoon performance. It was everything I hoped it would be. Everyone there was dressed up. Rylan was able to meet a REAL ballerina. We bought souvenirs from the show, a tiara for Rylan and a Clara Nutcracker for our collection. And Rylan met two of the little girls that were in the ballet afterwards. Rylan was a TROOPER throughout the performance. She had her moments of fidgeting and losing some interest, but overall was SO good. The women behind us even commented that she never got in the way when she moved around and was very quiet when she talked that it didn't disturb them - WHEW! I'll admit I was a bit nervous how she would hold up for a 2 hour performance...It was perfect. For both of us.

Afterward we met Chris, Pete, and the boys out for dinner. We had made a reservation ahead of time and lucked out with the restaurant giving us a private room. It had a wonderful view of the Ohio River and Cincinnati skyline. Best of all, it allowed us to be a bit more relaxed since we didn't have to worry about disturbing other people's dinners. We ate and drank and enjoyed a lovely night out.

It was a wonderful afternoon and evening. It felt so good to be able to share something with Rylan that we both truly loved. I can't wait to do it again next year!

Before the show