Beauty Routine or Salad Bar Accident?

Last night as we were locking up and turning off lights David said, "Ap, come here.  You've got to see this."

I followed him into the girls' bedroom and found this:

The other day Olivia asked me if I knew what a facial was.  Apparently it's been on her mind.  My favorite part is that she made little holes in the middle of the cucumbers so she could see.  That, and how very wilted the cucumbers are...we had a veggie tray at dinner and she must have surreptitiously taken a couple of extra cucumbers and hidden them away for later.  (Can you just see the wedding video?)

Savannah went for the more traditional (though admittedly less green) method of beauty sleep.

Yes, I am completely in-over-my-head with these two.  Forget about sugar plums, these two slept with visions of their sparkly eyes and radiant beauty melting the hearts of their "true loves."  Oh my.

3 Nuts at the Nutcracker

I have been waiting my whole life to take my girls to the Nutcracker.

Friday night was finally our date with destiny.

We went to the Arts Center where Ballet Etudes put on the Nutcracker and it was gloriously fun to be all-dressed-up and out-on-the-town with my two girls.

We had a dinner at a "fancy" restaurant where Olivia said with complete incredulity, "Wow, Mom, this is better than McDonald's."  As if she could hardly believe that was possible.  (Our cultural experiences are, apparently, sadly lacking.)  They even served sorbet between courses...the girls were in complete astonishment...sherbet before dinner!?

 

We only get about three times a year where it actually rains and Friday night just happened to be one of those nights.  And it was coming down!  Of course we don't even own an umbrella, so we were pretty wet (deluged!) by the time we made it to the Nutcracker.  I actually had to take off my heels, hike up my floor-length skirt and run for it.  The girls found this delightfully improper.

The ballet was beautiful, Tchaikovsky's music incredible, and my girls we're completely mesmerized by the story and costumes and amazing dancing.  I loved sitting in the dark performance hall, watching the expressions on my girls' faces as the ballet unfolded before them, and I found this night with my girls as magical as Clara must have found hers.

Get This Girl a "To-Do-List"

My Christmas decorations are not up.

Savannah informed us all at dinner, with utter disgust in her voice, that she is the ONLY person in her class who doesn't have their tree up.  By the time she got done telling us of this tragedy, the disgust had changed to tremulous sorrow.

My Christmas card is not written.

David "casually" said, "So, what are you...ah...thinking about writing this year?"  This is his way of trying to reign me in without stepping on the "creative-artist-at-work" land mine.  (Seriously, you don't want to be married to me.) 

Young Women's is forever needing something...this week it's a new counselor, a combined activity, and a lesson on Sunday.  I have not started working on any of these things.

And the list goes on.

But instead of doing any of these happy and worthwhile projects, yesterday I decided to put up curtains in the toy room and make a couple of pillows for the couch.

We have lived in our house for over two years.  But yesterday was the day.  Smack dab in the middle of the Christmas bustle, I'm making a cornice box for the toy room.  Plus pillows.

I've had the styrofoam for the cornice box sitting in my garage for over six months.  But yesterday was the day.  Thought I'd just whip that up.  Nothing else going on.

My sister Rachel said (speaking of crazy-inside-me), "I thought you weren't going to let her out anymore."

I said, "Yeah.  I wasn't."

I do think the little green pom-poms are darling though.

Monday, 1:43 a.m.

Our Stake Center burned to the ground on early Monday morning.  Which was completely surreal.  I had just been there the night before at a Stake Standards night. 

David and Caleb drove by on the way home from swim team and after viewing the charred remains Caleb said, "Is it the second coming?"

The girls, of course, heard on the bus on the way to school.  (Their little "network" is always up and running with the latest news.)  When they got home Savannah asked, with a little tremor, "Does this mean I can't get baptized?" 

I was as surprised at their tender comments as I was at the news of the fire.