Boston Ballet’s Nutcracker 2015

Sunday night, my mother, sister, and I went to see Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker. I am a huge fan of the Boston Ballet and the Boston Opera House. I go 2-3 times a year- definitely the Nutcracker every year, and then any other classic ballets. I have been to Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, La Bayadiere, The Sleeping Beauty, and Giselle. Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky ballets are my favorite.

Before the ballet, we walked around downtown crossings a little. We checked out the window displays at the Macy’s which were so cute, they were all scenes from the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Oh and there’s a Primark in there now?? Gotta check that out….

Then we went to one of my favorite places, the Boston Common Coffee Co.  We somehow snagged three seats, and got a congo bar to split (think one of those layer bars with chocolate and coconut), and drinks. My favorite thing there is the iced chai with soy.

After that we had probably 15 minutes before we had to head in, so we ran to the common to the see the lights! I snapped this lovely photo of a fully decorated Christmas tree, so pretty.

IMG_2600
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree…

Growing up, the Boston Ballet’s home was the Wang, a beautiful theatre in  Boston. I don’t remember when they moved to the Boston Opera House, but the first year they moved, we actually went to see White Christmas at the Wang instead of The Nutcracker. We suspect they moved because the Wang wanted to have different Christmas shows. Its not even called the Wang anymore, its the Citi Performing Arts Center (after Citi Bank). I also think the ballet has gone through ups and downs and maybe for a time wasn’t getting enough ticket sales for the Wang. In 2012, Mikko Nissinen, the director of the Boston Ballet, overhauled The Nutcracker. New choreography, new sets, new costumes….I’ll be honest, I love some of the changes, but even 4 years later, I miss some of the costumes from before. The Nutcracker has always been a part of my family’s Christmas celebrations. There’s something special about grabbing tea and a goodie before the show, heading in to the show and knowing to use the lower bathrooms, not the upstairs bathrooms, absolutely loving the show, and then talking about how we miss the green costumes for the flowers, or the pink Sugar Plum Fairy costume on the ride home. We love the new Snow Queen costume though 🙂

FullSizeRender-22
Boston Opera House
FullSizeRender-19
Upper lounge of the Boston Opera House- love all the gold, the chandeliers, and the Christmas greenery/decor
IMG_2611
The curtain for The Nutcracker
FullSizeRender-18
Painting on the ceiling of The Boston Opera House- gorgeous

This year, Boston Ballet is doing their new production of Swan Lake again, so I probably won’t go. In a couple months they are doing Onegin, so I will go to that one. Who else wants to go??

Signature 2

 

My Top 10 Christmas Movies!!

I am happily writing this post with a beer watching Lifetime Christmas movies, today was my last day of work this year!! I am drinking the Magic Hat Snow Roller from Vermont….it has a graphic of Jack Frost riding a snow wave, awesome.

No snow here though….Massachusetts has been warm and snow free thus far. Today it was in the 50s…and its supposed to get warmer until Christmas. Jon and I got rid of our premium cable this year to save soooo much money, and so now we don’t get ABC Family or Hallmark, the two big Christmas movie networks. We already had a good collection of movies going, but I added a bunch through Amazon.com, and all the movies still cost less than what we save in one month with the more basic cable #savings !!

Here’s my top 10 list for Christmas movies!!

10. 12 Men of Christmas- ok, this is the only made for TV one. It came out a few years ago, and can be seen on Lifetime. Kristin Chenoweth is so good in it, and its about her making a calendar of the search & rescue men from a town in Montana to raise money. The scenery and the romance between Kristin’s character and Josh Hopkins’s character is pretty good. Oh and Anna Chlumsky is in it, from My Girl? Throwback!

9.  Charlie Brown Christmas- Who doesn’t love the little Charlie Brown Christmas tree!? All of them singing together….its a good one, often on of the major networks at least once. I got a DVD set though that has the Christmas, Thanksgiving, AND Halloween specials, woo!

FullSizeRender-13

8. The Grinch That Stole Christmas (cartoon version)- I love the cartoon version….I don’t like how the Jim Carrey version kinda makes the Whos look kinda crazy & materialistic with the light competition and the Cheermeister stuff.

FullSizeRender-12

7. Elf- probably the newest on my list. This one typically plays on the cable stations almost on loop, but not having those stations this year means I actually appreciate watching this so much more! A few years ago I answered the phone at school, “Buddy the Elf, whats your favorite color?”….it was not received well as the person on the other line assumed I was a student answering the phone which is not allowed lol.

FullSizeRender-11

6. Santa Claus is Comin to Town- Rankin & Bass animated classics are amazing…this one is narrated by Fred Astaire…if you need more than his amazing voice, it also has some really fun characters like the Winter Warlock and the Berger Meister Meister Berger. It has a really cute story about how Santa Claus came to be!

FullSizeRender-14
This is a 2-DVD set with Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Comin to Town, and then some lesser known Christmas specials like Little Drummer Boy, Cricket on the Hearth, Flinstones Christmas, and Frosty Returns- awesome set!

5. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer- Another classic, the misfit toys, Hermey and Yukon Cornelius, Sam the Snowman…classic story about never prejudging/excluding someone because you never know when you might need them!

4. Year Without a Santa Claus- The last Rankin & Bass treasure on my list….I love the Snow Miser & Heat Miser!!

FullSizeRender-16
This one also has Rudolph’s Shiny New Year on it!

3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation- no matter how many times I see this movie, I still laugh hysterically at soooo many scenes. This movie was in the running to watch today with my students….I just couldn’t haha.

FullSizeRender-15

2. White Christmas- this one is on Netflix so I don’t own it! The music…the dancing….the costumes…..the scenery…WWII! Where to start!? Vera Ellen has the most amazing legs in Hollywood, and I love Wallace & Davis (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) together. The final scene with the red velvet dresses and the little ballerinas…love.

whitechristmas6
It’s an older movie, get it, watch it, love it

1. Muppet Christmas Carol- this one is a family tradition. We watch it every Christmas Eve and then my mom would read Twas the Night Before Christmas and then off to bed we went. It’s the best version of The Christmas Carol in my opinion.

IMG_2554

All of these are on Amazon, some for super cheap, like quite a few of them were just under $10 or just under $5. So worth it to have the movies, no commercials, and I don’t have to miss the cable stations we got rid of to save money. My parents are here for the week, and my sister is coming for the weekend, so I wanted to make sure that I had all of the movies we love on hand, and I was so happy about how affordable it was.

It’s been so warm here in Massachusetts (#greenchristmas), the Christmas movies are definitely helping to get me in the Christmas spirit! What are your favorite Christmas movies??

Signature 2