So we say goodbye to another successful Nutcracker production. It was a wonderful weekend, but not without drama.
As I mentioned earlier, Philip got sick the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was the stomach flu that seems to be going around. It wasn’t the worst virus ever, but it wasn’t any fun at all. Are viruses ever fun, really? He took 2 days off work and was feeling better the same day I started getting sick. At first I was in denial. My stomach was hurting because of the fettucine alfredo that I’d eaten without a Lactaid the night before. Yeah, that’s what it was! And that chill I was feeling, that’s because the house was a little cold. Right? No. I was getting sick, too.
I’m not a good sick person. I whine and moan and wonder (aloud) why no one will help me already. So that’s what I did with my Saturday. Sunday I was much better, but not enough to go to church. Boo stayed home, too, because his stomach hurt and he was chilled. That’s about as much as he got and was up and about by late afternoon.
So that made 3 down, 3 more to go and Nutcracker costume fittings and blocking just 3 days away. I set everyone I knew to praying for Pumpkin Girl, praying that she would be able to dance. I worried and fretted and just refused to give it up to God. I don’t do that very well, especially when it involves my children. I just kept imagining me holding her while she cried her heart out over being too sick to dance. All that hard work, all those hours of rehearsal…ah, just too much for a mother to handle! So I fretted and worried and asked for more prayers.
Wednesday came and her stomach started to hurt. She wasn’t very hungry. Nerves? Gas? Something else? Who knew! She got ready for the costume fitting and Philip drove her there. He called me from the theater to tell me that she’d gone off to the bathroom and thrown up, but felt better. I cried. I shook my fist at the sky. Why, Lord? WHY? Couldn’t she have been sick on Monday?
When she came home she was nauseated and uncomfortable, but not feverish. Her first show was in 48 hours so we still had time for her to recover. And recover she did. We postponed Thanksgiving dinner in order to let her stomach completely rest and recover. Friday she had 2 rehearsals and opening night. Philip watched the dress rehearsal so he could stay home with Pipsqueak who, at 13 months old, is not a good theater companion.
Seriously, when will I just learn to let God be God? I do know that things don’t work out according to MY plans, but that everything really is ok in the end. And sometimes, my plans work out, too. And that’s what happened here.
I’m sure that the rest of the party scene was wonderful, but I only had eyes for Pumpkin Girl. She had a chance to do quite a bit of acting in this production and I really enjoyed watching her. She had a whole new on-stage family, parents and two sisters. She interacted with them all, ooo’ed and ah’ed over the life-size “dolls”, performed a dance with the other party children, got hypnotized by Drosselmeyer and cried when the Nutcracker got hurt. She and her sisters allowed their parents to take their sleepy selves home and on the way out of the party, she got a huge stack of presents dropped in her arms. I couldn’t have been happier for her.
At the cast party on Sunday, she was busy collected autographs from her friends and the professional company members. We got a picture of her with her parents.
I won’t miss the Sunday rehearsals, but I am sad that this Nutcracker is over. There is yet one more production to go, though! Her ballet company is doing a set of shows on December 20th. They sell DVDs of that one, so we’ll get to relive it as often as we’d like.
