Twas the Day After Thanksgiving

My happy angel in 2010

by Kim

 For the past few years my daughters have spent Thanksgiving weekend at the Eisemann Center in Richardson, Texas, performing in Chamberlain Performing Arts production of The Nutcracker. I've spent Thanksgiving weekend in the wardrobe room, attaching halos to heads and helping the "mice" put tights and leotards over tights and leotards. I also catch glimpses of little girls practicing the choreography for the Ballerina Doll or Clara's Friend, roles they dream of performing in seven or eight years. The excitement is contagious and leaves even parents feeling like children on the night before Christmas.

Hence my (somewhat pathetic) rendition of the famous poem...

'Twas the day after Thanksgiving, when all thro' the Eisemann,

are children so excited, you’d swear they won the Heisman;
The costumes are hung in wardrobe with care,
In hopes that Party Girls soon would be there;
The dancers wait impatiently in their Keds,
While visions of Dew Drops dance in their heads,
And the Sugar Plum Fairy in her tutu, and the Cavalier in his cap,
Must wait until January for their long winter's nap-
When out in the hallway there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to the door to see what was the matter.
Away to the dressing rooms I flew like a flash,
Alerted the chaperones to send the Angels, and off I did dash.
They wear dresses and halos like new fallen snow,
Smiles and curls bring “awwws” from the audience below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and Unicorns instead of rein-deer,
With two drivers, Clara and the Prince,
I knew in a moment, their steps would cause no one to wince.
With the grace of ballerinas, the dancers they came,
And we pointed, and whispered, and called them by name:
"Now! Bakers, now! Pages, now! Candy Cane, and Mother Ginger,
"On, Seraphims! On, Polichinelles! On Cossacks and bell dinger (?)
"To the front of the stage! To the back of the stage!
"Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"
As dry snowflakes before the wild blizzard fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the balcony the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of Nutcrackers – Clara and her Prince, too.

Happy Holidays!

My girls with NYC Ballet dancers Wendy Whelan and Tyler Angle

Photo credit: Deborah Downes