My True Love Gave to Me...

LE and her baby sister {who apparently shall remain nameless at this time} received precious 12 Days of Christmas place mats this year from sweet friends, and I quickly realized just how much lung capacity singing that little song takes {try it a few hundred times, six months pregnant and see how you feel}. As I downloaded images from the past month and viewed my photo stream, I also realized that maybe, just maybe, if I use the 12 Days of Christmas as a theme, I might be able to squeeze all of our holiday smiles into 12 quick {ish} posts in the next few weeks month {who honestly knows with my lack of blog posts these days, right?!?}.

"On the 9th Day of Christmas, my True Love Gave to Me, 9 Ladies Dancing"

As much as Tax Man wishes I could place some parameters around this tradition, these little guys have a very special place in our holidays each year...

At one point he told me I could display three Nutcrackers total in our home, including ornaments... an impossible feat for a girl that danced the classic ballet at least 13 times in her life.

 The tradition starts even before Thanksgiving each year, with annual "Kingdom of Sweets" event, a fundraiser for the ballet company in our local community. An afternoon of delectable sweets, arts & crafts, a Nutcracker mini performance and even an early visit with Santa Claus never fails to deliver plenty of smiles {even when it falls on the Sunday immediately following our family's move to a new home!}.

Salt-n-Pepper friends taking in the ballerinas.

 And the tradition continues well into December with us taking in the performance.

First, ladies who brunch...

Followed by quick photo opps in front of the auditorium.

Their mommies shared the stage for many, many years, so it is such a treat to enjoy these moments together.

 Our "true loves" are pretty good to us!

Merry, merry wishes for maybe actually getting a few more of these memories documented. We have so many from this year!