Mara at the Romanian Opera

On Christmas Eve's morning Mara performed in the Opera Roman's children show, The Dolls' Shop. She is so passionate about everything related with ballet, no matter what, she worked in the last few month exclusively for those 4 minutes of dance on the stage. 

Her biggest threaten is to hear: "You won't go to ballet today!". 

Mara is just a little slave in the sea of small ballerinas, but she is so proud of her performance, and we are, too. 

And It Was Christmas...

I hope everybody had a beautiful Christmas, as we surely did!

It started with Mara's Opera Show, a gorgeous performance of young ballerinas, on Christmas' Eve, I'll show you the pictures tomorrow. 

And in the next two days, we kept celebrating in a very conservative style, with plenty of guests in our home, exchanging gifts and children playing. And... eating a lot, of course. Yep, Mara too.

Kindergarten Party - Mara

Because next year she will be in school at this time, this was the last Kindergarten Christmas show for our little Mara.

I didn't realize before seeing her on the stage how many roles, songs and dances she learned in the last couple of months. 
Of course not, she knows how to keep a secret!

So, she played the leading role in Cinderella, my beautiful daughter!

She did for almost two hours what she loves most: dancing, singing, acting. Again and again.

I'm sure now she needs more attention and more training in all artistic matters, not only because I'm proud of her, being her mother, but I can see how dedicated and passionate she is. Her memory is way much better than Runa's or mine and she remembers the words and the melody of songs she listen on the radio!
Ho, ho, ho! I can't wait to see her at Romanian Opera on Christmas Eve!

Kindergarten Party - Radu

Every winter, since our kids attend the kindergarten, we love to watch their Christmas show! 

Here is Radu's appearance, he was a snowflake in the beginning, then he danced and recited in English and Spanish! I'm so very proud of him!!!

After the show, he offered flowers to his teachers, they both were terribly amused and impressed of his gesture. Of course. He is only three and he acts like a man.

Letters from Santa

As in fairy tales, when the Christmas Tree was completely decorated, grandma brought three envelopes, each of them with our kid's names on it. With a pretty stamp from the North Pole (featuring Rudolf) and even a stamp! 

No, I didn't think of it by myself, actually Ada is doing that from four years now, is a veteran. She collects information from her blog readers and then she send the letters by post! So, the kids received them in the mailbox, truly believing that Santa Claus knows all their secrets! 

Radu and Mara have listened to me reading, then they were very busy gathering the sparkling hearts and dots from the floor. Well, me too, so we forgot to take pictures.

They were very happy to receive them, Runa read it with a loud voice, but hesitating, like she wasn't sure is true or not. 

As really good news, Runa still believes in Santa, and the little ones were so impressed by the letters, they forgot to fight today on the backseat of my car! 

We need Santa Claus to teach Mara to stop wiping her nose with her sleeves. 

Ideas, anyone?

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Well, we have again a real tree in the house, but I LOVE the fir smell on Christmas days and I forgot again to book a tree for rent it in time. Next year I will have it in my agenda, so I will call "The South Garden" and book one, then give it back. 

Because for a long time we lived in a small flat and we didn't have enough space to host a big tree, now we prefer a rich and tall one. We found this year our beautiful tree in Hornbach (a nice DIY shop) at a very affordable price. 

Because I was not in the best shape ever, I let Bogdan and the kids to decorate the tree, while I was taking pictures (and have lain, I should say). And, of course, playing up the DJ for Christmas carols.

Mara and Radu made the selection of the ornaments, they were really happy to go through all the boxes and to choose only what they liked.

Runa and Bogdan were in charge with disentangling the lights and the garlands, so they accomplished the most difficult tasks.

Radu helped with everything, from hanging the decorations to bringing water to the thirsty ones.

Then, came to me and shown how spoiled he is. 

Bogdan raised him up to finish up the decorating!

But, of course, Mara found something else to hang, and more, and more...

Runa knotted the tree's skirt and arranged it, using her aesthetic skills...

Then, we lit up the Christmas lights and the kids opened the letters they received from Santa! 

But, about the letters, a little bit later!