A Little Christmas Magic….or

The day I became Cindy Lou Who

This past weekend I went to a Christmas concert. The orchestra was divine as always and seeing friends was nice, but the absolute highlight of the concert for me was the entrance of the sugar plum fairies. These particular fairies were four and five year old "ballerinas" in purple tutus and fairy wings. When they tippy toed out to the familiar strains of the Nutcracker Suite and the first one hit her mark and stopped, the second one hit her mark and stopped, the third one hit her mark and stopped and so on down the line until the last one plowed into the second to the last one and almost knocked her down…. not noticing because she was too busy beaming and waving at the audience….. I was delighted beyond words.

And this was even before they started dancing.

When their section of the musical program started their teacher who was kneeling on the floor in front of the stage led them through their routine. They "danced" all the way through the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies without major incident and then beaming and waving at their parents in the audience tippy toed back off the stage. It was so incredibly cute I could hardly stand it. Especially the little wings bouncing when they tippy toed. I'm still grinning about it now while I'm telling you about it.

My delight in the fairies spilled over into the next segment which held Santa's arrival. He came in like a juggernaut and ran up and down the aisles high fiving children left and right; whipping them into a Christmas frenzy. When he had them on the edge of hysteria, he stopped at the front of the theatre and asked if the children would like to see Mrs. Clause. They shrieked "YES" and Mrs. Clause appeared with a basket of candy canes which she and Santa then began distributing. The WHOLE time this was going on there was a three year old about twenty rows in front of me shrieking "Santa" "Santa" and jumping up and down on her seat. Her father had a good grip on her but I was still concerned that there was going to be a need for the tooth fairy before Santa actually got over to her to give her a candy cane.

So there I was, sitting way in the back of the theatre because that's where my friend had found the source of all heat in the universe and was basking in it like a lizard…..beaming at Santa and Mrs. Clause as they distributed candy canes to all the children in the audience.

Well, here's the funny part.

And I'm totally blaming it on the magic of Christmas.

There were no children in the section of the theatre where we were, but Mrs. Clause made a bee line for me and gave me a candy cane.

I smiled and thanked her and ACTUALLY HUGGED IT TO MY CHEST like Cindy Lou Who in the Grinch.

AND I DON'T EVEN LIKE CANDY CANES.

So I hung the candy cane on a button on my coat that reads "I write therefore I am" and enjoyed the rest of the concert.

Afterwards my daughter [who was in the concert btw and was MARVELOUS] and I were waiting in line for refreshments.

She was telling me about the cookies that she had made and how each one contained at least five cups of sugar all by itself and that she hoped no one with diabetes tried one and then we were just talking about this and that the way we do with our chipmunk voices that get higher and squeakier when we get excited…..

And I noticed the man in front of us in line laughing and trying not to show it.

So I said to him something along the line of yes this is how we always talk and it was ok for him to be delighted by us since we were delightful and he turned around and introduced himself and we chatted for a while and I noticed that he ALSO had a candy cane sticking out of his coat pocket.

He mentioned that he thought he was the only adult in his section who had received a candy cane from Mrs. Clause. I said that I was the only adult in my section who had received a candy cane......

Then the world spun away and we were the only two people in the room and the music swelled….…..

Well ok, that last part didn't happen, but we had a nice chat and I'm pretty sure that my daughter and I were his version of the delightful thing to take away from the concert just like the sugar plum fairies were mine.

I love going through life spreading a little sparkly trail of joy…..

 

 

Happy holidays everyone….