I took the little angel to The Nutcracker yesterday. Since she is still in ballet, I thought it might be time to go view the big guns in their gorgeous new home downtown. I bought the tickets the minute they went on sale, back in November, for the Sunday matinee. Because I've never been to the new performing arts center, I just angled for the closest seat I could find to the stage, even though it was sort of over on the side, which can sometimes suck.

This did not suck.

It was a frickin' box. With five chairs in the whole thing. And a WAITER.

The coat check guy looked at our tickets and mentioned it might just be a box, and I thought, oh my gosh, I have never sat in a box in my life. My child's head will explode.

We wandered through the gorgeous glass lobby so bright I needed sunglasses and wound our way around to the box. 

We were the first ones there, soon to be joined by a sweet family with a little tiny girl who will no doubt demand to be driven to prom in a limo following this experience. My girl and I marveled at the view. We could see the entire orchestra from that angle, as well as almost every single person in the audience. 

"You know, I didn't do this on purpose," I told my girl. "We may never achieve this level of seating here again. Now that everyone's seen it, it's going to be hard to come by."

She grinned ear to ear.

The waiter came by and asked if we would like to order some holiday cookies or drinks for intermission. Why yes, we would! 

"Can you believe it?" she kept asking, echoing me, I'm sure, who probably sounded like the world's biggest hick to the family next to us with enough money to take a two-year-old who had to leave halfway through the second act to watch her first Nutcracker from such an awesome seat. But I didn't care. I'm not wealthy, and I don't get to treat my girl to such things every day. 

As we walked out, I hoped she would remember her first trip to see the Kansas City Ballet, the first time we sat in the new performing arts center and the first time we experienced the glory that is box seats together, just the two of us, giggling like idiots through the whole thing.

I know I will.

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Read my review of The Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life by Nava Atlas on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

Hello folks! I'm currently digging out after a few days away on a press trip (more to come on that front in the next week or two) and hope you had a spectacular weekend! Meanwhile, here are some handy/fun ideas to consider in this week's Weekly Blueprint:

Now through January 1: Christmas Festival of Lights at Edaville.

December 20: Hanukkah party at Inside Playground.
December 20: Menorah lighting on Boston Common.

December 21: Winter Solstice Night at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

December 22: Hanukkah celebration at the Discovery Museums.

December 22: Winter solstice celebration at Stony Brook.

December 22: Two opportunities to study coyotes.

At your leisure: Chip away at wrapping gifts, or if you're time crunched, pick up a bunch of gift bags to make your life easier.

At your leisure: Outsource. Whether for wrapping or otherwise, right this second I'm considering hiring a rabbit for an hour or two to take a little off my plate. My office, especially, is a disaster and needs organizational help.

At your leisure: Take care of a little grooming before the holiday photo blitz. The other month I stopped in at Infinity Beauty Salon last minute and was shocked to pay a mere $15 for a lip and brow wax.

At your leisure: Hit the grocery store for holiday baking supplies. I'm excited to make cookies with Laurel this week!

At your leisure: Do some preventative care. Whether it's yoga, walking, drinking hot lemon water with honey, or other tricks, take care of yourself. This is prime time for pushing too hard and getting sick.

At your leisure: Pick up mason jars or other supplies for little holiday treats. I have a big batch of magic salt awaiting packaging. I always like to do up some extra jars for last minute gifting.

Image credit: Edaville

I stepped outside one afternoon this week and my skin didn't register cold wind. It didn't register a temperature change from the air of the house. The sky swirled with gray clouds, but I laced up my shoes and grabbed a fleece jacket and headed out. 

I wasn't sure how far I planned to go. I wasn't dressed to jog -- I was wearing paint-spattered jeans, a normal bra, glasses. Maybe just around the block, I thought. As it started to gently rain, I thought farther. 

For once, I wasn't wearing my little hat. My hair blew as the scent of my wet hairspray released, then washed away. My glasses fogged first, then collected perfectly round raindrops on their nonglare lenses. Earbuds nestled in my ears, I made my way through the rain into what will most likely be the last warm day of 2011. 

I had to keep walking.

I started sweating inside my fleece -- certain I would release steam at any moment -- and listened to the music in my ears. Looking through my dappled glasses made me feel like a cinematographer following her subject deeper into the woods, camera lens be damned.

I ended up at my jogging turn-around point before I realized the rain had stopped. I wiped off my glasses and scuffed across the sidewalk, thinking I smelled lilacs until I realized it was the wet, dead leaves under my feet giving off that sweet smell. If I inhaled deeply, the smell came back as the ground underneath the fallen tree in the timber beside my parents house where I liked to go as a kid and pretend I was in Narnia. 

All too soon, it was over, and that perfect contrast of steamy skin and not-cold mist ended the minute I walked into my climate-controlled house and realized how wet I was. Inside the house, not moving anymore, I was cold. 

The next day the temperature returned to normal for December in Kansas City. I'll bet the leaves don't smell like lilacs anymore. There was something about that day, that misty rain, the temperature that released a little bit of summer into the air before sealing itself against the cold.

Hello everyone! I'm soon to depart for a press trip to explore a (potentially) family friendly travel destination (hopefully I'll have excellent things to share with you in the next week or so!) so I wanted to leave you with this roundup of 13 fun weekend picks to consider:

1. Urban Nutcracker at the Wheelock Family Theatre. (Boston)

2. The opening of the Charles Hotel skating rink. (Cambridge)

3. A holiday concert by the Boston Choral Ensemble and the Choirs of Marlborough High School. (Boston)

4. The Cultural Survival Bazaar's final event of the season. (Boston)

5. Family friendly Chanukah lights celebrations. (Arlington, Newton)

6. A gingerbread castle competition at the Higgins Armory Museum. (Worcester)

7. Children's choruses and orchestras at the NEC Prep Winter Festival Concert. (Boston)

8. A Christmas Celtic Sojourn. (Boston)

9. The Christmas Revels. (Cambridge)

10. Trains galore at the National Heritage Museum. (Lexington)

11. A gingerbread house workshop at Smolak Farms. (North Andover)

12. Santa (on Saturday) and Chanukah celebrations (on Sunday) at Barefoot Books. (Concord)

13. The final showings of The Velveteen Rabbit (see Lindsey's review!). (Boston)

Image credit: Urban Nutcracker

Recently I watched the first two episodes of Lifetime's new eating disorder reality show (yes, I really typed that) starring Tracey Gold called Starving Secrets. It's a subject I keep coming back to despite the ickiness of it, because only 30-40% of anorexics ever fully recover, and I did. I understand how hard it is to break the cycle. It's really important for that those of us who have done so talk about it, just so those still suffering know it is possible. And so, the show.

I really do want to like this show. I DVRed it but it took about a week before I watched the first episode. I was worried it would be like Dr. Phil, though I had high hopes because of the presence of former anorexic Tracey Gold.

After I tweeted about watching the show, I heard from Michelle Leath of unlockyourpossibility.com and michelleleath.com (her new bulimia blog), who is a recovered bulimic and a Certified Food Psychology Coach and life coach specializing in helping women create a healthy relationship with food and life.

I was eager to get another recovered woman's perspective. She had this to say (extended quote used with permission):

Although some may disagree with me, what I take issue with is not the exposure or the depiction of these women engaged in their (not so) private struggles. I actually felt a great deal of compassion for them, and I think its valuable for others to witness the pain and suffering that come with bulimia and anorexia. What really turned my stomach was the way these women were treated once they got into treatment!

Read the rest on BlogHer ...

When Laurel was a baby, one of my rookie nursing mom mistakes was attending a wedding in a regular dress -- meaning, one with an inflexible neckline and a side zipper that basically made it impossible to nurse without undressing. So when I started looking for nursing-friendly dresses to wear to a couple of weddings this year, after being completely underwhelmed by the nursing cocktail dress market, I was thrilled to land on the perfect style -- a dress that looks fabulous, nursing or not.
Basically, the key to finding a non-nursing, nursing-friendly dress is a stretchy material with a crossover neckline that will open widely enough to nurse. And here is where Ralph Lauren became my best friend. In general, I love the simple elegance of Ralph Lauren's style, but after I started prowling department store websites, I noticed that he clearly gets the perfect combination that is stretchy jersey, a trim silhouette, and waistline shirring and has run with this concept in a variety of lengths, colors, and sometimes patterns.

I wanted something other than black so was thrilled to find these two Ralph Lauren dresses on separate occasions:

I wore the purple Elsie dress (left; $130 at Lord & Taylor) to a wedding in California. The dress has a flattering deep neckline that makes nursing very easy, and a fitted empire waist with flattering shirring. The color is fantastic; a nice change from the LBD. And I found the red Casimer dress (right; $134 at Lord & Taylor) a couple of weeks ago when I was prowling the new arrivals section and ordered it immediately to wear for my sister's wedding this past weekend. The dress is already sold out online but it would be worth checking local stores. Featuring the same shirring as the Elsie (though not empire style), this dress features a stand collar and also pretty shirring at the sleeves. The color is stunning!

These dresses are both gorgeous in color and flattering in fit; I really liked having long sleeves on both since I haven't exactly had a lot of time to tone my arms (short of hauling Violet), plus it's perfect for chillier temperatures. And though I'm thrilled that these dresses work for nursing (I nursed Violet at both wedding receptions -- once while wearing the purple and twice while wearing the red), I'm also glad that they'll carry through in my closet once I'm done nursing.

A couple of final comments: 1) I recommend wearing Spanx with these dresses, as they are clingy. 2) Keep your eyes peeled for sales and coupon codes if you are shopping department stores for these dresses (I recommend checking Macy's and other department stores -- they all seem to carry Ralph Lauren). Lord & Taylor sends a lot of coupons by e-mail and post and I did not pay full price for either of these items!

On Sunday night, I developed a pounding headache. Maybe it wasn't pounding so much as squeezing, viselike squeezing, perhaps powered by Bank of America. My sinuses had become enflamed ripe  peaches wishing to explode. My forehead demanded pressure, but it couldn't be finger pressure because finger pressure is not equal all over. I needed perfectly calibrated pressure that could apply counterpressure to the peaches. It took Advil, a cold compress and cold on the base of my neck and about forty minutes of writhing in pain on the couch for my headache to subside back to just ripe peaches, less enflamed.

I am not a headache person usually. My mom and sister get migraines, but I usually don't. So I was really scared of making that killer headache come back yesterday morning when I sat down at my laptop and the backlight was brighter than Venus. I tried to focus on the little black marks that seemed to be some sort of language and the ripe peaches that were my sinuses raised their arms to begin conducting a sonata of revenge across my forehead. I whimpered and my co-workers told me to LEAVE, and for the first time since I started working at BlogHer, I do believe, I took a sick day. A whole one.

I slept the twitching, back-spasming sleep of the very ill on and off all day on the couch. When the little angel got home, I explained that I was dying and we would be eating mac and cheese on the couch while watching Cake Boss instead of sitting up on the Wooden Chairs of Doom at the kitchen table. Anything made of wood hurt my body, I explained, and my ripe peaches were having none of that vertical business. She immediately understood.

We got through the bath part and the books part and then she fell asleep while I reclined on her bed and tried to get up the mental and physical energy to go back downstairs. Somehow I did, and Beloved came home, and I went to bed thinking it would be impossible for me to sleep through the night after all that sleeping, but I think I might take up sleeping as my new full-time job, for I am so good at it. I slept all night long and probably could go back to sleep right now if I wanted to, but I don't want to because there are these black and white marks on my computer that I can now identify as words. I think there might be something I'm supposed to do with the words, and I'm fine with that as long as they don't make my head hurt.

I do think today will be filled with blankets and pillows and other Soft Things, though, and fuck those wooden chairs.

Today, Lindsey recommends heading to The Velveteen Rabbit this upcoming weekend:

My 9-year-old daughter re-read the Velveteen Rabbit aloud to me and to her 6-year-old brother as we drove into Boston to attend the Boston Children's Theater (BCT) performance of the story. It was wonderful to revisit it, though it wasn't entirely necessary, because Burgess Clark's adaptation of The Velveteen Rabbit is faithful to the story, beautifully paced, and clear to understand for audiences of all ages. The Velveteen Rabbit kicks off the BCT's 60th season, which features four other shows. Two of those are world premieres, and taken together, the five shows represent a wide range of subject matter and style and appeal to children from pre-K through high school.
The BCT's production of The Velveteen Rabbit blends puppetry and live acting in a compelling, magical way. The puppets contribute to the general atmosphere of wonder that pervaded the theater. I've never been in a room with so many small children that was consistently quiet for two 30-minute segments (the play has one 10-minute intermission). My children were spellbound by the play, laughing out loud at certain moments and watching in silent awe at others. The play is just the right length for its young audience, and keeps moving while never losing the particular enchantment that makes the book so beloved.

After the show, the actors all came out on the stage and participated in an informal Q&A session. The questions focused on how the puppet toys (the Velveteen Rabbit, the Skin Horse, the boat, tin soldier, and toy lion) moved and on how the few special effects worked. The BCT's Executive Producer, Toby Schine, was an amiable and welcoming host who led the Q&A. My children, on the older side in the audience, were captivated by the fact that some of the actors were almost the same age as they are. The child actors were visibly confident and proud of their participation, and it was easy to see the ways in which the BCT contributes to self-esteem and feelings of mastery for children.

The Velveteen Rabbit is playing at the Boston Center for the Arts, at 539 Tremont Street, and there are three shows remaining (one on Saturday the 17th and two on Sunday the 18th). I highly recommend the show for children of all ages, but particularly those under 9 or 10. Tickets can be purchased on the BCT website or by calling the box office at 617-424-6634 x222.

Laurel and I have made a happy tradition of attending Disney on Ice together the last couple of winters, so I haven't yet had the heart to tell her that this month's DOI show, Treasure Trove (10 performances, December 26-29), includes characters from one of her favorite movies -- Tangled. However, while we will miss this run, you need not miss out! I'm a huge fan of experiential gifts (no organizing or clean up needed!) and DOI always proves fun and entertaining for all (especially the figure skating obsessed like myself!). And how cool is this? The kind folks at Feld Entertainment are offering a 4-pack of Disney on Ice tickets to share with one of you awesome readers. Here's how to enter to win:

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
Congrats to winner Kristen!
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Rules*:

Simply e-mail contests@bostonmamas.com with "Disney on Ice" in the subject by noon EST, Wednesday, December 14, 2011.

Local entrants welcome.

One entry per person (please do not enter off multiple e-mail accounts).

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*One lucky winner (drawn randomly via Random.org) will receive four (4) tickets to the Disney on Ice Treasure Trove show in Boston on Monday, December 26, 2011 at 7pm. The winner will be notified directly via e-mail, then listed back at this post using first name only.