On Sunday we dressed up and I took Magda to see Riverdance at Bass. She picked it over going to see the Nutcracker because "it's GG's favorite show". Plus she's fond of an Angelina Ballerina episode that has Irish dancing in it.

Magda was enthralled throughout the show, though she was fading towards the end. She really liked the "pretty girls" but thought the men-only and non-dancing sets less interesting. I really liked the instrumentals (I had never seen Uillean pipes played before) but I agree with her on the vocal pieces.

Most of the dance numbers were pretty neat. I thought the inclusion of the non-Irish dance a mixed bag. The American tap dancing (Trading Taps) was fun and, to me, made sense in the story line. The flamenco was awesome (I've been a sucker for it ever since I'd seen Pilar Serrano on stage in Austin) but not really related to Ireland. And what was all the Russian dancing about? Could have gone without it.

Magda also enjoyed the variety of costumes - especially in the earlier sets - she digs anything that includes a crown or a tiara or has a flowy skirt. I thought that some of them looked inspired by Star Trek uniforms, but the long skirts were cool. And, once again, I noted how doing any kind of dancing in leather pants makes you look like a total douche (apparently you don't have to be named Flatley for that).

When the lights came up after the first half and we were headed out for some air, Magda (who's a veteran of several Broadway shows) said that she "had forgotten that these videos have an intermission in the middle". I think we'll keep taking her to these "videos" with real people in them.

We had another fun Mikuláš weekend in Dallas. This year it was on Saturday (Dec. 5 - when it's actually celebrated) and it worked our really well for us since we could hit another Holiday party back in Austin on Sunday afternoon. We drove up on Friday and stayed at Hanka's. Magda and Marty were having such a good time playing together all the time were were there. I'm not sure Ron was too thrilled with Marty dressing up Barbies with Magda. :-)

As expected, Simone thought that Mikuláš and his devil and angel sidekicks were pretty cool and wasn't afraid at all. She had the blast with all the kids, people and stairs (yay!) and was constantly milling around trying to get into things. Despite being quite intimidated when Mikuláš talked to her, Magda sang him Prší, Prší which we had been practicing.

On the way to the party, she said she thought that maybe the devil and angel weren't real, but rather dressed up people. And maybe Mikuláš wasn't real either, but rather Santa dressed up as Mikuláš.

On Sunday we managed to get back to go to Brian's Ho Ho Ho Holiday party. As usual it was huge. He'd built his kids a 500' zip line last Christmas which was very popular. Magda got to go three times and wished she could have gone more - and wanted me to get one for our backyard. Fat chance.

So far I've avoided putting up outside Christmas lights, but we did manage to celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season by making an Advent Wreath. In the past, we'd buy one of those gigantic Christmas wreath and add four candles, but then it ended up taking up most of the table and not really looking right.

With Simone mobile and climbing, it's not feasible to keep a wreath permanently on the table. So I went back to my roots and decided to make one, just like I used to with my mom (well, without stealing branches from the forest).

It ended up being pretty easy and inexpensive. At Michael's I got an 8" wreath form, some green floral wire, a bag of assorted cones and four candles. At a Papa Noel stand we scored free pine branches from their pile of trimming.

Then it was a matter of cutting 12-18" twigs, placing them on the form and wrapping the wire around them. I was going to glue the pine cones on, but we don't have a hot-glue gun, so I ended up drilling a hole in them and Magda attached them with a wire. Ditto for the red sparkly berries that came with the cones. Then I trimmed the overly-long candles and used pieces from a wire coat-hanger to impale them onto the wreath. We put some of the leftover pine twigs around the house and now it actually feels kind of Christmassy - especially now that it's cold outside.

Dinner time now involves putting the wreath on the table and lighting the first candle. We also wrap up dinner by singing a couple of Christmas carols before blowing out the candle. By Christmas I expect Magda to be singing several of them from memory (and Simone humming along).