SAYING GOODBYE TO THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS...

After the Advent fast, our family is always ready for the fun and feasting of the "Twelve Days" from December 26-January 6.

In my next couple of posts, I'll be sharing some of what we did this year (book recommendations too, of course).

On the Ninth-Night-after-Christmas, I hosted a Nutcracker Tea Party for Nine Ladies (but only the four little girls in attendance did the dancing - my five adult guests happily looked on.)

The inspirations for my party were happy memories of my daughter's many childhood performances of the ballet, and a cute pop-up book of The Nutcracker, with wonderful illustrations by Phillida Gili.  You can go here to view a short movie of the book's pop-up action.  

On the first page of the book are double doors that fold back to reveal a beautiful pop-up Christmas tree. My daughter and I tried to create the same effect in our dining room: we hung a curtain across the doorway, pulling it back with great drama for the little girls as they entered the "Land of the Sweets", complete with my daughter's hand crafted snowflake ballerinas and our Nutcracker theme decor.

After enjoying our tea and sweets, the girls put on a little show of their own.  We were able again to employ our makeshift curtain, opening it with great bravado to reveal each little dancer as she gave her performance before a rapt audience.  We watched Clara, the Dew Drop Fairy, and the Sugar Plum Fairy (the Chinese Tea Dancer got a bit of stage fright).

I hope you enjoyed a peek into our TEA party.  Now you know why my table was all decorated for yesterday's Mouseton Abbey post.   My next post:  TRAINS!

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Printables for Nutcracker paper dolls and theatre can be found here. You can read my past posts about two other favorite Nutcracker books, one by Avril and Frances Tyrrell - here; the other by Susan Jeffers - go here. Lastly - directions for the snowflake ballerinas my daughter made are here.