PNB's The Nutcracker and White Elephant

This weekend has absolutely flown by... I can't believe it's Monday already!

South Beach Day 7 (Saturday) was a doozy. I was running around ALL. DAY. And it was also a day where we had predetermined that we were going to have to cheat some.

The morning started off pretty good, with 2 eggs. Only 2 because that's how much we had left, haha!

Then I left around 8:15 to go pick up my friends to drive to Carnation, WA for the Sweater Dash 5K with my friends Carrie and Sam. Recap is here!

I only had a few sips of this cider..

We got in the car and it took FOREVER to get back, and we hadn't had anything to eat. I had brought my chili with me to eat later, so I was fine- but we stopped at Whole Foods so they could eat. They brought me back a Non Fat Mocha (sooo sweet of them!), which I had about half of. It was sooooo good. No picture, of course.

After we dropped off Carrie, we drove to Sam's apartment to get ready for the Pacific Northwest Ballet's production of The Nutcracker. I was so stoked!! I ate my chili in a hurry while Sam was in the shower.

Old picture, but you get the gist.

We finally got ready around 1:45 and met JW and Aaron to walk over to McCaw Hall. We were cutting it pretty close - the ballet started at 2 and we left Sam's apartment around 1:50. Thankfully she lives RIGHT next to it.

Sam looking super cute in her hat!!

The boys

Thankfully we made it with about 5 minutes to spare before the ballet started!

Check out the little kid behind us, haha!

The first act was WONDERFUL. I loved it and I have to admit that I cried during Snow, at the end of the first act. The music is just so epic! Also I performed in The Nutcracker for 13 years in a row, from when I was 5 til I was 18, in my ballet studio's annual production. I never missed a year!

1994, on the far left! As a Gingerbread.

2005, as the Governess

2006, Snow Corps

During intermission, we took some pictures by the huge Christmas tree.

A nice formal picture by the tree...

Followed by silly ballet poses on the mock stage!

Awesome sculptures in the lobby

Then we sat down to enjoy the rest of the ballet. After it ended, I had to rush home and get ready for Snowflake Lane, so as soon as the curtain fell I was out of there. I was practically running to my car! There were street closures everywhere and I was really worried I would be late to Snowflake Lane. Thankfully, I wasn't! I even had enough time to quickly make a celery-hummus-laughing cow cheese snack.

Snowflake Lane went fine, as usual, so afterwards I booked it out of there and got caught behind all the holiday shoppers walking down the sidewalk - but finally pushed through so I could run to my apartment complex to get to my car, to drive back to Seattle for our White Elephant party. I arrived around 8:15.

The food options were sooo soo so wrong for South Beach, but I had to eat something because I was starving. I had a pumpkin maple cookie, two snickerdoodle cookies, a dark chocolate meringue cookie, a gingerbread cookie, some brownies... you name it, I probably ate it. I didn't have anything to drink, though, so that's good at least??

The Xmas spread (stupid camera, being blurry..)

One of the not-so-terrible gifts - a bacon kit!

"A Geek's Guide to Controlling the Universe"

And then... my gift. YEP.

Then everyone held up their gift and we took a picture. There are some questionable gifts in there, but I won't name any of them.

Silly picture!

Aaron and I got nostalgic for ballet (he used to dance, too) and decided to try the fish pose - seen here by professionals:

And our attempts:

Got it! Not as pretty, but hey, whatever.

We stayed and talked for a while, and left around 11. I had a great time - I was just exhausted from the day's activities!

My stomach really didn't feel great for the rest of the night, and neither did JW's - but thankfully it was only a few hours and one meal of bad eating and not a whole day's worth. Plus, I ran the 5K that morning so at least I worked out??

How many holiday parties have you been to this year?