An evening to remember

Tonight, Gillian and I had a girl's night out of just the two of us. I took her to see the Nutcracker ballet performed by the San Francisco Ballet assemble. We absolutely enjoyed it. Gillian was so excited to be with me, and she talked incessantly on our way there. When we got there she was so enchanted with the opera house, the souvenir shop, the hall, and above all with the idea that she was going to see the ballet live. I couldn't get enough of Gillian's excitement. Her purity and simplicity was true joy to me. She was dressed as the Snow Queen and she looked beautiful.


When the show started, she held on to my hand and would squeeze it when she liked something. I loved her comments throughout the evening. She would say "How very gracefully the Queen dances!" or "That Chinese dancer needs to slow down; he is too quick for my eyes," or "That Arabian dancer moves her body so easily,"or "That was just breathtaking!" We loved the music, the costumes, the creativity of the stage, and the choreography. However, I have to say, my favorite thing was being able to share this evening with my daughter. I enjoyed it more listening to her sharing her impressions with me throughout the production than the ballet itself. I'm so glad I was able to make such a special memory with my sweet Gillian.

After the ballet was over, we meandered a bit through out the Opera House, stopping first at the Souvenir shop. I told Gillian she could pick anything in the shop to have as a remembrance of our evening. She decided on a Christmas ornament. First, she chose a simple ballerina, and then she picked the fairy princess. I was just happy seeing her so enchanted with everything.


Afterward, we walked around outside seeing all the buildings decorated for Christmas. We were talking about the ballet, the music, the Christmas lights, as if we were two close friends. It felt good to see my daughter feel so comfortable with her mother.


She fell asleep on the way back, but woke up when we got home. She wanted to tell her father everything. We put her fairy princess up on the tree, and then I had my princess go to sleep. What a beautiful evening! I went to sleep happily myself knowing that there will many more of these kinds of evenings between my daughter and me.

Jelly Belly Factory

Wednesday is our designated field trip day (not that we need one). Gillian finishes school early, so I try to take the children to see something fun and educational. Today, we decided to go to the Jelly Belly Factory and take one of their free tours. We picked up Emily, Gillian's friend, and headed toward the factory. It took us around 25 minutes, and the trip there was pretty. I know you are tired of hearing how beautiful California is in spring, so I won't say how beautiful California is in spring. When we got there we waited on line for the next available tour. Meanwhile, the children were able to taste some of the jelly beans at the tasting station. I was so proud of the children. They asked to go and taste some only twice. They were very polite. I saw some children who went to ask more than ten times and each time they would have their hands full.
Our tour started shortly and we were able to watch the jelly beans in all the four stages of their creation. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but I promise it was a sight to see all the many colors of the jelly beans. There are around 50 flavors, and I asked the children what was their favorite. Gillian liked mango, Jefferson liked green apple, and James liked juicy pear
(coincidentally Gillian loves mango fruit, Jefferson eats only apples, and James devours two to three pears a day). Here is some information I got out of Jelly Belly Factory's official site:

The Journey

Back in 1976, a Los Angeles candy distributor had an idea for a jelly bean made with natural flavorings. So he called up the candymakers at Jelly Belly (formerly known as Herman Goelitz Candy Co.) who had a reputation for making the very best candies. Creating "true-to-life" flavors was, well, a natural evolution. The candymakers cooked up a recipe for a new kind of jelly bean -- intensely flavored throughout, with natural ingredients for flavoring whenever possible. In 1976 the first eight Jelly Belly flavors were born: Very Cherry, Lemon, Cream Soda, Tangerine, Green Apple, Root Beer, Grape and Licorice. Funny enough they are still some of the most popular flavors made.
A furor arose when people tasted Jelly Belly beans for the first time. Wow, what flavor! Soon Jelly Belly became the favorite candy of Ronald Reagan, who eventually made the beans a staple in the Oval Office and on Air Force One after he was elected president. President Reagan's passion for jelly beans inspired Blueberry flavor, which was cooked up so he could serve red, white, and blue beans at his inaugural parties. Diplomats and world leaders clamored to have Jelly Belly beans. And guess what? Jelly Belly was also the first jelly bean in outer space. Free floating, weightless Jelly Belly beans were sent on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983 as a presidential surprise for the astronauts. Coincidentally, it was the same mission that boasted another bit of history -- the first American female astronaut, Sally Ride. Today, Jelly Belly is the world's #1 gourmet jelly bean, the bean of choice for all those with the most discerning taste, and made in 50 amazing and tasty flavors.

The tour was very educational and the children, Gillian especially, liked learning about how the jelly beans were made. Their favorite part was when they learned that there were some jelly belly beans that were called flops because they were either too big or too small, and as such not suitable for carrying their name. The children decided they were going to purchase the Jelly Belly Flops. Seeing them being made and learning how much sugar went in them, kind of took my desire to eat them away. The Jelly Belly Beans are some of my favorite candy. However, I had promised the children I would buy some for them and their dad, so we went to the store after the tour and purchased some. The Jelly Belly Flops were a hit.

Mom, the best entertainer in town

Tonight, when I went to say good night to the children, Gillian was playing with the leap frog touch pad books. I don't know if you know what these books are. My friend, Katherine, gave those to us for Jefferson some time ago. They come accompanied by books and cartridges for each book. Anyways, these are for James' age, but Gillian and Jefferson love to listen and play with them as well. One of the books talks about classical music, starting with different kinds of instruments and voices, and then speaking about specific composers. When I entered the room, Jefferson and James had joined Gillian in her bed and all of them were listening to the different characters of Mozart' Magic Flute. I started to imitate all of the different voices making faces in the process. The children started laughing. Then, they moved on to Tschaikovsky and his Nutcracker ballet. They would point the pointer to each dancer and I would dance it to the best of my abilities. I would do the shy Chinese dancer, the fast Russian dancer (Jefferson's favorite), the pretty flower dancer, the Spanish flamingo dancer (Gillian's favorite), and the exotic Arabian dancer (James' favorite). After they had enough of all of the dances, they started playing with me. They would point to one dancer for few seconds and then move the pointer to another. This went on for a little while. They kept laughing at their mom who one second would be the demure Chinese dancer and in another she would try to be the fast Russian dancer. James kept laughing and laughing as I would do the Arabian dancer moving my hips and arms. Elijah was not able to enjoy my entertainment; he was trying to take care of our taxes. By the time I was done entertaining my children, I was done for, totally our of breath. Just because I don't want you to visualize me dancing the Arabian dance, here is a professional ballet dancer for you: