Here's To The Start Of Christmas

I know I am mighty early for the build up to Christmas but I just had to share a wonderful experience with you all.

I went to see Nutcracker on Ice at The Palladium Theatre in Oxford Circus. For me, it had the spirit of Christmas down to a T....on Halloween. It had moments of pure beauty, hilarity (granted, this was NOT a funny part but had us in stitches all the same---will explain later) and the true spirit of Christmas.

As the curtain went up, I could feel an excited tension coursing through me, feet jiggling madly and a massive grin on my face. To start with; I love ballet, love ice skating and love theatre so this had the potential to make my day from the off set. The music flowed over the audience in a beautiful wave of elegance and the scene of mice dancing around outside of a mansion set the play in motion. Children throwing snowballs and snow falling all around them made my heart skip a beat or two in anticipation of the next few months, the build up to Christmas.

The costumes were, as a whole, lovely. They really worked well for the skaters to move with a beautiful flow around them mixed with a real elegance and splashes of colour. The set was simple yet effective, the use of props helped create most scenes. The lighting looked simple as well but gave the stage a magical feel overall so in my eyes was perfectly beautiful (I know nothing about lighting but there you go).

So, the moment of hilarity? Let me take you back a few months to Edinburgh Fringe. As I have mentioned before in 'The Man Who Never Rests', Magic spent most of his sleep talking. One of these mornings when we were all sat around, Magic still asleep, he started to shoot air guns going 'gaboo, gaboo'. Naturally we all found this hilarious and it became a ritual before every show to air gun a 'Gaboogles' at each other. Now, in this show, an entire dance seemed to be dedicated to our lovely little 'Gaboogles' and every time they put their fingers up in the air gun, Magic (who came and watched it with me) and I were laughing so hard and silently that the chairs were shaking quite violently and tears were streaming down both of our faces. This was not amusing to the older couple in front of us, but hell, we LOVED it!!

This show was just beautiful and we came out of the theatre, champagne in our bellies and the spirit of Christmas in the air, laughing and joking and practically skipping home. with huge grins on our faces and the anticipation of Christmas lingering in our hearts. Happy smiles all around me right now, couldn't be happier!