Emily wins more hearts. :-)

I thought I'd take a stab at the post tonight, since I don't think I've posted for 6 months or something!

Today Gail (Chris's mom), Emily, and I drove to Marin to see a ballet called, "Sophie and the Enchanted Toyshop." It was an original ballet performed by student dancers at a ballet school called Marin Dance Theatre. Emily and I had seen the students perform a mini-version of the ballet earlier this month at Stanford. (You may remember from Chris's earlier post that that was a day of multiple pokes with a ballet reward at the end.) At that time we were able to meet the school's artistic director, Margaret Swarthout, the ballet's choreographer, Lynn Cox, as well as many of the dancers. That day, Lynn offered us complimentary tickets to the full-length performance for December 20. She gave us lovely seats in the 11th row which we thoroughly enjoyed. At intermission, Lynn found us, and may I just say that she was so excited to see Emily. She said that she was so happy we had come and that she had thought about Emily every day since she met her on December 3! She also said that the dancers who had met her were excited to see her again today, too. I had called the school yesterday, and this morning when Lynn got the message that we were coming, she went to see her students and asked them, "Guess who is coming to the performance this afternoon?!" And they said, without any prompting or anything, "Emily?" Apparently Emily had made quite an impression, to say the least! So, because of Emily's rock-star status, she was treated to a backstage tour (Her Highness let her grandma and mom come, too.) to see all the dancers again. And they were just as happy and excited to see her as Lynn was. Oh, how they fussed over her and admired her dress and special jewelry she was wearing. Emily could not help but brag to everybody that she got to go backstage at Nutcracker, too, and operate the house lights. Needless to say, all this special treatment made Emily feel very special.