Giving Tree

Every year, I sponsor a family from our school as part of the "giving tree". Our school is the only "Title One" school in our home town and has the largest percentage of kids in the city on the school lunch program. (Title One means that our school receives additional federal money due to a high percentage of students who are from low income households.)

When I pick a family, I try to find a family that has girls about the same age as my girls so they can participate in the giving experience. So, today the three of us hit the stores today to do the shopping for our kids. This year we had 3 girls, aged 3, 8 and 9 to buy for. The older girls asked for bikes, but when the girls and I discussed the option of only buying bikes and nothing else or getting several smaller gifts, they agreed we should do something smaller.

Of all the years we've done this, La Nina finally got it this year. Sure, she shopped mostly for herself, but she wrapped the gifts and asked lots of questions about what it meant to be "poor". She actually understood why we can't know the names of the kids we're helping and why we don't sign our names on their cards. Her only struggle was why Santa didn't just give those kids more gifts, but she accepted that Santa likes to be fair.

The Magster was very involved this year too. She asked lots of questions and was very worried about the kids not having enough food. (Given that she doesn't eat, I found this interesting.) Her biggest struggle was not signing the cards. I tried to explain we do this not to get credit or thank you's, but just to share the Christmas spirit and some of our gratitude for all that is good in our lives with others less fortunate. She wasn't buying my explanations. Finally, in frustration, La Nina shouted, "Maggie, they aren't going to give us anything back." The Magster's face fell. Sometimes giving is hard to understand when you're only 6.

Last year, La Nina didn't get understand this whole process, so I know the Magster is about a year away from understanding all of this. I only hope that doing these little projects will help my kids grow into caring, giving adults who are grateful for the goodness in their lives...no matter what the circumstances.

Little Moments

On Monday night I won an auction to earn my kids the right to be the first kids to skate on the new outdoor rink in town. These tickets allowed the lucky kids to be two of the first five people on the ice. So, it was sort of a cool thing. At least I thought it was sort of a cool thing. Last night was the big night. So, we hauled the kids downtown for their big skate.

Now, my kids can ice skate. We go a couple of times a year, so they aren't total rookies, but they aren't great either. But they can make their way around the ice without clinging to the edge as if it were a life boat in the middle of the ocean, but they never emerge from the ice rink without wet knees and a wet bottom. No problem I thought. Sharky, the mascot for the San Jose Sharks will be there as will a couple of Shark players, the girls can grab their hands. They'll make the lap.

I broke the big surprise to the kids on the way to the rink and La Nina started complaining. I don't want to go out there. I don't want to skate. Everyone will look at me. I don't want to do it. Her complaints were many, long and loud. The Magster on the other hand asked if she had to hold hands with the Shark players, I told her No, but they would help her (and how many other women in the world would kill to hold hands with a professional hockey player?). She said she would be fine alone...and that was the end of the discussion for her.

We got to the rink and La Nina was still complaining. Given the passion she was putting into her complaints, we knew she wouldn't take the ice. So, hey, first five skaters, big honor, surely we could find someone who wanted La Nina's ticket. The first person we approached was perfect. Her niece, 8, had lost her Mom suddenly in May. The little girl had been moved from Colorado to our city after her mother's death. Poor kid, lost her Mom, then had to change her entire life within a couple of weeks. But the little girl had been a trooper and six months later she was settling in. This was the perfect reward. We happily handed the little girl La Nina's ticket and helped Maggie get in position to take the ice.

In the end, everyone was happy. The Magster was led around the ice, not by a boy, but by two lovely ice dancers who happened to be girls. La Nina watched from the side boards while her sister took the first lap. And we were not mad at La Nina for bailing on our big surprise, because our friend's niece's smile was a delight to see.

Two Different Views

Well, we survived La Nina's big weekend in Disneyland. She spent part of Friday, all of Saturday and most of Sunday back stage or dancing with the Disney choreographers. We spent the time she was gone either hitting rides she doesn't like, which is most of the rides, or waiting for her. The funny thing about the whole weekend is that while we thought it was perfectly dreadful, she completely loved it.

Friday, La Nina had a call time of 3pm. That meant she had to be completely ready to dance and at a designated place in Disneyland (Princess Fantasy Faire) at 3pm...not a minute late. SO, I left the park early, fed her, did her hair and makeup, packed up her costume and shoes and made it to the meeting point about 10 minutes early. She was marched off at 3pm and we were supposed to pick her up at 6:30. We knew she was required to bring a snack, which meant she wouldn't be getting dinner and we knew she was getting pictures taken and participating in a dress rehearsal, but otherwise, we really didn't know what she was doing.

While she was gone, we rode some rides and finally, I headed back to the meeting spot at 6:15. No kids. 6:30. No kids. At 7pm, Disney came out and told the waiting parents, it would be another 3o minutes. Finally, at 8:15 out came our little dancer. Now, I'm thinking, she has an early call time, she hasn't eaten, this is miserable. She came out hungry, but smiling. She told us about the side of the street she'd be on and how she made some new friends and she showed off her new pom-poms. Her dance teacher was really cool. Okay, quick dinner, off to bed we all go. We have an 8:45am call time the next morning for filming and a pick up time of noon.

Up early, hair, make up, packing repeat, quick breakfast, shuttle her off to the drop off point on time. As we're walking into Disneyland, we see throngs of people already lining Main Street to watch the filming scheduled for 10am, so we get stuck sitting on Main Street, because we want to see La Nina. The director comes out and explains he wants to wait for sun. So, we wait. The Dad shows up and he joins our wait. Some friends from group 96 show up, they start waiting. La Nina is backstage, so she's not waiting. Just us. Waiting. We debate the side of the street she's going to be on, we decide not to move and we wait some more. At 11am, the dancers march in along Main Street, looking absolutely adorable. I make a complete fool of myself yelling at the wrong kid and finally find my kid on the opposite side of the street. And we wait some more. Finally, the director yells action, kids start dancing and La Nina barely makes it to where we're sitting when the director yells cut and backs the kids up for another take. This happens 3 times. The Magster, the Dad and the friends bail. I switch sides of the street. As soon as I do this, the Disney folks reposition La Nina to the center, where I can barely see her. Director says it's a wrap at noon and we run off to pick up the kids.

Now, La Nina's second call time on Saturday is 2:45. All the moms are waiting for our kids because we have to feed them. 12:30 comes and goes, 1pm comes and goes. The moms are getting nervous. Food lines are long and we have another call time. Where are the kids? Finally, at 1:40 out come the kids. We grab the kids, run to the closest eatery, feed them on Disney meal cards, buy them more snacks for backstage and hit our second call time at 2:45pm. I'm tired, but La Nina goes bounding backstage as if the world's greatest shoe emporium were waiting for her. The big parade is at 6pm. This is the next time we'll see her.

As parade time approaches, we start strategizing on where best to watch her from. We decide on the side of the Matterhorn as there are benches and no crowds. We get spots on the correct side of the street, get the Magster a hot dog to stop the whining and again we wait. This time, everything is on time, no director to yell cut and the kids dance by. All the kids except ours. We search and we search. We can't find her. Finally, near the end of the 300 dancers on the opposite side of the street we see her beaming smile. She's having the time of her life. She shoots us a toothless grin and shakes her groove thing as she goes. Once she's past, we move to watch the real parade. I keep an eye on the time as I have another pick up at 7:30. Right at 7:30 out emerges my daughter, hungry but bubbling over with excitement. The Dad and the Magster have headed back to the room to get food ordered and La Nina and I make our way out of the park. As we're walking she casually mentions "oh, there were some dancers back stage tonight, they danced and talked about being dancers." I think she's talking about her friends, ask no questions and keep walking. I find out later it was Cheryl Burke and Tony from Dancing with the Stars. They did a demo and gave the girls a pep talk. No wonder she didn't complain about missing dinner.

Sunday. Worst call time yet: 7:30 am. The morning starts with La Nina refusing make up. She exhausted. I'm fine with her not dancing, but think she needs to come with me to tell her teacher. We leave the room, she immediately perks up. I put on her make up at the meeting spot. Off she goes again.

The Dad, the Magster and I have volunteered to be extras this morning. We're led into the park at 8am and head straight back to New Orleans Square. We're positioned in an alley, where Anika Noni Rose is going to sing the theme song to the Princess and the Frog and we're going to dance behind a band. At about 9am, this starts, but the singer only sings a couple sentences of the song and we end up walking may be 10 feet tops. We all back up and do it again, and again, and again. I stop liking directors. I think they are mean and evil people. The Magster loses it after the 3rd take and we end up sitting behind a wall. She's playing games on my iPhone. Now, I know that at 11am, I'm supposed to pick up La Nina and she's done for the weekend. So, we sneak out of the filming to find out what's happening with La Nina.

The Magster and I find her group. She's out on the SS Mark Twain waving a ribbon for the same promotion video we're extras for. It's a bad replay of the day before. Except we can't find her and decide she must be on the far side of the boat where we can't see her. 11am comes and goes, and they haven't shot the boat. Noon comes and goes, no boat shots. About 12:30 the singer is moved out to the boat for close ups. La Nina is on the 3rd floor, the singer is on the first floor. She never sees the singer. The boat shots finally happen around 1pm. La Nina has been on the boat for 4 hours by then. I'm worried she hasn't had food, water or a potty. It's sort of warm and she's wearing black. Yikes, this is going to be ugly. The silver lining I'm starting to see is that may be this will discourage her dreams of being a professional dancer. Maybe she'll play soccer again next year, this has been so miserable. The weekend has been tedious at best. Surely, any child will realize this show business thing is really awful.

But when she comes off the boat at 1:30, it's not what I expected. She's made new friends on the boat. One of the cast members discovered her Spanish and began speaking to her only in Spanish. She's been assigned a 5 year old to help...she's had a grand time. Oh, and that teacher she was talking about, turns out it was one of the dancers from High School Musical. And oh, she was learning some cool dance moves. No, she's had a great time. What exactly is my problem? No, she'd go back again next weekend if she could and frankly, mom, I don't know why you thought it was soooo boring. Clearly we were not at the same event.

The good news is her studio only does this once every three years, but at the moment that sounds way too soon for me..

Behind the Veil

Well, it's a big weekend ahead for La Nina. She will be dancing in the Disney Christmas Parade this weekend at Disneyland. But before you get excited, there isn't actually a Christmas parade this weekend. They are filming parts of the parade that will be shown on Christmas morning on ABC.

Not only will she be dancing down Main Street USA dressed as a snowgirl, she'll also have the opportunity to go back stage and practice her dance in the huge back lot area. This is going to be the most interesting part of the show for La Nina. She'll be allowed back into the areas that are off limits to regular park goers. She'll practicing in the same dance studio as many pretty princesses. She'll probably get a pretty good understanding of how to navigate the park from behind the scenes. I know where the drop off location is, and I know where the parade starts. The two places are not even in the same "Lands".

She's also be held accountable to some pretty strict guidelines for her appearance in the park. She's to arrive at pick up and drop off points with hair and make up done, but not in her costume. We're not allowed to carry any sort of a garment bag, yet her costume and performance shoes must be concealed. (The challenges never end for dance mothers.) We drop her off and meet her at designated locations in the park, but we're not allowed to assist her backstage. When she's backstage she's with her teachers and Disney staff.

After the filming is complete on Saturday, she gets a couple of hours off, then she's backstage again getting ready for the big parade that night. Then on Sunday, she's participating in the filming of a promotional video for the new Princess and the Frog movie. (The Dad, the Magster and I will be extras in this one.)

I'm so happy La Nina gets the chance to do something like this. It's such an incredible opportunity for her to do the thing she loves in a place she loves to visit. She's going to have such a great time.

Don't feel sorry for her this weekend either. She's getting a trip to Disneyland and she's getting rid of her chicken sister for several hours every day. That means the Magster gets to go on the rides she wants, when she wants. Matterhorn, Pirates, Haunted House, Splash Mountain, maybe even Space Mountain...all the rides her sister hates. Come to think of it, I think the Magster is more excited about this trip than La Nina.