Some things worked out well today and some did not.

What worked out well: our seeing the Nutcracker tonight. We took the subway downtown, and when I went to pick up our Will Call tickets (the three free tickets Grandma gets for being a subscriber), not only had they moved us to the orchestra from the balcony, but they decided to throw in a fourth seat for me, for free! We had close (though side) seats and it was all free. Thanks Grandma! We enjoyed the show a lot. It always brings back so many memories for me – bringing the girls downtown, getting them ready, watching the show a gazillion times, their many different roles, picking them up, analyzing the show (did he catch the rat? did anyone mess up? was it the good cast?), the post-show exhilaration and inevitable crash. It's such a rush of emotion there. N liked the show tonight – he paid a lot of attention – tho he said later that he didn't love it. We decided to leave right after clowns (before Sugar Plum Fairy pas de deux), and I asked N right before we left, "Are you 100% sure you want to leave?" He said, "I'm 99 percent sure." Then we watched about 5 seconds of the dancing, and he said, "Now I'm 100% sure."

We took the metro down and Daddy dropped us off and picked us up at Friendship Heights, so it was a very frugal evening. I love that the girls relive all their parts and roles when they watch. Tonight when we got home, they played the score on their phone and danced a lot of parts. It was so cute.

Here's what did not work out today. I went to donate blood at Sidwell and, as always, my iron was low. You need 12.5 whatevers of iron and I had 12. So I didn't get to give blood. I was very disappointed.