My sister and I took the girls to see the Nutcracker this afternoon. It was wonderful! But no matter how good the girls were (they were perfect), how awesome the seats were (fourth row center), how incredible the orchestra was (it was amazing), how cultured, refined, mature and civilized I think I am, when it comes to the “Waltz of the Flowers” my mind wanders to High school, no, middle school — make that elementary humor —

Caddyshack. And the one time a year the caddies at Bushwood CC get to use the pool for 15 minutes. My mind drifts off to Judge Smails, Spalding, Noonan, Ty, and of course Carl Spackler and the infamous Baby Ruth scene. My second thought is of my dad the first time he and my mom took us to the Nutcracker and when that exact same part of the ballet started, he playfully kicked the both of us and tried with all of his might not to break up laughing out loud. My mom gave us all the “church stare” — don’t embarrass me again look.

Ahhh, culture!

Sugarplum fairies

The girls checking out the orchestra

nice rat

Let’s ruin our new clothes!

YIKES! I’m so not ready!!!

Last Monday was the shoot for the Blood Center. We all had a blast. Johnny is the only person they have ever asked to do two years in a row of commercials — pretty cool. We got there about 5:30 and didn’t get home until almost 10pm. This commercial is different than the others because they had one donor and 12 recipients that represent the amount of people one person can save a year — TWELVE. The donor (Matt) talks about how giving just once can save 3 lives, twice six lives, three nine lives, and four times a year saves 12 lives. And each time, three more recipients walks into the frame.

Then they taped one spot with Matt and Johnny, and Matt is holding an apple and says something like “this represents the number of people who are eligible to donate, and this is the amount of people that actual do (he takes the tiny stem off the apple that represent the number of donors)”. Then he throws the apple to Johnny and Johnny says something like “donate once a quarter and commit for life”, and takes a big awkward bite of the apple (I washed it before he bit it).

And scene….

I thought that Johnny was going to kill me after the shoot. He looked so serious, there was a lot of standing around, waiting, and do-overs because someone didn’t stand in the correct spot or say the correct line. When the director said “cut”, Johnny would shake his body, stretch his arms, legs and neck like he was getting ready to run a marathon or something. Then he’d take a big breath and do his thing.

We get in the car about 9pm, and the first thing out of his mouth is “THAT WAS FUN!”. Joey and Sophie both chimed in “yeah, we had fun too!”. Well, I guess your kids never stop surprising you…

They all know how important donating is, the other day I overheard Sophie playing dolls and one of them was donating blood. It’s so important — there is no substitute for blood, it’s easy, and you can be a hero while you eat cookies, watch tv or read US Magazine.

Merry Christmas and Donate blood!