Galleria Tree Lighting Show!

With all the fun packed into the last few days I was a little ill prepared for what the first day of the ice show would bring. The night before I did my usual check of costumes, skates, hair stuff, makeup, ect. It was all in place and ready to go. After my early morning Black Friday fun I headed home to get myself ready first and then have Jason wake up the girls so they could come down to my house to get their hair done. After about 45 minutes of dealing with that. We all got ready and decided it was time to head off to the rink.
It was 9am still 3 hours till show time. Plenty of time you might think but not really. There was three of us this year to be dressed and ready to go no later than 11:15am. So that means that about 10:15am we need to start getting dressed. Yes it really does take an hour to get three of us dressed, make up on, hair done and skates tied. Its a marathon unlike any one you will ever train for! And when someone or something should throw a wrench into your plans it makes it all that much harder to deal with.
Minutes before we where all three due downstairs I remembered that Wednesday night we had Hannah's skates placed on the stretcher to give her just a little more room till we could get her new skates taken care of. I sent Hannah down to the rink to get her skates while I got Ella ready and her skates on. A few moments later my phone rang. I saw Jason down at the rink waving his hands wildly to get my attention. Something was wrong, really really wrong. He told me that Hannah's skate need to take top priority in getting paid for ect. Someone had messed with the machine that stretches her skates and had ruined them. He at the time thought they would be ok to skate in for the show today and tomorrow. I said ok I would look at them and get Hannah ready. Hannah had not noticed it since Jason didn't mention it to her. I took one look and said " Oh crap this is really bad!" I tried to put them on and she cried and screamed. They hurt bad. After a few moments Chris said he would take care of it and went down to talk to Jason. He told Jason due to the severity of this situation he wanted to help pay for Hannah's skates so she would be able to skate in good skates for the show. While that was a wonderful well beyond wonderful gesture the problem now lies with the skates need to be water proofed and need blades mounted. This process takes at least 24 hours! I went downstairs and told Holly and one of the coach's Patty along with Jason that no way these skates would work the pain was to great and she was really upset. We tried a hundred different things it only seemed to make things worse. Finally after heavy debate, and Hannah stating she would just sit out because it hurt to bad, we did the unthinkable! We quickly had Patrick mount the blades to brand new skates that have never been broken in and of course not water proofed. That is a huge no no in skating but for this the sacrifice was really worth it. 20 minutes later the new skates where on her feet felt better and the stiffness of the new skates was a non issues. Phew!
The first show was a huge success. The girls skated great from what I could see. I did well too. I have to admit it was nice doing a show again. I haven't skated in that show since I was a kid. Ella was slightly scared of Dan "Santa" this year. He has the fireworks on his skates and its a bit much if you are a little kid. Guess it was a good thing I was there to hold her so she didn't get upset.
My sister Dana and her twin boys Sam and Ethan where there along with their two friends and my sister Cameron. We had a huge yummy wonderful family lunch at Mi Cocina after the show. I can't thank my sister enough for that yummy treat! She is a great big sister and I love her. Now we just need to get Ethan out there on the ice to skate! He has been wanting to do it and I want to take him out and teach him.
The Saturday show seemed to go a bit smoother. No skate issues this time. Jason and i profusely thanked Chris for his generous help in getting the skates and Patrick for his help getting them skate ready for Hannah. The other treat that night was having my cousin Traci and her Daughter McKenzie come up and watch the show. She treated us to a lovely, yummy dinner at the Grand Lux. That was some yummy eating. The kids loved it because they had their own table and got to place their own order. They where very well behaved I must say. Thank you Traci for a yummy dinner. It was super sweet and wonderful of you!
Check out the pictures of us on Facebook. They turned out really great. I think we all look pretty darn cute. Who knows maybe I will end up skating in a few more of the Tree Lighting Shows!