Sunday Scribblings--Anticipation

This word is forever tainted in my mind by the Carly Simon song. Anticipay-ay-shun, it's making me wait. . . . At least it preceded the catchup commercial using the song so I don't picture that condiment every time I hear the word.
Today I am anticipating the third performance of my son, who is 9 years old, in his dance school's performance of the Nutcracker. It is a wonderful performance but there has been a lot of waiting. Now I know how a stage mother feels. My little performer has to arrive one hour before each show and then I get to wait in line, hoping for a seat in the front row. The backs of a lot of heads really ruin one's photos, no matter how good the camera is.
I have lots of pictures already of the two previous performances but action shots in a dark room (no flash allowed) are challenging to take so redundancy is a good thing. The technical practice will help hone my photography skills anyway.
I am very proud of my son who is on stage for most of the first act. I asked him if he was anxious and he said not at all. I'm impressed. I used to have dreadful stage fright and only recently became able to give a lecture without visibly shaking. My shaky hands would probably still show if I needed to use a laser pointer.
I am also proud of my son for persevering in dance for the past 3 years in spite of being one of the only boys in the entire studio. He has only had one class with another boy in it. The current Nutcracker performance has 5 boys 12 and under but had to recruit older teens from another studio to play the more advanced parts. The good part about being a boy in dance is you are an automatic star among all the girls. When my son started dance, he had to work very hard to keep up with the demanding drills but now he can do sit-ups and leg-lifts with the best of them. He still needs to learn more grace but I imagine that will come with time.
The show is lovely. The older dancers are poised and highly competent. The choreography and costumes are masterful. Even the youngest dancers have stage presence.
After today's performance I can anticipate a holiday party at my house complete with the Hannukah specialty, latkes, made by yours truly. For those of you not in the know, latkes are potato pancakes. They consist of shredded potatoes, onions, bread crumbs or flour for filler, eggs, salt and pepper, fried in pancake sized patties in oil. The oil symbolizes the oil of the Hannukah lamps. Latkes are served with apple sauce or sour cream. They are greasy and fattening and good fun and I'm pretty good at making them, if I may say so myself.
So I anticipate "noshing" well and then I anticipate a hard earned, good night's rest.