The Nutcracker Ballet December 7-9th in Duluth
Your holiday dream begins with this sparkling treat, created by Allen Fields. At a party in her family’s elegant Manhattan townhouse a century ago, Clara receives a wooden nutcracker, who past midnight grows to life size to lead his toy soldiers against mice warriors. With Clara’s help, the Nutcracker triumphs and magically turns into a prince. Journey with Clara and her Nutcracker Prince, led by the Ice Fairy, to wondrous places of enchantment. “Gorgeous” Central Park, where snowflakes whirl. Exotic lands of Asian, Arabian, Spanish, and Russian dancers. Mother Ginger with her winsome troupe of gingerbread children. The regal Sugar Plum Fairy. Beautiful flowers led by the Dew Drop Fairy. Date: December 7 - 9, 2012 Time: Fri & Sat 7p.m. and Sunday 3 p.m. Price: $13 - $42 Go to the website for more information: https://minnesotaballet.org/performances/nutracker-test/
Bentlyville Tour of Lights at Bayfield Park
In 2001 Nathan Bentley first started decorating his home in Esko, MN for the Christmas season. For the next two years he continually added more lights to create a larger holiday light display; his home quickly became known as the “House with all of the lights in Esko.” In 2003 Nathan ran out of room in his front yard for Christmas decorations, so he started adding them to his backyard turning his light display from a “drive by” Christmas light display to a “walk through” light display. Santa Claus started to visit on weekends allowing children to visit with him while sitting in his very own life size sleigh. The larger it grew, the more help he needed to set up his display. Since Nathan was going overboard a friend sarcastically started to call it Bentleyville (referencing Dr. Suess’s town of Whoville). The name caught on with visitors and “Bentleyville Tour of Lights” was born. This same year live entertainment was added on the weekends with the creation of “Elfis” (half Elvis / half elf) played by Barry Pirkola, a local musician. During the summer of 2004, Nathan and his family moved from Esko, MN to rural Cloquet, MN to a larger home for their 4 children. With the new name of “Bentleyville” came a whole new vision for Nathan. To entice people to drive out into the country a larger and grander Christmas light display was being built. A 78’ x 24’ high entrance castle made of 45,000 lights was built to greet visitors. Over 500 illuminated snowflakes hung from trees on his wooded property. Dozens of light displays were created and new ones added each year. Live entertainment was added featuring area school groups and community musicians. Fire pits were added for people to gather around and roast marshmallows. Santa Claus was now a permanent guest every night at Bentleyville visiting with children and handing out a free winter hat and bag of cookies to all the young children visiting with Santa. A “Cookie House” was built offering free cookies, coffee and…
Tonic Sol-Fa Holiday show in Burnsville
(https://lifeinburnsville.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/TonicSolfa.jpg) Monday, December 10 7:30pm Although they are simply four voices and a tambourine, Tonic Sol-fa has spent considerable time on the road carving their niche as the nation’s top vocal group. In the midst of touring, this quartet has been named one of the top five “must see” groups in America, has been awarded numerous original song and album awards in pop, gospel and holiday genres, appeared on NBC’s Today Show and in the pages of Newsweek magazine. Outings with Jay Leno, Shawn Colvin, and Garrison Keillor have propelled album sales to more than 2,000,000 copies (mostly sold from the back of their trailer!) and have earned the group thousands of intensely loyal fans. Tickets are $32.00. (https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/06004969859232FE?artistid=845708&majorcatid=10001&minorcatid=1) Ticket prices include facility fees. Addtional service charges and handling fees may apply.
Holiday Concert season is here
Now that the elections is over it is time to start thinking about the holidays. It is one of our favorite times of the year and there are a ton of great holiday concerts and events coming to our area over the next two months. Here is a list of some of the better shows that you should check out if you get a chance. The Blenders (https://www.theblenders.com) have been delighting crowds around the country for over 20 years. They bring their annual holiday show to the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis December 14th-16th. You can get more information here (https://www.voiceplaces.com/the-blenders-minneapolis-st-paul-2583307-e/) Also look out for these great shows: Lori Line brings her holiday tour to the Historic State Theatre in Minneapolis December 7th-9th. Get your tickets right here . Trans-Siberian Orchestra comes to the Excel Energy Center for 2 shows on December 29th. More information right here . Elf "The Broadway Musical" comes to the Ordway Theatre and runs from December 5th - 30th. More information right here Sounds of Blackness return for their annual holiday show "The Night Before Christmas: A musical fantasy" at the Guthrie Theatre
Catch That Deal
My morning ritual for the past year or so has been to get up, take a shower, get the kids up and fed and dropped off at school, but at 8 o’clock I can be found on my iPhone, checking the daily flash sales that come pouring into my inbox. It all started out probably two years ago, when I was introduced to Groupon by a friend. One of the local kid entertainment places that we frequented was doing a deal that was basically half off admission if you pre-bought five of them. Being something we did a couple of times a month, I was thrilled to sign up, buy the deal, and use my discounted tickets. Every little bit counts, right? So then about a month later, one of my favorite restaurants was up there for half price, and since there was a limit on how many you could purchase, I made my husband sign up and buy it, too! Later when I was raving to my friend about how excited I was (and yeah, let’s TOTALLY both go use our groupons for dinner together!) she asked me if I’d seen the Living Social for this other restaurant… and that opened up a whole new world of great deals to me! Flash sales are a wonderful thing, whether you’re single and like doing new things with your friends, have kids and are looking for new or cheaper things to do with your family, or you’re a retired couple who enjoys going out to eat and catching a movie. Because all of these things are available to you, and just waiting in your inbox every day to surprise you! Some flash sales like Groupon are only open for one day, and some of the deals have limited availability. Others like Living Social, Star Tribune Steals and DealStork run for up to a week, and have multiple different offers available. There are even kid and family specific ones like Plum District. Some sell tangible goods like high end clothing, shoes, kitchenware and more (think upscale outlet mall at your fingertips) like Gilt, Zulily, One Kings Lane and RueLaLa. I have gotten some AWESOME deals on things that were really useful, and not just…
More cool ideas for decorating your apartment
Here is a cool video with a ton of ideas for decorating your apartment. This clip has a lot of examples of affordable decorations and furniture from places like Target (https://www.target.com) , Home Depot (https://www.homedepot.com) , Pier (https://www.pier1.com) 1 (https://www.pier1.com) , Bed Bath and Beyond (https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com) and others. Even if you are not into the style that they are going for in this video there are some great ideas that can be put to use for just about any space that you live in.
Good tips to decorate your apartment on a budget
We will be brining you a series of tips on decorating your apartment which will focus in on many of things that cause confusion for renters. What are some good ways to hang things on the walls, painting, etc.. Please enjoy this video which has many neat ideas to share on what you can do to spice up the look of you rental property.
Get out to the MN Zoo and see the new Amur Tiger cubs
The Minnesota Zoo (https://www.mnzoo.com/) has just put out on display two new Amur tiger cubs that were transferred over to them this past summer. Since it opened in 1978, the Minnesota Zoo has welcomed nearly 40 Amur tiger cubs. The Amur tiger, the largest of all cats and one of six remaining tiger subspecies, is a top predator of far eastern Asia. Amur tigers can grow to more than 650 pounds and measure nearly 11 feet in length, according to the National Geographic.
Lunchroom Blues
As September rolls around, and back-to-school shopping becomes old news, there are many parents – like myself – who are getting ready to send their oldest kid to school for the very first time. It is terrifying and exciting all at once. Will she make new friends? Will she have a hard time adjusting to her new schedule? Will she like her teacher? These are the normal anxieties any parent has when they entrust them to the educational system. While I share deeply in all of these concerns, the one most on my mind is… lunch. Yes, it has become painfully apparent over the past few months that I have created a food monster within my child, and I am in a total panic. Not only did she burst into tears when I read her the month’s menu for the school’s hot lunch, she also seems to think lately that I’m going to make her mac & cheese for every meal. I imagine she expects the same when the school year kicks into gear. So me, thinking I’m smart, I went and scooped up every kid and parent magazine I could find that claimed ‘healthy lunches kids love’ and ‘your first month’s school lunches solved!’ and ‘fun, easy recipes for school’. All I gleaned from sharing this with my daughter was more tears, and an ‘I guess I could eat the grapes or the plain carrot sticks’. And maybe even I feel a little bad for the kids of the ‘America’s Top Chefs’ who wrote the recipes (just sayin’). Now that we’ve established that she will not be eating hummus or cilantro fish tacos or heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches, maybe I need to take a step back, and get a little bit less creative. So I won’t be sending her to school with microwave mac & cheese, or $3.50 for a 500 calorie slice of soggy pizza and a scoop of canned green beans. But things are a lot more efficient and high tech than they were even a few years ago. They have awesome lunchboxes and thermal bowls that hold heat for 5 hours now, not to mention the awesome reusable bags for sandwiches and other snacks. I can send her to school…