And we begin

It's Nutcracker time at my rink.

Every year we stage The Nutcracker on Ice with nearly 200 skaters, about 400 costumes, and a parent volunteer corps of 80 or more. (Full disclosure-- that counts the parents who sign up, but don't show up.)

We've just finished the first week of rehearsals; I'm "choreographing" the tots, which, for tots, means getting them from one side of the ice to the other before the music ends. Last year we nearly had the soloist take off a kid's head with a poorly placed camel spin. This year looks like they can all actually move; whether they will actually move on demand remains an exciting mystery!

I got to choreograph my first Freestyle 5 solo, including a footwork sequence, which was very exciting for me, since my niche is Learn to Skate. I'm working toward my PSA Master Rating in Group and Registered Rating in Free Skating so it's something I need to be able to do, and it's great to have this opportunity. It's a "couples" number (i.e. two girls) so I also have some Pairs skills in it, which is also an area on the Master Group test. Fortunately, one of the girls' regular coaches is a former Pairs world competitor, so I'm definitely mining him for pointers.

The last group I'm working with is Intermediate Freestyle.

Thirty-eight teenagers.

Kill me now.