That's Dancing 2025 Winter Showcase Performances

The Winter Showcase at That's Dancing Ballroom & Dancesport Center had "Country Christmas" as its theme. We stuck to the theme with two dances, a Rumba to George Strait's I Just Want to Dance with You and a Foxtrot to Christmas Cookies, also by George Strait. As usual, they had professional videographers and photographers so I can pass on the joy to you!

As I look through the pictures, the opening looks an awful lot like the final bow!

Crossover Side Rocks or Final Bow?

The rest of the choreography was fun.

Underarm turn

Two-hand hold

Closed position

A fancy turn

Crossover Side Rocks or Final Bow?

The second song, "Christmas Cookies," had a more fun flavor, especially since it featured actual cookies!

The "oven" was our toaster oven from home but the cookies were real, as were the sprinkles that I didn't really sprinkle over the cookies.

Getting them out of the oven

Adding those "sprinkly things!"

The oven mitt that matches the apron was a new item made by a precious aunt (who made the original apron for a previous dance of ours, that one involving cake). 

Showing off

Ready for a change

About to get rid of the mitt

Originally, dancing our way back to the oven was just to use the floor space, but we hit on the idea of eating a cookie right in time with the music.

Going back for a bite

Yum!

Back to dancing

Swish!

The second time, when we fed each other, we thought it was extra-cute.

A bite for you!

Back to dancing

On our way

The first bow

We had a lot of extra cookies and distributed little boxes of them to each table, including the judge's table! The bribe didn't really get us anything.

Giving out the last box

The final final bow

At the end, we received the usual certificates and gifts.

With Carlos the studio owner and Christina our instructor

A beer glass!

Cute Kid Pix December 2025

More photos that did not make their own post...

We had our first snow storm early in the month. The schools had a two-hour delay three days before for a non-event so they didn't panic this time and our kids went to school in the inch of snow. Everything went fine. The snow was gone in two days, alas. Even worse, there was not enough for sledding!

Actually, we did have snow ten months ago...

I won a contest months and months ago and the prize finally made it to me! The Holiday Hijinks series is a set of 18-card escape-room games, so that box has a dozen games in it. I am looking forward to trying them out!

Thanks, The Family Gamers!

My youngest went on a Scout outing to Urban Air, a fun indoor adventure land. I was a chaperone so I was able to take pictures.

The Leap of Faith

High ropes adventures

You're being followed

Spider-Man routine

Wall-crawling, also like Spider-Man

He made it to the top

They also had laser tag, a VR game, go-karts (indoors!), and a Ninja Warrior-style course. It was big fun.

We had a second snow storm in the middle of the month which was on a Sunday so only Sunday school was canceled.

We had our lights up by then!

The middle of December is also the time for the Winter Showcase at That's Dancing, our ballroom dance studio. We had a fun time with the theme, Country Christmas, and danced to two George Straight songs (videos to come later). The gift from the studio was a glass perfect for a pour of Guinness!

Commemorative glass (beer not included)

We did our traditional Christmas cookie decorating with an aunt.

Working hard

Making faces

Results

Getting plates ready for neighbors

My son spent some time hanging out by the computer.

Okay?!?

We went to Savage Mill for a "flash mob swing dance," which means that some dancers showed up and played music and danced while people shopped. We did not get pictures of ourselves or the dancers, but did get a shot of the long line for visiting with Santa (and the fabulous decorations).

View from the upper level

Christmas was a lot of fun if a bit melancholy. We miss our oldest son but had a good time celebrating with family at home and visiting in Phoenix. More on that in future posts!

Winter Showcase 2024

Our ballroom studio, That's Dancing, had their Winter Showcase back in December. We performed two numbers in a delightfully full schedule.

Our first dance wasn't until the second act. We danced a tango and waltz comedy routine to I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango by Patti Page. My wife was the waltz advocate while I wanted to do the tango, as you can see in the video...

Nice swish to the skirt!

Interpretive stillness?

The "interpretive stillness" line is an ongoing gag with our instructor, encouraging her to make the choreography less complicated. The rose is a fake. For some reason, it has fake thorns. That was more desirable than the other fake roses I saw in the store that had petals going brown. Too much realism, people!

Our second routine was in the third act (we were the fourth couple to dance!). We had a fun East Coast Swing dance to "Red Light" by Indigo Swing. This performance was a more typical dance routine.

Nicely spun!

Wait, where am I?

Because of the song name, I acquired a light-up bowtie. It does a variety of colors and even flashing patterns. If that is not amazing enough, it also has a usb port to recharge the battery! I wonder if I can upload other patterns to it?

At the end, they gave out certificates of accomplishment and awards, along with announcing the theme for the Summer Showcase--Elton John. We have already picked out songs.

Each student gets a live rose

All the dancers for the evening

A thank-you gift from the studio!

Cute Kid Pix May 2023

More photos that did not make their own post...

The elementary school had a carnival with lots of outdoor games. My son's favorite was the giant inflatable obstacle course.

Finishing his run!

We had a Cub Scout pack meeting early in the month where my son received his Roaring Laughter belt loop. They played games and practiced being courteous. 

Awards and Handshakes

Uno with manners

We went to a local playground that changed since we were last there. Climbing was fun!

Looking over

Twisty climbing

I play the Mystic Vale app on my phone once a day and managed to have the closest game ever. If the score is the same, the first tie breaker is number of Level 3 advancements (on the left of the score), the second tie breaker is number of Level 2 vale cards (on the right of the score). It was almost a three-way tie!

Not a picture of cute kids, alas...

We went to Fairland Regional Park to find some geocaches and found some other interesting things too, like a scummy lake and a pile of snow (in late May!).

Algae!

Looks better from over here

Fun by the creek

Making a snowball

Don't drop the ball!

The park has an indoor ice-skating rink, so we assumed the snow was scrapings from the Zamboni.

We (the parents) had our Summer Showcase performance at That's Dancing which was a lot of fun. The theme was Tinseltown, so a lot of the performances featured classic movie songs or music. We had a tango to El Sheik de Arabia (maybe from a classic western?) and Psy and Suga's That That, which has a very theatrical video.

Merengue to That That

Marilyn admires our tango