On his legs he had a bouquet of flowers that he'd gone to pick up with Ruth.
And on the floor, where Ruth had tucked her legs up against the front of her chair, there was a basket with mixed flowers in it. Sprigs of holly. White and red roses. And Ivy.
When he'd gone with her to the florist, he'd asked her about the unique arrangement and Ruth had talked about how she'd looked up flowers and greenery connected to the season. She'd even asked the florist to bring in the holly branches especially for the basket arrangement.
The florist had gone on to gush about the choices and how special the arrangement was.
Ruth had put a lot of thought, time, and effort into it and it showed.
Nick was already looking forward to greeting Katie after the show.
The lights in the audience area of the theater went to half and then a few minutes later, they went out.
The lights focused on the curtains, the only light in the room except for the safety lights near the floor.
The music coming through the speakers was festive and he barely avoided humming along to the medley of songs from the ballet.
Ruth reached out and grabbed his hand when she heard the music from one of the variations that Katie was dancing that night.
She gave him a squeeze and leaned in against his arm, and he could tell she was excited.
He was too.
This was new ground for him.
Being a part of the audience as a pair and a parent.
Before he'd been focused on when Katie would come out, but he'd seen the ballet numerous times before, so he didn't really focus in all that much on the other numbers.
This was different.
This time, he had a whole new perspective on the ballet.
He was enjoying the performance but also Ruth's reaction to the scenes.
It felt like he was watching it for the first time.
The lights changed and the dark red curtains parted to show backdrop with a Victorian Street Scene behind it.
Families of brightly costumed party goers passed from one side to the other.
Children playing in the 'snow.' A forgetful father who disappeared back the way he'd come from, only to return a few seconds later with a large red gift box wrapped with a shiny gold bow.
Ruth, who had popped in to see part of the dress rehearsal brightened when she saw the box held aloft in the man's hands.
Nick turned to see her wide-eyed smile of recognition.
That was box that would later pop open to spill out a whole company of toy soldiers.
From there, the ballet progressed with Ruth falling more and more in love with the ballet and Nick falling deeper in love with Ruth.
By the end of the first half of the ballet, when the first 'snowflakes' dashed onto stage, he heard Ruth's indrawn gasp of air.
He felt her fingers dig into his arm and he turned to look at her he saw a moment of fear on her face.
It hit him a second later.
This is when Katie fell during rehearsal.
