The Dixie Ball!

Finally, it's the post you've all been waiting for!! : )

I'm dreadfully sorry I haven't done this post sooner! I've been just swamped with work (both hard work like reorganizing about six years worth of piano sheet music, and fun work like five hours of writing earlier today. {Ahh, bliss!}) Well, I'm finally here again with the few dozen pictures from the Dixie Ball on New Year's Eve. (Speaking of a few dozen pictures, silly Blogger would only let me upload five at a time. Five!! *shakes head*)

The first thing I'd like to say was just how much FUN it was! I haven't been to a ball in about three years, and I was really, really excited when our friends told us there was going to be one on New Year's Eve. Arwen and I started working on our dresses almost immediately, and got them (nearly) finished in time for the ball. (Yeah, don't look too closely at my dress... the front was held together with safety pins!)

Let me also say that I was a little worried about it being on New Year's Eve. How romantic, right? That's exactly what I was nervous about! Well, I'm pleased to announce that there was no such silliness at the ball, and everything was done in good, proper, and clean order! (More on that later...)

I'll keep you in suspense no longer. On with our dresses!


Voila!! This is Arwen's dress that she made - very gorgeous, no? (What she would call gorgemous, lol...) I realized I didn't have a head-to-toe picture of her in it, so this will have to do. (Pardon our messy room!) This picture was taken with the hoop under it. I think it's beautiful with the hoop, but, as we only had one, Arwen was sweet and let me wear it while she wore a crinoline.

Me in my "gorgemous" dress! (In the hoop, too!) Ain't it purdy?! Arwen and I were trying to decide what character we'd try to be for the ball and I couldn't decide between Jo March and Rose Campbell (Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott - a great book if you haven't read it!!). I'm more like Jo - second born, a writer, independent spirit, and all! - and I eventually decided on her because Rose is a little too perfect for me. I have way more faults than her!! (It was weird, though, how things worked out that it was as if I'd chosen her...) : )

At the Ball

The back of our dresses and our pretty hair. This is us trying to figure out how to do the Posties Jig. (A really fun dance, and we were fortunate that all four of the guys in our group knew how to do it!!)

Ick, my dress was gorgeous, but it was a pain to move around in! (Also, not ten minutes after we got in there, someone stepped on the train in the back, popping all of the hooks and eyes. We fastened it together again and put a big safety pin on it. I'm pleased to tell you it only happened three times throughout the evening!)

Arwen in her beautiful dress and gloves... *sigh*

My younger sister in my old Brattonsville dress. She looks so carefree!! : )

Me and the friend that told us about the ball - thank you!!! - and our dancing cards. This is part of the clean and proper way things were done. We all got dancing cards when we came, but only the young men had the pencils. They would ask the ladies for a dance, then write their name in the lady's dancing card, then the lady would write her name in the man's card, both on the space for whichever dance they'd asked for. It was really exciting to see how that worked in a real ball - things like that are spoken of so much in Louisa May Alcott or Jane Austen books, but I never knew how it really worked. It was an interesting experience!

Arwen dancing with my dad

The friend who invited us and one of the friends we invited!

This one was hard! (Especially when a girl was supposed to 'be the guy.' That was confusing!)

Me and my younger sister

The Grand March! This was one my little brother could do because we just wove through people and grabbed hands and eventually wound up in a big circle. (Hard to explain...) Doesn't he look adorable?! He stayed with the girl in the plaid dress for almost the entire evening. (He had quite a few girls wrapped around his little finger! And I'm one of them!! HA!!)

Me and my "supportive" younger brother. LOL!! No, it just looks like I'm leaning on him because the camera is crooked and my hoop is sticking out. We danced nearly the entire second half of the ball together, which was a lot of fun! Thanks, Bubby!

Me and my dad doing that confusing dance... Fun once you knew what to do, but confusing until then!!

My little brother and the other little girl he stayed with. (I think this was the one who helped him move a chair back and forth across the room....)

Friends!!!

All of the girls we knew at the ball - and it's only girls from four families!! (Don't you love big families?!)

Yup, he's got me wrapped around his little finger, sweetie precious baby!! Love him to death!!

Hope you enjoyed reading about the ball!

~Eowyn~