Valerie Cassity
Special to the Sun

Last Sunday, I spent the day with my daughter, Sophia, enjoying two of the events that helped make our holiday season a little more special. First, we went to see the Nutcracker at the Rabobank Arena, then to CALM to see the holiday lights. Having never before seen either of these fabulous attractions, I was as excited as my daughter to participate in these special holiday events.

We dressed in our finest to go see the Nutcracker ballet, which is put on every year by the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra in conjunction with dance studios in Bakersfield that come together each year to put on this marvel. This is the 32nd annual Bakersfield Nutcracker, and it rivaled any production put on in Los Angeles with the talented dancers that were involved. My daughter’s favorite part was the snow fairies; mine was the harem dance. We went with a group of Kern Valley families through the Kern Valley Fun Club, which is a coalition of families that come together three Sundays a month to enhance their children’s educational opportunities in art, physical education, science, and more. After the two hour production, a group of families headed to the park to let the kids run off some energy before heading to Rosa’s for a family-style Italian dinner and then to the California Living Museum (CALM) to see the holiday lights. I have been hearing about the holiday lights at CALM since I moved to the Kern Valley nine years ago, but had never been to see it. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was not the unique display that was there. CALM uses ropes of lights to not only decorate the zoo, but also to create moving scenes and create whole “lands” to explore, such as the dinosaur display where the dinosaurs actually move and the California wildlife display, where a bear catches a salmon that is swimming upstream while an eagle soars overhead. We also took the train ride, which utilizes the “back lot” of CALM to create a track where Santa drives an old fashioned car and frosty waves hello before you enter a tunnel of multi-colored lights.

On the way home, Sophia was asleep in the car by the time we hit the canyon, but not before repeating for the 60th time, “This is the greatest day ever!” I have to agree.