The last day of Dragonsteel, I wasn't able to go because I was supporting Taya & Craiger in their "Dancing with the Hawks" Gala.
I woke up at the crack of dawn & made 50 breakfast burritos for the dancers so they'd have some good protein & energy for the long day they had ahead of them.
The Gala is like the "dress rehearsal" for the show. There is brunch served & a small dancing lesson given to everyone who attends the gala. The tickets are a little more expensive than the regular show, but it's our #1 fundraiser for the ballroom teams so it's wonderful.
I got tickets for Cadence & Amkaa, & Elijah & Lorien to attend. They really enjoyed the dance lesson before the show. They were so cute. You can tell they are so in love with each other.
The show was fantastic as always. This particular show is fun because the 8 students on ballroom leadership (mostly seniors) get to select one athlete or club leader in the school to be their partner for the concert. They have a couple weeks time to teach them an entire ballroom routine & then perform it on stage for a huge audience. They have professional ballroom instructors come in & "judge" the dances, then everyone votes for their favorite couple/dance.
(It's basically "Dancing with the Stars" High School edition.)
It is SO FUN to watch.
Craiger got to be in 2 of the dances (the first & last) as part of the varsity ballroom team & Taya got to be a guest performer with her JV Team.
Afterward, we were sure to say hello to our favorite dancers.
They are cutie pies.
Cadence & Lorien even went around & asked all the dancers for their "Autographs" which was SO FUNNY. Both the girls & the dancers got really into it.
It was a fabulous performance & such a fun filled day.
In December, Taya & I had the opportunity to attend Dragonsteel Nexus 2025:
Brandon Sanderson's big convention.
We also went in 2024 & it was SO INCREDIBLE that I couldn't wait to go again. My friend Jessica & her son also got tickets so we pulled Taya & Jonah out of school & all went together. It's a 3 day event & it was AMAZING. (Taya & I could only do 2 of the days, but they were amazing.)
Taya dressed up like her favorite Brandon Sanderson character - Serene from the book "Elantris." It's so funny because she finished another book of his ("Warbreaker") the week after the convention & has a new favorite character that she wants to dress up like next year . . . . Siri.
My favorite part of the Dragonsteel conventions are the in-convention game that the Dragonsteel team comes up with. Last year it was the story cards & this year was a mystery set on different planets in almost an escape room style game.
We had to find messages in Scadrian (we played the Scadrian team) scattered throughout the convention based on coordinates given to us by solving puzzles, riddles, talking to cast members, etc. Once we found the messages, we had to decode them to find our next puzzle, clue. We spent a LOT of time on these & loved every minute of them.
One of the tasks we had to complete was getting Passport Stamps in our Scadrian passport booklet so we could "travel" to other planets to find more clues. It's such a great idea because the stamps are collected from the shopping area booths so it gives you the opportunity to go in & out of each booth & see what they have to offer (awesome for the vendors), & still be involved in the game. I bought an Isles of the Emberdark ornament, but Taya bought all sorts of fun things.
And the hidden clues were SO HARD & SO FUN. At one point we realized we had to make friends with some of the other worldhoppers. We were Scadrian, but we needed to meet up with Nalthis, Sel, & Roshar in order to solve on of the puzzles. When we put all 4 world's passports by each other, it created a clue to what element we were all searching for in the game (aluminum).
So, overall, the game was my favorite part. We got all all the story pieces, got TONS of "investure" saved up into our little black bags, & completed everything to win our Worldhopper keychains.
I loved all the costumes & cosplay done for the convention. There were people dressed up everywhere & I loved it.
Taya's highlight of the convention was meeting the artist of "Warbreaker" & having him sign her newly bought leatherbound edition of the book. He even added some details to the cover with a sharpie to make her copy individual & unique to all others. She LOVED that.
We joined in on several discussions & panels. . . some with Brandon Sanderson & some with others. All of them were fun, interesting, & quite funny at times.
It's always fun going to some of Brandon's panels. My favorite was his "spoilers" panel where he answers ANY question anyone might have whether it spoils or not. It is so fun to theorize & try to see if we're right.
My favorite panel was on the 2nd day called "Dragons, Dragons, Dragons." It paired up 2 dragon authros (Christopher Paolini & another guy that I can't remember his name, but he's super popular right now too). They thought they'd be discussing their books & their dragons during the panel, but Dragonsteel through them for a loop & told them they were going to be given a dragon & they had 5 minutes to defend why their dragon is superior to the other person's dragon.
I'm not kidding, it was the FUNNIEST hour I've had in a long time. Some of the dragon pairings . . .
Valerys vs Charizard
Dragon (Shrek) vs the Enderdragon
Smaug vs Mushu
They were hilarious. The authors were super nervous when they found out what they were doing, but they got SO into it & it turned into comedy hour & the audience just ate it up. They did get to talk about their new books & their book series as well, but we sure loved that one.
The whole experience was magical in every way. I hope to get tickets next year as well. These conventions are the highlight of my year & I love them.
