Dancing with the Stars

Way back in it's first season we watched several episodes of Dancing with the Stars.  I thought it was alright, but it didn't really catch on at our house.

Something was different this season.  Maybe the excitement of having one of our very own Green Bay Packers on the show.  Maybe having our own little girl excited to watch it with us.  Or maybe the judges were serious when proclaiming over and over that this was by far the best season ever.  Whatever the reason, we watched it pretty religiously here this season.  Becky, Tabby and I anyway.  And sometimes Ben.

Tabby absolutely loved the show.  Every dance, "Dad, I love that dress.  And those shoes and earrings and that hair.  Will you get me that dress?"

Of course, often the answer was, "That's not really a dress, Tabby.  It's just a bunch of tassles."

"I love that tassle dress.  I want one."

"Well you're going to have to wait until you're old enough to buy your own dresses, I'm afraid.  I'm not buying that one for you."

Eventually she caught on that Becky and I want her to like the more modest dresses.  Then her comments became, "I love that dress.  I'm going to buy it when I'm old enough."

Ah, man.

So, anyway, the show.  Fun, fun, fun.  I mean, there was such a positive energy among everyone that participated.  They were competitive, everyone wanted to win, the bar was set high early and everyone worked hard to meet it.  But it was so obvious that despite the competition everyone really liked each other.  They weren't just cheering each other on for the camera, they were genuinely thrilled to see each other do well.

Our man, Donald won it!  woo hoo!

As exciting as that is, as happy as I am for him, I am kind of ashamed to admit he wasn't my favorite.  I mean, he was definitely in the top four.  I would have placed him third, but what do I know?  All of the top four were amazing.  I think the toughest vote to watch was the one that let fourth place go because only 3 couples got to the finals.  Any of the top four could probably have won the whole thing.  Especially tough because number four was Becky's favorite, TV host Maria Menounos.  She was the first to get a perfect score from the judges .

My favorite was Katherine Jenkins, an English Opera star who consistently got the top or near the top scores every week.  If I recall correctly, she was the first to get a 10 from the judges way back in week 3.  Well, maybe Latin hearthrob William Levy (who placed third in the end) got the first ten that same week, I don't remember who actually performed their dance first.  But Katherine got 2 tens and William only got one.  So there.  Katherine was also fun to watch because, despite winning week after week, she always seemed so nervous that she was on the verge of getting sent home.  Like crying on the verge of puking from nerves.  I guess she was worried that her relative lack of name recognition here in the States would hurt her in the viewer voting.  So every week she was just overcome with joy to still be on the show.

In the end I guess she was right about the voting.  She scored a perfect 90/90 on the three finale dances to Donald Driver's 89/90, but the Packer Nation pulled through and voted Donald the winner!  Tabby was happy about that. Donald was her favorite.  And he really was good.  Hands down he had the most fun dance to watch all season with his finale free style.  I  mean, so fun that one of the judges was literally up dancing on the table.

We'll have to watch for next season and see how it measures up.