December 11th

Saturday morning started with everyone gathering at our house for breakfast/brunch. The kids were excited for us to get done eating so they could open presents!

Waiting for presents...
(and Brynn)

The Radtke cousins....

Presents were passed out and then it was time to open them....
... Clara and Lauren opening up the Little Miss Matched stuff they had gotten each other :-)

Clara's new skirt...
And Alex celebrating his own pair of ice skates...
(he was sooooo excited to get these!)

I'm not quite sure how this came about, but later we had a We Cheer cheer off.

Here's Jeff's turn...
And Uncle Gary's....
Too much fun!! We all laughed so hard! Sadly, Jeff was the only one (out of the adults AND kids) to fail his level :-(

Next we decided to brave the rain and ride the Santa train. And while waiting for the train, I decided to get out my camera and get my settings ready. It was then that I discovered that when charging your camera battery right before going out the door, one should remember to put the battery back into the camera before you leave... sigh. Thankfully, I had stuck my point and shoot camera in my bag as well... whew!

Here are Clara and Lauren basking the glow of the heat lamp while we waited...
It's finally here....
Poor Santa was out there riding out in the rain...
The Santa train was PACKED! Fortunately the kids eventually found a seat...
... they look thrilled, don't they? :-) (Alex was at his matinee)

We rode it all of the way to the end hoping it would thin out a bit... but it didn't. So we fought our way through the crowd (it was CRAZY), took one last snap...
.... and got on a plain ol' train to head back home. By the time we got to our stop, it was pouring! It was really miserable outside!

Then it was time to get ready for the Nutcracker...
... the Radtke girls ready to go! Lauren dressed up to see the show and Clara ready to dance. Matching french braids courtesy of Auntie Jennifer.

I stayed with Brynn, while Jeff shuttled people to and from shows (Alex also had an evening show last night).

Clara said the performance went well last night... however, just as she walked on stage, she inhaled some of the "fog" and a snowflake!! She said that she managed to stave of her coughing fit until she was off stage though :-)