December 16th

Yesterday was another point and shoot camera day.... the photo quality makes me a bit crazy when I'm used to my 5d... but then I remind myself that my other alternatives were to carry around my big camera all day (we were out of the house from 8:30 until 6:30) or have no photos at all.... I'll get over the quality if it means I have photos (and not have to lug that heavy bag around)!!

Clara performed in the Nutcracker student matinee yesterday. It's a little one hour performance of the first act that they do every year for local schools....
I was thrilled that she was performing in this because it meant that friends from her homeschooling days would be able to come and see her dance...
I put together an order for a homeschool group of tickets and we all met at the theater yesterday. It's not the same as the actual performance, as they don't perform with a live orchestra, but it was still amazing to watch... and her friends got to see her on stage for only $10 a person! You can't beat that! The question and answer period after the student matinees is also very cool to see. They interview the dancers, some of the children's cast and take questions.

After the performance our group went out to lunch together. It was so nice... the kids all sat at one table and had a great time hanging out together while the moms got our own table and got to talk with limited interruption! I think we sat there for at least an hour and a half!!

Clara had been called in to sub in the evening show (she's in cast A and last night's show was a cast B show) so we decided to just hang out down in the loop. We ended up at Macy's so Clara could write her letter to Santa...
and mail it....
Just a pic by the fountain in Macy's...
We weren't sure how to fill the rest of our time, so we went up to the "Holiday Lane" section to look at the ornaments.

Clara found the Nutcracker section and fell in love...

She LOVES nutcrackers! Gee... I wonder why?

She also picked out this as the tree she wants next year....
We went over to the railing and decided to look over, down through the middle of the store....
I have to tell you that taking this picture completely freaked me out. I don't know why, but for as long as I can remember I have had this fear, that when looking over a railing like this that I will just spontaneously let go of all of my belongings. I was completely convinced that I was going to just let go of my camera (in spite of the fact that I had the strap wound around my wrist several times). Strange.

After Macy's we went over to the Joffrey so Clara could get changed, I could rebraid her hair (big mistake) and touch up her make-up before walking her down to the theater. She was a little nervous about subbing last night because she had been called in to sub in a position different than her own. She was subbing for someone who is on the opposite side of her, and who does everything backwards to the way she's used to (she's the lead on stage right, and she subbed for the lead on stage left). But they rehearsed it with her both before the matinee and before the performance last night. She said it went really well... but she was a tired girl when she got home.