December 15th...

Yesterday was the student matinee for the Nutcracker. With the early call time, Clara wasn't able to go to school, so we decided to make a day of it!

After the performance, we headed over to eat at the Walnut Room at Marshall Field's (still not keen on calling it Macy's)....
Thankfully my friend and I had walked over to pick up a pager before the performance, so we could get seated fairly quickly after they were done. It worked perfectly and we were immediately escorted to a table right by the Christmas trees...

For dessert, the girls ordered ice cream snowmen...
They were pretty cute! My friend and I split a piece of Frango Mint chocolate ice cream pie... YUM!

After lunch, we parted ways and Clara and I went off to find a present for her Nutcracker Secret Santa. Clara picked out something really neat! She can't wait to give it to her on Sunday.

Since Alex and I had already been there, Clara decided that she would like to visit the Christkindlmarket as well...
We made a quick run through and then were off 1) because it was getting pretty chilly and 2) it was time we picked Alex up from school.