And Finally, The Concert

After all our festivities in Salt Lake, the moment finally came that had brought about the whole trip- the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.

The boys and I parted ways with Glenn and the Ericksons and stood in line to get into the Conference Center.  I was a little surprised at my own giddiness once our tickets were scanned and we were riding the escalator up to our nosebleed seats.  I was so excited to be there (the boys were excited too, despite their totally fake smiles in the picture)!

The concert was everything we hoped it would be.  It held the boys’ attention for the whole thing, even though it didn’t start until past their bedtime.  Adam was exactly the type of concert-goer they were appealing to when they lowered the age from 8 to 5.  He was so thrilled the whole time that he would loudly giggle and exclaim at all the exciting moments.  His laugh was so full of joy and excitement that people in the rows surrounding us all craned their necks to see his reaction whenever something funny was said.  At one point Santino Fontana, the guest star, asked all the children ages 5-10 to stand up and yell, “Merry Christmas” as loud as they could to help bring Christmas cheer to the concert.  Derek and Evan stood up, but they kind of uncomfortable shifted around when the time came for their participation.  Not Adam.  He yelled “Merry Christmas” with all his little heart and soul!  It was fun to watch.

Here are a few pictures from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Facebook page, since we were too busy enjoying to take pictures during the concert (and it wasn’t allowed anyway)…

Although I feel like most of my friends (particularly those who live in Utah who had much better seats than we did) would think we are a bit crazy, I thought the weekend was totally worth the 16 hours of driving!  The concert was really so much fun, particularly to get to spend it with my 3 little dates!

On our walk back to the hotel, we went through Temple Square for one last view of the Christmas lights.  By that point it was very late and the boys were freezing cold (yet refused to zip up their coats).  I think Adam’s face is so funny in all of these pictures.  He just wanted to go snuggle up in his warm bed and couldn’t figure out why I wanted to take a picture in front of every tree on Temple Square!

The lights are just so beautiful.  I managed to get him cheered up as we were leaving Temple Square by pointing at silly things like the trash can and suggest that we should take a picture with it to remember our fun evening.  Adam perked right back up and I couldn’t get him to stop suggesting that we then take a picture next to every rock on the ground or person passing by.  By the time we got to the hotel, the boys were all full of enough pep to take another hour to relive the best moments of the concert while telling Glenn all about it, cute giggles included.

What a great opportunity!  We even managed to make the drive home through the snow without getting too grinchy.  We have had so many great chances to think about Christ and Christmas this season- it is hard to believe that Christmas is now almost here!