Maybe Christmas Doesn’t Come From a Store Part Two

Here’s a synopsis of the next portion of our trip to Utah…

Friday night we went to Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place Park.  It wasn’t quite as exciting as I thought it would be, but we enjoyed being together while riding a train, meeting Father Christmas, seeing a live nativity, and doing pioneer Christmas activities.

Amelia giggled through the entire train ride…

We had to take a (blurry) picture next to the shop of our ancestor!

The boys all clamored to put their names on the “Nice” list…

While Glenn was quick to add Amelia’s name where it belonged…

Some of the kids enjoyed meeting Father Christmas more than others.  One refused to meet him at all (but did finally agree to be in a family picture with him as long as the child did not actually have to stand next to Father Christmas).  I thought it was particularly sweet that when Adam climbed up onto his lap, Father Christmas said, “You’re the brave one, I can tell.”  How true that is in multiple ways.  Amelia, on the other hand, loudly let everyone know that she wasn’t feeling particularly brave that evening.

We enjoyed snuggling together in the hotel (Amelia insisted that she was going to sleep with the boys, but we eventually had to kick her out).

On Saturday we spent the morning leisurely wandering around Temple Square (in the rain and snow).  We’re always so busy when we go to Salt Lake that we don’t have much time to go to the Visitors Center and really look around.  This time we took the whole morning and went at a leisurely pace.  We even managed to find time to have a fancy lunch at the Lion House, a special place we like to eat there on Temple Square.  It was refreshing (and a little chilly).

Here is one of those moments that you just can’t stage.  We were all sitting on the benches looking up at the Christus statue and one by one the kids slowly gravitated right to the base of the statue.  I loved watching them gaze up at it together.

Saturday evening we went to see our friends, the Ericksons.  Mike was one of Glenn’s best friends in law school.  We have loved him and Jenet ever since (well, he didn’t marry Jenet until about 5 years ago, but we have loved her since then).  We had a great time with them and then headed as a group back to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights.  It was drizzly and cold, but beautiful.

Once again we realized that Christmas is about faith, friends, and time with family.  We managed to fit in just the right things to serve as a good reminder!  We couldn’t have asked for a better time!