Catching up - Christmas

Right now it feels overwhelming to me to catch up all the Christmas happenings, so I'm just going to focus on one small piece per day.  That's doable, I think.

We were lucky to spend a fantastic week in Utah. We left on the 17th of December and returned the morning after Christmas.  So much fun, so much to share.
 
Today I will talk about Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  On Sunday the 18th we spent some quality time there. Dan and I were there twice in one day!

One thing on my list of "really want to do someday" has been to see the taping of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir "Music & The Spoken Word".  Even better, I really, really wanted to see the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert.  In November, when I knew we were visiting Utah and would be there right when the Christmas concert would be performed for three nights, I called to find out how I could get us tickets to one of the performances.  It turns out you have to put your name into a lottery in October, and then maybe you will be sent tickets for the Christmas performances (and I thought that Mormons didn't believe in playing the lottery - what's with that?).  I tried my best wheedling over the phone (We're only in town this one week, I really, really want to go, pretty please.)  I thought about lying . . . "I'm thinking about investigating the Mormon church, but need to see this concert to decide if I am really interested".  Okay, so I didn't lie, because it was just be sort of wrong to lie to get into see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  But I did beg.  And to no avail - there was no way to get tickets.

The only possible way to get in was the standby ticket line, and our best chance was for the Sunday morning performance, which was a combined Music & Spoken Word taping/Mini Christmas Concert. So, the morning after we arrived in Utah Dan and I braved the bitter cold to go down and stand in line. Many thanks to my Dad, who drove us down to Temple Square from Draper and dropped us off so we wouldn't have to find parking. We knew that on the way back we could take Trax (which wasn't running early Sunday morning)  We didn't take the kids with us, thinking that it would be far too cold for them to wait outside for an hour. 

It turns out that the church has a new system for standby - we lined up outside the Tabernacle and were escorted in an orderly fashion inside, where we were given a number and told to wait to see if there would be room in the Conference Center.  We waited in comfort and warmth until we were taken across the street to our seats.

We were WAY up high in the Conference Center, but hey we were in!  And it was so spectacular. Words cannot describe how great it was.  Just watching the taped broadcast of the Christmas specials is extremely enjoyable, but there was something remarkable about being there. The beauty and intensity of it overwhelmed me multiple times, and I had tears running down my face through much of the performance. The guest narrator was Jane Seymour and the guest soloist was baritone Nathan Gunn.  Both were great, the choir was amazing (of course), and the production value was off the charts (lights and moving sets and dancers and actors and snow falling and so much more).  Wow. So worth it.  This one experience really helped me feel the spirit of Christmas and feel especially excited about the week to come. Oh, and it was fascinating to watch the behind the scenes work of the all the cameramen, who scurry around getting great shots for the taped shows. 

Here is my photo of the choir, taken from our nosebleed seats with my phone.

We rode the Trax back to Sandy and then Dan and I started walking from the Trax station back toward my parent's home, because we knew that they weren't quite out of church. We made it quite a ways (even walking through a homeless encampment) before my Mom caught up with us. It was a nice walk and we could have kept going, except for the fact that the cold and the wind were freezing the tips of our noses and ears.  But who needs ears anyway?

Side humorous note:  to help us stay warm, my parents had dressed us up in all sorts of their dressy winter gear.   We felt like we looked pretty dapper.  Anyway, Mom had Joseph in the car with her as she came to rescue us from our cold walk, and she pointed us out to Joseph.

"Look, there's your Mom and Dad walking down the street."

"No, that's not my parents. That's some 80s people."  In Joseph's eyes, the 1980s were an eternity ago, and calling someone an 80s person is the ultimate insult.  So, maybe we didn't look as cool as we thought we did?

After enjoying a Sunday with my parents, we decided to take the entire group back on the Trax to see the lights on Temple Square.  We all suited up in warm gear and took off for an adventure.
 

 

 The lights were so beautiful . . . . magical, really.

 
 
Walking back to the Trax station - Mom and Dad were just the cutest couple, walking hand in hand the whole way.

Aubrey, Joseph, and Dan stood up on the way back on the Trax train, even though there were seats available. It was very thrilling for them to balance and almost fall. It doesn't take much to entertain us Vancouverites.

And there you go, one day of our Utah Christmas trip.  Oh, and did you notice that there was no snow on the ground?  More to come on that topic . . .

More holiday happenings

What is it about all the December craziness . . . . er, festivities.  Are we all nuts or what???  Somehow we squeeze in school programs, musical performances, Christmas parties, treasured family traditions, gift buying and wrapping, service rendering, treat making, book reading, Christmas movie watching, whole house decorating, and carol singing into one very short month.  It feels like we are scheduled nonstop from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

I really love Christmas - I always have.  When I was little I would cry if the Christmas tree wasn't shaped just right because I wanted it to be perfect, and I loved each and every Christmas decoration in our house. I was so excited for Christmas each year that I started the countdown in August and couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve - and then I would sneak in to see what Santa brought me long before everyone awakened. Even after Dan and I were married I would get really sad when it was time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations, because that meant that the magical Christmas holiday was over for another year.

I still love Christmas in the same way - it is a wonderful time of year. But it is also exhausting now that I'm the mom. Don't tell my kids, but these days when it's time to take down the Christmas tree and decorations, I am relieved. I am happy to return our home to an uncluttered state of normalcy and return our schedule to a manageable level of busy.  Usually by the end of December I am Christmas caroled out (of course, we start listening to carols in October), and I'm ready to welcome January.

Anyway, school is out as of today. So far this month we have read at least 40 Christmas stories under the Christmas tree, delivered all the neighbor/friend gifts which are getting delivered this year, wrapped the presents, and done a fair amount of holiday baking. We have participated in some great service projects, have attended all sorts of performances, and I think I helped in the 1st grade classroom at least 80 times (okay, it was only 6 times, but it seemed like a lot).  We have watched all the classic Christmas movies (and some not so classic ones which really should be dropped from the lineup) . It has all been super fun, but now we are looking forward to some quiet, relaxation, and contemplation in this week before Christmas.

Bring on the holiday and some time to think about the true meaning of Christmas.

A few more images of the past weeks:

Joseph making his masterpiece of a gingerbread house at school.

 

And a new haircut right after school (not technically a Christmas activity, but something to get done, nonetheless).

Delivering neighbor gifts - homemade Lion House rolls and strawberry freezer jam.  We all wore festive Christmas hats except Bailey. And we will  not let her live it down.  Even Brandon (in Ukraine) said via email that he would have proudly worn a Santa hat to make the deliveries.  But, Bailey, we still love you and we know that you just wanted to be the only non-geeky one of the bunch.

Joseph and I attended a super awesome Christmas carnival at his dentist's office.  Seriously. This is the most fun dentist in the history of the world.  There were oodles of fun festivities, including letter writing to Santa, free pictures with Santa, games and prizes, a petting zoo, and a deejay playing music while we ate treats.

 

  And we managed to catch Santa a second time, at the ward Christmas party.

 Joseph has already written at least a thousand letters to Santa.  He is prepared, that boy is.  (Oops - the first picture below is a love letter to me. But I like it, so it's going to stay in this post,)

 

Snuggles

This morning my baby (who will always be my baby, even though he is six) woke up with a bad dream.  He called out to me with a tremulous voice and then gladly ran over to my bed and climbed in.  Dan was already downstairs and Bailey was getting ready for early morning seminary, but I had a few minutes to rest with my Joseph to help him get back to sleep.

As soon as he was lying next to me his breathing slowed and his fears dissipated. Within a minute he was asleep again, but with one foot on my leg to make sure I was still nearby.

I thought about how often this scenario has replayed over the years. When each of the kids were young and they had their "can't sleep" or "scary dream" moments, they have snuggled with us in bed, or I've laid down with them in their bed. Just my proximity calmed them, and they were able to let go and go to sleep.

It's breathtaking how quickly kids grow up. Pretty soon Joseph (like the rest of our kids) will be too "grown up" to need my help to go back to sleep. Or, maybe they do need help, but their worries and concerns are sometimes too big to be calmed by mere proximity to Mom.  I wish I could make all my kid's problems go away as easily as I helped Joseph go back to sleep this morning.

For right now I will enjoy the fact that there is at least one problem I have the power to solve.

Announcing . . . . Belle!

Aubrey auditioned for Beauty and the Beast, a community musical to be performed this spring. She found out yesterday that she received the lead role of Belle!  We are excited for her.

In other musical theater news, last weekend was her Christmas performance with her musical theater group.  They did a review of songs from the musicals White Christmas and Mary Poppins. She did great!  I never have much success getting video to upload on this blog, but I'll try again later today.

I had to use the super zoom lens on my Canon to capture some shots. Because the shutter speed was so low in the dim auditorium (with no flash, of course), I got some . . . . interesting pictures.  But, something is better than nothing.

After the show with Bailey (holding the candy grams we sent her during the performances).

Soccer in the Rain

Soccer season can be a wet experience in Washington. I bet you're surprised, right?  Joseph had a pretty good soccer season. Basically, their team didn't win a lot of games (but at this level they don't technically keep track of the score).  However, they did work on their soccer skills, and treats were always provided after the games. That counts as success in my book.

 

 

Joseph's famous open-mouthed look of concentration:

 The mouth again and again.

Soccer is really about hanging out with buddies.

 Cool balancing moves.

 Half-time merriment:

And treats and trophies.