Christmas Festivities

There are several things we enjoyed this year during the month of December. It started off with Lacey performing at several events with the Ucon Elementary School choir. They performed at Snake River Landing, a live Ucon Community Nativity at Giles & Johnson’s car lot and did a performance for family and friends. It is always cold standing out there waiting for them to perform, but they put on a pretty good show for being elementary kids. These kids voluntarily get up early twice a week to be at the school at 7:15 am to practice for a month! There was about 90 kids who performed this year.

Kelly got to play Santa this year! A neighbor called at the last minute and asked him if he would be willing to do it for a family party. I told her he would. I just didn’t tell him that it wasn’t for kids, but adults, until he was ready to go. The suit was a little snug so I had to drive him. I sat in the driveway and watched as flash after flash went off. How I wished I could have been a fly on the wall! He had a good time joking with them. I knew he would have fun.

Next, was Alexia’s orchestra concert. She was advanced enough that her teacher asked her to perform with the 8th grade kids. She was only given three days to practice the pieces. She did pretty awesome! She is looking forward to their Spring concert where they get to perform movie based songs.

We went to Utah for Jenson’s baptism (my nephew) and while we were there we went to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. We try to go every year if we can since this is where Kelly and I got engaged and it is such an awesome sight to see! We were told not to even try to drive downtown because the Elizabeth Smart trial had just ended and there was still a lot of national press in town and there was a BYU ballgame that night. We drove anyway and were still able to park right by Temple Square. It was still early though and the lights were due to be turned on for an hour and a half. We walked around and went to see the new Deseret Book and other new buildings around Temple Square. It has changed SOOOOO much since I went to college. It doesn’t even feel like the same place. The kids really wanted to go on top of the highest building, so we asked to be taken to the top of the Conference Center. They were kind enough to let us stay on top to see the lights turn on. I guess it was the first time they have ever allowed people up there that late. It was pretty amazing being able to look down onto Temple Square. We were so lucky to be able to see the lights from this advantage point.

This year we decided to hold off and not have our usual Christmas Eve family party so that Lorinda and Brandon could stay at their own homes for Christmas. They will join us on New Year’s Eve and we will have our party then. I decided it was time to start our own little family traditions. We took the kids sledding to the Sand Dunes in St. Anthony. Kelly and I haven’t been sledding there since we were engaged. It was perfect weather…not too cold and not windy! So unusual for Idaho. We got some great pictures of the kids.

I hope you enjoy this slideshow!