Christmas Tradition

Thursday night we had our annual Christmas Date!  

We started out the evening with some acupuncture....Ha Ha.... that's a story for another day....

....then we got checked into our hotel.  We stayed at the Marriott just a few blocks from Temple Square.  We had some time to kill so we layed in bed and watched 'Beat Bobby Flay' on The Food Channel.  I love that show and since we don't watch TV at home it was kind of a fun treat.  Watching all that good food being made on the TV made us both hungry for dinner!

We got a window seat at The Five Alls and had a wonderful dinner.  A full five courses!  

After dinner we were SUPER full so it felt good to get back to the hotel, park our car and walk the few blocks to get to the Kurt Bestor Christmas Concert.  It was held in the Eccles Theatre on Main Street.  It is a beautiful venue and the concert was thrilling as it always is.

We love Kurt's Christmas music and is a tradition for us to listen to it throughout the holiday season in our home.

But I will say that it is such a thrill to hear it played LIVE.  

The band and orchestra are amazing, as is Kurt's wonderful piano and horn skills.

This year's special guest was Madilyn Paige.  She was a contender on The Voice.

Her voice was really beautiful.  My favorite was when she sang Kurt's "Prayer of the Children".  

It was spine tingling!

It was a very cold night out so we bundled up after the concert and made our way to the Macy's candy windows.  They did not disappoint.  How about that temple one??

Before heading back to the hotel for the night we stopped at a street cart for some hot chocolate.  As we started walking back to the hotel we passed a homeless woman on the street bedding down for the night.  We asked if she would like some hot chocolate.  She said she would so Rick stopped to get her some as well:)

It was delicious and warming to the soul!

Thanks, Sweetie for a wonderful date night!!

I love you!!

December Happenings

The last week had been busy with Christmas preparations.  A bit of shopping and wrapping, wrapping and more wrapping!  I took a day last week and turned on the fire, turned on a Christmas movie, and wrapped my little heart away.  Four hours later.....not kidding.....I finished.  When there are a lot of little ones in the family and lots of adults, there are A LOT of presents!  Anyhow, while I got them all wrapped I did not put bows on any of them.  Those came later.  At this point I am happy to say that the present are all wrapped WITH bows and they are all snug underneath our tree anxiously awaiting Christmas Eve when most of them will be opened!

On Friday I had the opportunity to tend Haivyn and Merik.  We dropped off a load at the DI, stopped at Applebees for lunch, and then made a run to Walmart for a few small items.  These kids are so cute and easy to tend.  Merik has learned to walk and loves to find his way to the stairs.  He can go up but I'm not sure he can come down very easily so I steered him away from those many times in the few hours I had him.  I love these little sweeties!

This last Sunday I had been asked to substitute in Primary.  I asked Rick if he wanted to join me.  We had such a fun time with these cuties!  They are the 3-4 year olds and are so smart!  Our lesson was on Following the Prophet.  Many times during the lesson we all stood up and said, "President Nelson is a prophet of God!"  We talked of things the prophet has recently asked us to do.  Namely, learn from the scriptures, serve others and attend Sacrament Meeting and Primary.  The children talked of how they try to follow the prophet.  Some answers were, "Help my mom do the dishes" and "Helped my brother pick up his toys."  So cute!

Here is Rick showing the kids a short video on President Nelson.  The kids got to hear his (President Nelson's not Rick's:) voice as they drew a picture of the prophet.

Henry has a crush on Ella.  He has told us that he is going to marry Ella.  They are good friends and play together at least a couple times a month.  During Sharing Time they were holding hands.  They also took turns laying their heads in each others laps.  (I did not see any of this because they were on the other side of Rick, but he filled me in on the details :)  What I did see was while I was teaching in class I looked over at Henry and he was trying to give Ella a smooch!  Super puckered up and trying to find her cheek!  Something I never thought I would hear myself say, "Henry, lets not kiss in class."  Haha!  

What a fun time Rick and I had.  I taught while he wrangled.....mostly Henry:)  

Hope we get this opportunity again!

Christmas Date with the Kids

On Thursday night we had a get together with our kids.  All were there except for Kaitlyn because of a class she could not miss.  We were sad about that but Gary brought his friend, Catalina and that was fun to have her there.

We began the night at our house at 5:00.  We had previously asked our kids to think of someone in each of their wards that we could go Christmas Caroling to.  We were going to just have the adults go caroling but Kendra mentioned earlier in the day that it would be fun to have the children along.  We made a slight change in plans and had the littles join us for the caroling portion on our night.  It was really fun!  I love when our family sings together.  Each of us can harmonize on the familiar hymns without the piano and I will be bold and say, "We sounded so good!"  We had four parts on most of the hymns!  ACAPELLA!  We sang two songs at each home.  A fun one that the children were able to choose and then a nice hymn from the hymn book.

We started with Don Takos and he was so sweet.  He started crying as we sang.  His wife passed away last year and is very lonely without her.  Rick and I will make it a point to get over to have a nice visit with him.  

Next we stopped at Rae Wooley's home.  She had a hard time getting her door open and we were wondering if she was going to answer.  She finally got it open and we got to sing:)

Next were two members in Brach and Kendra's ward.  Sister Brown, their neighbor and Sister Styka, who their family is close to because Brach serves in the Elders Quorum Presidency with her husband Brother Styka.  Sister Styka invited us in and also cried as we sang the first song.  She was really sweet.  She loves Rafe and Scout and Brady which makes me love her!

After caroling the kids dropped off their little ones to be babysat while we adults drove into SLC for a nice dinner at The Roof Restaurant.  We had such an enjoyable evening being together without the distraction of little children crying or fighting.  And what a delicious meal!  It was a wonderful occasion to get dressed up and be out for the evening.

During the dessert round we asked each of the kids a certain question.  i.e.....What does Christmas mean to you?  What was your favorite gift as a child?  What is your favorite holiday tradition? .....and so on.  It was nice hearing everyone's different thoughts and experiences.

After dinner we wandered around the temple admiring the lights.  It was all so beautiful!  Temple square always is at Christmas time.  It was a very cold night so we were out only for 30-40 minutes.  

What a wonderful evening with our family!