December 2010

December is such a busy month.  Our activities surround the holidays, winter fun, and normal every day activities.  Some of the things we did to celebrate the Christmas holiday started right after Thanksgiving.  We visited the Shops at River Woods.  The next weekend we took the kids to downtown Provo for a parade with Santa and lighting of the town center Christmas Lights. We rode trax to Temple Square.  We decorated the house and painted ornaments.  We spent Christmas Eve and day with the Wilsons.  And the Sunday after Christmas went to the Jeppson's.


The River Woods Shops were beautiful.  The area has recently been remodeled to be more pedestrian friendly.  The roads have been closed to traffic on the inside and it has become a beautiful outdoor mall.

There were fires like this everywhere to get warm around.  There was Christmas music playing also.

The kids were fascinated by all the different kinds of lights and ornaments.

We got a free ride in the super golf cart.  There was no one riding and the driver offered to drive us around.

The horse and carriage rides were also free.  The horses were Bob and Dick and gave us a nice ride.  There was a room in where we could get free hot chocolate, write Santa a letter, and have our gifts wrapped.  Santa was not there that night, but there was a cute little house set up for him to visit with the kids.

Thanks for bringing us Daddy!

 The Provo parade experience didn't turn out to be that great.  It was so freezing!!  Brr!  When we first go to the downtown area the Santa race was still going on.  There were hundreds of runners in Red outfits and Santa hats.  We got into the NU Skin Building vestibule and watched the race wrap up from there.  Then we sat out on the side walk ready for the parade.  Rubie wouldn't keep her gloves on and after 5 minutes Eric started asking to go home.  It was one of those "you are going to have fun, I'm doing this for you" experiences. 

On the sidewalk ready to see the parade.

The parade started on time, we were excited to see it.

Anticipation of the police cars and fire trucks.

They were cool to see, however, each entry was spaced about 10 minutes apart.  It was not enough to keep the kids interest when the temperatures were freezing.  Finally at half way, we decided the kids had suffered enough.  Eric wouldn't quite his whining about wanting to go home.  The parade was not well-put together.  It seems that they were trying to stretch it out to last an hour to have the lighting and arrival of Santa at a certain time.  But it just didn't work very well.  So we left, not waiting for Santa or the lighting of the the downtown square.

The first Sunday in December for the Wilson Family FHE we decided again to go to Temple Square.  Last year because of the 1st Presidency Christmas Devotional and all the other activities going on the traffic was horrendous.  We decided to ride Trax to avoid all that.  I'm not exactly sure what happened, but no one else showed up to ride the train.  They all just drove themselves downtown.  We enjoyed the train ride though.

The lights were beautiful as always.  There were a lot of people and we didn't see everything.  Uncle Brett's choir was performing in the Assembly Hall.  We went and saw the first few numbers they performed.  They were excellent and Eric and Rubie actually really got into the music.  But 3-4 numbers was enough for them, and then also we had to catch Trax back to Sandy.

 Of course we need new Christmas clothes for Sunday.  The Sunday before Christmas the choir puts on a Christmas program.  I was a narrator and so we dressed up. 

Rubie and Eric love new clothes.  They look beautiful and handsome in their shiny new duds.

It took about 20 shots to get a mostly normal pose.  They kept pulling, literally, faces.

Rubie and Eric painted ornaments to give to our neighbors and to their friends.

 

 

 

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa Wilson's for dinner and a Christmas program. 

Everyone contributed to a lovely meal.  The house was festive and we all enjoyed our selves.

Eric, Rubie, and Tre sat at the kids table.

Yummy!

Nice family photo.

After dinner Brandee organized the younger kids to present the Nativity.  She read the story from the Bible and Eli, Hayden, Tre, Eric, and Rubie acted out the parts.

Tre as the Angel.

Eric was so proud to be Joseph.  He had been learning a primary song in church about Joseph closing his shop and leading Mary on the donkey.  Every time he wanted to be picked to play Joseph but never was.  Now he had his opportunity.  Before the narration of the Nativity story started he acted out all the parts of the song.

Rubie got to play Mary, her doll was baby Jesus.

Joseph and Mary with the angel announcing the baby's birth.

This is my favorite Christmas memory, Eric and Rubie as Joseph and Mary.  I was so proud of them.  They are great at playing pretend.  They tried to play their parts seriously and with reverence.

Joseph is helping Mary with her shawl.

Eli and Hayden were the wise men.  They came to see the baby and brought gifts.  After the program, the wise men and the angel were quick to get out of their costumes on to something else, but Mary and Joseph wanted their roles to continue for awhile.  They were so cute!!

 On Sunday, December 26th, we went to the Jeppson's.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner and exchanging of gifts.  We missed Jessica and Emmanuel, Ben and Cassie and their kids.  Before dinner we did talk to Ben and Koen on the phone and that was great.

Eric opening a gift from Grandma.  "It's pajamas!"

Rubie loved her new outfit so much she had to put it on right then.

The kids were hilarious!  They cheered each other on when opening their gifts and Eric even exclaimed, "Now that's what I call Christmas!"

Stayed tuned for the next post to see awesome pictures of our sledding skills.