The Christmas Spirit

It's been a marathon week of Christmas-related activities. In addition to eating entire plates of cookies for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, we've been out and about. Our first adventure was completely unplanned. I was running an errand with my mom and the girls and we spotted snow on the hills between us and the ocean. We took a 20 minute detour and found ourselves building snowmen and throwing snowballs. Pretty rare for where we live.







Next, we went up to the city with my parents for lunch in Union Square. My dad took Lilly home on the train and my mom and I took Ava to see the Nutcracker ballet. She enjoyed it even more than I expected, although she was ready to go home near the end of the 2-hour show when it got into more serious ballet. She especially liked how they gave her a free toy when we got there and gave out free juice and cookies at intermission. I buckled at the end and bought her a nutcracker snow globe that she just had to have.






We went to Gilroy Gardens this weekend. It was fun and beautiful - and COLD! It was all decorated for Christmas and they had some rides open, Santa, and a Snoopy show. The girls were in heaven, but we just didn't last that long, due to fear of frostbite and pneumonia. If the weather is normal next year, we will definitely go back.


My sisters braved the mall with us on Monday. Our primary goal was to see Santa, which turned into an ordeal. Just getting off the freeway next to the mall was an ordeal, so you can only imagine. It was totally worth it, because Santa was super cool. He took lots of time with the kids, asking them what they want, snapping lots of pictures, giving them coloring books, pointing out his reindeer on the roof, and asking them to draw pictures to put under the tree for him. Here is a picture I took on my phone:


One of my family's Christmas traditions is to go up to the temple at Christmas time to see the lights. My mom made chili and we had a little tailgate when we got there. They also had a live nativity. I was a little disappointed because Mary was chewing gum and trying not to laugh. Ava was a little disappointed because there were no sheep. The best part of the evening was seeing a beautiful sculpture exhibit they have in the visitors center. The girls, Ava especially, loved seeing the sculptures of Christ and hearing the stories they depicted.




Ok, so maybe the best part of the evening was getting ice cream at Fenton's when we were done. I think Ty has a little dab of chocolate fudge on his shirt in this picture.