Temple Square

If I lived in Utah, this would be a definite Christmas tradition on my Christmas Checklist: Seeing the Lights at Temple Square. However, I don't live in Utah. So I can't go and see the lights at temple square. But... I have the best of both worlds, because I have family that lives in Utah, so I can visit temple square every time I come to visit them! Michal and I decided that with every trip to Utah we want to take our kids to Temple Square and BYU to get them excited about attending college at BYU and excited about getting married in the Temple one day. Eventually they will grow and become old enough that we will be able to share with them stories about how we got married in the Salt Lake Temple (and how Michal brought a barf bucket into the sealing room when our marriage was being officiated).

So our first stop in Salt Lake was to eat at my favorite restaurant: The Blue Lemon. Lily is one lucky girl because her lunch was a snow-glove cookie. The evidence is written all over her face.

We originally went to City Creek Center first so that we could see Santa Claus and Lily could sit on his lap and tell him what she wished for for Christmas. However, it was over an hour wait. And, I don't know how well she would have handled sitting on an old strange man's lap. So we went with plan B: the Disney Store. Lily was in heaven carrying around all of her favorite characters. The employees referred to Lily as "princess Lily" and showed her "the Magic Mirror" where different princess characters magically appear and say a cute message to the girls on the other side of the mirror. I didn't want to leave. Michal did. I wanted to stay and watch her play and be a princess. Michal didn't. He eventually won out.

We were going to head home, but hearing Marco was asleep, we opted to go and visit Temple Square, including the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the visitors center. 

It was cold, cold, cold. So we stayed inside where it was warmed for large portions of the time. There were so many people, and it was so dark that pictures on temple grounds wouldn't have turned out very well. Plus, it was so windy that it Lily said, "the blowing is hurting my face." So we grabbed some BYU creamery chocolate milk (from JSMB) and headed home. While we weren't there for long, it was plenty of time for us to reminisce upon living downtown SLC and establishing a new Christmas tradition.