The Last Weekend Before Christmas

We had our second to last Friday with Daddy this weekend.  We ran some errands in the morning and then had en early dinner so we could check out the Candlelight Christmas event at "This Is The Place."  It is a park dedicated to the Mormon pioneers in Utah.  They have old buildings from pioneers days and for the holidays they had carolers, a live nativity, Father Christmas, crafts, dancing and the kids favorite...a train to take you all over the park!  We got to write a letter to Santa and then throw it in the fire so that it could get to him via smoke signals like they would have done before snail mail and email!

This is Riley outside one of the buildings...he got nervous to open each door because he didn't know who or what was inside each one.

This was Kendall's favorite part, seeing the reindeer.  We visited with Father Christmas (aka Fake Santa according to Riley) and she did well...maybe because we didn't force her to sit on his lap?  She did sign thank you when he gave her a candy cane and waved bye-bye to him as well.

Saturday was spent running some more errands which included a trip over to the house where we met up with Kevin and Cara.  Later that night, we all met up at the Hogle Zoo to check out the Zoo Lights.  They have TONS of lights all over the zoo.  Many are of animals which of course was a favorite of the kids.  K loves seeing all the animals!  Riley loves seeing all the lights!  And Andy loves seeing the tigers - especially the 3 young ones playing in the snow!

Sunday had an interesting start...We got up and rushed to get ready for church only to discover we were there 45 minutes LATE or 1 hour early...depending on which service we were intending to go to...We were an hour early!  So we went back home and started over.  We made it to church, on time for second service, then headed out to lunch afterwards.  The afternoon was spent in front of the t.v. watching the Eagles secure a playoff berth!  Woo Hoo!  I then worked on some crafts that I'd been meaning to get done.  I still have a few pieces of jewelry I'd  like to finish, but we'll see.

This week will be busy with laundry, wrapping, and packing!  How I dread all three of those tasks!  It will all be worth it though.  We're hoping that the storm that's expected in the north east by the end of the week doesn't hamper our flight into Baltimore...Nothing like traveling with two kids across the country during the holidays with potential snow storms!  Oh well...I think we can handle just about anything at this point!