Christmas Activities

This year we had a lot of fun preparing for Christmas.  Here are some summaries of our adventures:

The girls and I went to Gardner Village to see the Elves a few times.  One time we went with some of the kids in the neighborhood.  Sophie had so much fun running around and exploring with her friends.  Later James and Avery came down to Salt Lake with Lacey and Grandma Karla, and Sophie showed them the Elves again.

One Saturday before Christmas, Santa Claus came to our library.  The girls listened to a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  Sophie drew a picture of what she wanted for Christmas and gave to to Santa. (It was a picture of a bike because that's what she got for Christmas the year before and I think she was a little confused and thought that Santa only gives bikes for Christmas.)  Sophie was really brave about sitting on Santa's lap, but she had a completely glazed look the whole time and wouldn't talk to him.  I tried to put Aspen on Santa's lap, and she freaked out and slid off as soon as possible.  I thought the whole thing was quite hilarious.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is going downtown to see the Christmas Lights at Temple Square.  We always ride Trax down because Sophie LOVES riding the train.  Then we have dinner at City Creek Mall before going to see the beautiful lights.  The only sad thing about this year was that we didn't get to see the flaming fountain.  That is always really cool.

We also had the Lloyd family Christmas party.  We went up to Barry and Karla's house with the Lloyd extended family.  That party is always a mad house with a million kids running around, but they all have lots of fun.  Sophie was really excited to participate in the family band this year because she had maracas that Grandma Sugar just brought her from their Caribbean Cruise.