Leading Up to Christmas

So Christmas will be a separate post all on its own because we had such a fun adventure down in Bakersfield with Boyce's family, plus our little mini-getaway to the Central Coast. But I do need to jot down a few fond memories we shared leading up to Christmas.

In mid-December, Utah County got the new high-speed train system, with a stop in Provo just a few minutes from home. So we thought it would be fun one night to take the train to Salt Lake, eat dinner, and see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. Below are just a couple of very random pics of us on the train (we were keeping Grace entertained by taking pictures).

All didn't quite go as planned though. Our train was just a bit delayed getting into downtown, which meant we missed the light-rail train by 15 minutes or so to Temple Square. What the heck, we thought. So we just decided to walk over to Gateway Mall and eat a quick dinner there, then catch the light-rail. Jason's Deli was the first place we saw that looked quick, so we ducked in there. VERY bad idea. They were understaffed and I don't know what else was the problem, but dinner took an hour to arrive (I know, at Jason's Deli!). Seriously, I am pretty sure the Ice Age came and went faster than we got our dinner.

But I digress.... Anyway, by that time we realized there was no way we could catch the light-rail to Temple Square, walk through the lights, and be back to the train we wanted to catch in the time we had left. So, with only a bit of grumbling, we adapted our plans and decided just to walk through the Gateway. And it was still fun, because of this:

Yup, their fountain show was pretty cool.

Grace was pretty mesmerized.

Fountain show now over, and we are getting cold.

"The weekend before we left down, we decided to get serious and start the baking of goodies for our friends. I think altogether we made about 7 or 8 dozen cookies. Good thing Boyce is a good cook and could help out! We also made about 60+ mini loaves of bread for Boyce's faculty and also for our neighbors. As daunting as it seemed beforehand, we ended up having a fantastic time!

Yummy goodies.

Did I mention Boyce "owned" the baking of the friendship bread? This was me after failing miserably to do a batch without him. Seriously sunken bread!