Watching the Jazz

Yesterday my sweetie texted me from work and asked if we were busy Wednesday night. Do we ever have a night when we don't have a million things going on? He was excited to report that his company had made some tickets available for the Jazz game. Not enough for everyone, but then we couldn't convince everyone to give up their busyness just for a basketball game.

So he applied for some of the tickets and we were super excited to receive 6 of them and even more excited to see that they were in the Lower Bowl! I have never seen a Jazz game from the lower bowl so I immediately claimed one of the tickets as my own and it was a given that my sweetie would get one. Then it was time to figure out who else would be on the list. It ultimately was decided by who was available and had the desire to go; Sport, Curly, Dog Walker, and we invited Grandpa along to use the final ticket.

We had a great time. There was a tiny bit of snow, but the weather cooperated and other than the traffic, we managed to get there just before the national anthem. One interesting thing I realized about the lower bowl was that if I watched the floor, I could see the players better, but out of habit, I watched the big screen anyway.

The second thing I noticed was that the environment wasn't nearly as family-friendly. Everyone around us seemed to be holding a beer, which my little guys had never really been around before. Not that I begrudge people their beer, they can do whatever they want, that is until the lady behind us spilled a huge cup all over the floor and my sweetie's coat.

The Jazz were ahead in the third quarter, but they couldn't shoot at all during the fourth and ended up losing by a pretty decent margin. Curly was disappointed, but quickly moved on to other things and though we had an exciting evening, now I am up until all hours of the night making candy for my sweetie to take to work tomorrow. I guess "busy" just depends on how you look at it.

Fixing the Tree

Tonight was Prima Donna's Candlelight Christmas concert at the high school. It was an elaborate affair with only the choirs performing. In the last few years they have split from two nights to three, with band one night and orchestra making up the third. Prima Donna sings in the A Capella choir and she is loving it.

They had a beautiful stage set up with poinsettias scattered about and two 7 or 8-foot pine trees flocked white for Bingham and covered with white lights and large blue balls. I'm pretty sure they were fake since they would scatter pine needles everywhere otherwise.

Wish I would have had a wider shot so you could see the tree.

Anyway, these trees were near the front of the stage and every time the curtain opened or closed, they would sway a little, like maybe someone had pushed them a little too close to the curtain. Well, it wasn't long before the swish of the curtains brought one down. 

The audience gasped as a large blue ball rolled across the stage toward the choir teacher's feet. We all wondered what might happen next, until the principal strode purposefully to center stage and picked up the ball. Then she turned to the tree and I think as an audience we were expecting her to do the right thing by picking up the tree and sliding it away from the curtain.

The audience roared with laughter when she bent over and instead of righting it, she grabbed the top branch and simply dragged it off the stage.

Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place

I love the US Family Guide group! They are so good at finding opportunities for us to try new places. Oh, we have been to This is the Place before, just never at Christmas time.

I have been so excited for this visit. My new friend, Marion, even arranged for us to have 14 free tickets so that we could take all the kids with us. The one thing my kids couldn't seem to understand was that Saturday night was cold. The day had been nice, so some of them weren't really prepared for the fact that This is the Place is closer to the mountains and quite a bit colder than our end of the valley. We had only been there a few minutes when they all ran back to the vans to look for every jacket and blanket we had with us.

But in spite of the cold, we had a great time, and every building we entered was toasty warm and there were barrels of fire every few hundred feet so it was easy to find a quick spot to warm our hands. The first thing we did was climb on the train and ride over to the Huntsman Hotel. This whole village is a replica of a small town about the time the Salt Lake Valley was settled.

There were so many Christmas lights everywhere including on the sawmill near where we panned for gold in the summer. The kids were excited about the toys and candy shop, so we made that our first stop. The stores are small as you would expect from the era, but they are filled to the brim with toys and gadgets. They also had barrels of candy for 5-cents each. It's been a while since I have seen anything that reasonable.

We bought some of the 5-cent salt water taffy and root beer barrels for the kids and then we made our way back out into the cold. It was only a short distance to the Naughty and Nice building where we were given a chance to write our names on giant scrolls for Santa to see who was Naughty and who was Nice. I strongly recommend the Naughty list! We were given chocolate coal. The other side only got mini candy bars.

Several people had recommended a stop at the school house and the kids loved watching and then participating in the square dances. Another favorite was Brigham's Doughnuts. We watched them being fried right in front of us. I could have easily eaten a dozen of the tasty treats all by myself. Tell them you want powdered sugar AND cinnamon sugar.

We watched a woman baking gingerbread in an old fashioned cook stove and we munched samples on our way out the door. We decided to forgo the free wagon ride partly because of the cold and partly because the lines were long and we were afraid we would not be able to get everyone in a single trip.

One of my favorite parts was the Live Nativity. Watching the tiny babe squirm in the little manger made it all seem so real. If you get a chance, visit This is the Place Heritage State Park this year. If you mention my blog, Marion promised you would receive $2 off each ticket! You can find more info and the address and hours here.

I recommend bundling up and maybe even going a little earlier in the day than we did. Even though the lights were beautiful, the sunshine would have been a bit more tolerable for those of us who are always freezing. The other thing we passed on was seeing Father Christmas. That was only because the kids were hungry and in need of supper, but we heard good things from those around us who had made the trip upstairs. And that reminds me, their gift shop is amazing! If you are looking for unique presents to put beneath your tree, and a fun activity for your whole family,

This is the Place to go.

Christmas is Coming

It's been such a busy weekend and I have so many things to tell you! Saturday morning we took the kids to Lowe's so they could make a Christmas train. Sport had a basketball game and my sweetie took him that direction.

The day was filled with two more basketball games, one for Scout and one for Curly. Curly had the game of his life, scoring 14 points and making tons of steals. Scout made 4 of the 6 points her team scored. I can't tell you much about Sport's game other than he was disappointed that they lost.

Then Scout had a birthday party for one of her best friends and you would not believe the awesome over-the-top cute decorations they made. One was a snowman cut from 1-inch plywood and the other was a detailed sled with wooden runners. They were allowed to paint both projects and Scout did an excellent job. Then we left for a family adventure I will tell you all about tomorrow.

Sunday was busy too, with Crafty speaking in Sacrament Meeting. Drama Queen texted me during Sunday School and asked me to help her and Princess in the nursery. They usually have 2 or 3 kids and today they had 6. Although they have one little guy that is as hard as 3. We had choir practice and my sweetie mixed up a batch of rolls while we were gone. I love it when he cooks! I even got to nap for an hour (that's probably why I'm not that tired at the moment).

After a delicious dinner we went to the Choir Concert at the church. It's one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season. Our choir was the first to sing and they had the kids sing and then shortly afterward the youth all got the opportunity to sing.

The last song is always the Hallelujah Chorus and I've never been able to get it right. This year was worse that ever when I accidentally flipped the page the wrong way and we were totally lost for about 10 measures. I couldn't quit smiling; I grinned all through the closing prayer and the whole time we were putting away chairs.

Music has got to be one of my very favorite parts of the season and if I can sing about my Savior and King, that is all the better. But maybe next year we better staple our pages before we get there.