Christmas Adam

Sorry about the double post on the party. You can see why sometimes I ask the Dog Walker to post. He writes a lot more than me!

But let's talk about Christmas Adam.

Some years we have done some crazy expensive things, but this year we had Scout and Sport working which made it difficult to plan. So this morning my sweetie planned a paint party. Crafty and her boyfriend, B, did some really cute stuff.

My sweetie did a little truck with the airbrush. It was amazing! I will have to post a pic tomorrow.

We played games, delivered the last of our gifts, and ate lasagna and garlic bread for dinner.

Then nine of us went to see Red One at the Megaplex.

The kids loved it!! So did my sweetie. I hate to admit that I fell asleep at the end.

We took some fantastic pics when we were done. 

What do you think? My sweetie looks an awful lot like Santa, but Baby Doll is going to have to beef up a lot more if she really wants to look like the Rock.

Christmas Adam

Oh Christmas Adam! We had so much fun! We started the morning without Sport since he had an appointment with the eye doctor, and we picked up Curly's cute girlfriend, E. Then we were off to The Leonardo for our first stop using our Getout passes.

At 1:00, we left for Beauty and The Beast's house so they could enjoy a little visit from Santa.

The Beast awesomely bought pizza for everyone. So we had something to eat before we were off on our next adventure.

My sweetie drove us to a parking lot near the Delta Center and we climbed on the train, headed for the city center.

Oh, and Sport joined us for pizza and adventuring. My 5 youngest had never seen Macy's decorated windows, so we were on our way to City Creek. Unfortunately, some of us were under-dressed for an outdoor activity, so we went into Macy's looking for a couple of coats. The windows were much more enjoyable after that.

Then we let the kids scatter in groups of two. They had $10 each to spend in the next hour. My sweetie and I also wandered off.

We end up at Deseret Book where we bought them each a little Nativity. Then my sweetie and I headed for the food court. I figured the kids might be getting hungry, so I bought 4 large fries, but as I was leaving the food court, they were all gathered near the entrance. They had food bags with fries as well, so at least we were all on the same page...

We caught the train back to our next stop which was the Clark Planetarium. Thankfully, my membership is still valid for a few more weeks.

E had never been there, but we only had a few minutes to get popcorn and drinks before we headed to the Imax to watch their new movie about trains.

Then straight to the dome for a Taylor Swift laser light show. A quick stop in the gift shop and then a brisk walk back to the van. As the kids settled in for the ride home, we presented them with their nativities. After everything we've done, that is the true meaning of Christmas.

Happy Christmas Adam! ❤

Christmas Adam 2022

We had another amazing Christmas Adam even with my sweetie still feeling under the weather. We started at the Planetarium.

After that, we needed lunch, so we left downtown and made our way to King Buffet, all the you can eat. Honestly, my kids didn't remember ever going to one...

Back at the house, the kids did a zoom call with the family back east while I crashed for a 3-hour nap.

We made banzai hamburgers for dinner and then we loaded up for our last stops. First, it was Menchies for froyo.

And our last stop was a 2nd visit to Christmas in Color. 

Man, I love that place! It was a fun and happy day! Are you ready for Christmas?

Christmas Adam 2021

We have a long-standing tradition of celebrating with family the day before Christmas Eve; affectionately called Christmas Adam. By best count, we started 18 years ago. Thank goodness for the blog, it helps me remember things that could be lost forever.

We had 6 of us adventuring together today, me, my sweetie, the three youngest, and Grandpa. It's strange to have so few of us living in the house now. That is exactly half the number of kids I had here for Christmas last year.

But I digress...

This is about Christmas Adam. We began our day delivering friend and neighbor gifts. My sweetie was working, so we didn't all leave together until about 3:00.  Our first stop was the Museum of Art on the BYU campus in Provo. They didn't have many pieces on display, but they had one in particular I wanted the kids to see.

In today's secular world, it is a struggle to bring Christ into Christmas.

After wandering the museum, we made our way through the gift shop and chose a few things. All of their nativities were 50% off, so we got nesting ones for each of the kids and one with more pieces for the whole family. Then we all piled into the car for the 5-minute ride to our next stop.

We had talked about bowling, but when we entered Fat Cats, it was busier than we expected and most of the lanes were filled. That's when I glanced over and noticed that none of the 6 pool tables were being used. We split up and suddenly I was chalking my cue in a game against Grandpa. 

I knew he had played in the Army, but it had been a long time and I was hopeful he didn't remember how to play 8 Ball. 

I was wrong. 

He trounced me the first 2 games and I finally beat him in the third. It was SO much fun! Then when my sweetie went to pay, they handed his card right back and refused to charge us with a simple "Merry Christmas" in return. Thanks, Fat Cats!!

Back in the car, we were off on the 20-minute drive to the Spanish Fork Italian Place. We were just getting our food when Bossy's family came through the door.

They made the drive down to see the Festival of Lights and we all ended up at the same place for dinner. 

We ate quickly and said our goodbyes before making another 20-minute drive to Genola. It is a small town west of Santaquin, but none of us had ever been there. L'il Bro of Utah's Adventure Family told us that Riley's Orchard was the best place to visit for a reasonable price, so we made the trip.

Even though it was cold and rainy, the wagon ride was fun and inspirational.

But the best part was the hot apple-cider donuts!

We bought more donuts and a couple of other things from the gift shop before we loaded up again. 

We only made a few more stops to doorbell-ditch gifts on our way back home. It was another amazing Christmas Adam.