the lights at temple square

(pic credit- random citizen via carlie's camera...)

we decided to tussle a few feathers this year and break a bit of “tradition”.

this year we split thanksgiving between our two families-

we’ve spent the last 3 thanksgivings with the in-laws

and i’ll be honest i’ve been missing my family.

getting all 6 of us together when 4 are married is a task- and most the time it has happened the last few years i haven’t been able to be there.  

so when my family was all going to be together, and once again i was going to be the only sibling that wasn’t going to be there- we decided we would spend some time with my family too.

besides all but one of dale’s family members lives within 30 minutes of us so we get to see them quite often.

the day after thanksgiving i worked til 2:30.

after work the whole ellett crew boarded frontrunner for a jaunt to salt lake city.

i’d never ridden frontrunner before- it’s quite the fabulous mode of public transit.

it was a new type of magic seeing all those kids ride a train for the first time.

we arrived uneventfully to temple square.

the uneventfulness quickly wore off when lillian (nancy’s daughter) threw up.

with no spare clothes a desperate shopping spree at city creek was a necessity.

here’s a sad ellett gathering reoccurrence- nancy almost always has some child throw up and almost always has to buy new clothes and/or throw old ones away.

that chain of events happens about 70% of the time our family mingles away from a house.

we all headed over to find the nancy and since the problem had been resolved with new threads we took to some shopping.

it was crazy.

that mall is spectacular-

the fountain/fire show and the massive tree combo was beyond impressive.

we were happily wandering around when lills struck again- pushing her parents to the exiting brink.

the weston crew exited and we went and looked at the overcrowded temple square lights.

they never disappoint.

nativities from around the world?

yes please.

merry christmas and other holiday sayings in multiple languages all a glow in cut out bags?

well that’s holiday perfection.

trees adorned, every inch, in lights?

fabulous.

a reflection pool with lights and another perfect nativity scene with the reflection of the temple?

that’s just too much.

i’m going to go when it’s freezing cold from now on so i don’t have to fight off crowds.  

Fighting crowds in Utah is the worst-

too many kids.

too many people that don’t know how to walk in a crowd.

nyc has crowd movement mastered.

which makes it excruciating to participate in non-mastered crowd movement.

we made quick work of the lights, 

went inside the joseph smith building to check out the tree they have in there,

saw a little macy's window art- which made me miss nyc again- 

and headed back to trax/frontrunner and onward to provo.

it was excellent to spend some time with the whole ellett entourage.

it’s always quite the adventure going out on the town with 20 people of all ages.

extra grateful we got to experience frontrunner and the lights at temple square with my family.

there could be no finer way to kick off the christmas season.

 (a few more pics- picture credit carlie)