Christmas in Utah - Part 1

This year, we were lucky to spend Christmas in beautiful Utah.  We were fortunate, as both sides of our family were in Utah at the same time.  In addition, my oldest daughter was there with her husband, visiting his family.  It gave us a rare chance to visit with a large number of people, juggling schedules every day ; )

G-Man had a chance to play with cousins, including M (who is 2 years older).  They have a BLAST together.

G-Man and his cousin M

We had an opportunity to catch-up with my daughter and her husband, a few days before Christmas.  We decided to go bowling, which was a brilliant idea.  Everyone had fun...especially my son-in-law and I, as we each had a "turkey" (you can look that one up):

My two girls, together

Showing G-Man the finer points of bowling with a metal ramp

As I've mentioned before, I love visiting Utah, due to the incredible Wasatch Mountains that can be seen from most of the major cities.  This is a picture of Mt. Timpanogos, one of my favorites.  This is the view from your front door - I'm jealous every time I visit.

Fast-forward to Christmas Eve.  My wife's family has a tradition of creating luminaries and placing them on her mother's gravesite.  It's a special way to help the youngest kids still remember one of their grandmas, who passed away in 2000.

This year, instead of candles, we used light sticks - a safer way to go:

One other tradition that we work on, when we're here, is a re-enactment of the Nativity story.  Like the last time, I was one of the "wise men."  It's so fun to see the little ones participate - G-Man as Joseph and cousin M as Mary.

My brother, Dad and I as "wise men"

L with Grandma Onnie

With all of that over, the house was prepared for Christmas morning.  Santa had to work hard, as he had to bring all the presents from Texas to Utah, because G-Man left him a note with instructions to do so.  These are the "before" pictures:

That's it for now.  Thanks for reading...the next post will begin with Christmas morning!!