Ricky and I had another Utah Christmas this year! It was a full and very enjoyable vacation with family and friends!
The first night there, we went to Luminaria in the gardens at Thanksgiving Point. It was neat, and they had the best hot chocolate and stroopwaffles!
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| Ricky warming his nose |
The next night, we went to see the lights at Temple Square. We also had to try out the Light the World vending machines! They were pretty cool! We stayed in a hotel downtown that night, and went to Music and the Spoken Word in the morning.
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| Christmas window displays |
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| The Giving Machines |
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| Ricky and I after Music and the Spoken Word |
On Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandma and Grandpa's for our traditional dinner, gift exchange, nativity, and talent show. It was so good to see everyone!
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| Ricky played We Three Kings on the ocarina for the talent show |
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| My grandparents got us Willow Tree nativity pieces! |
On Christmas Eve, we all worked together to make lots of sack lunches to donate to the Road Home. On Christmas morning, we made the sandwiches to go in the lunches, and then took them to the Road Home. It was a good Christmas service experience!
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| Organizing the sack lunches |
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| Brian got me a coloring book and Ricky a knife sharpener |
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| We got him a Charlie Brown Christmas tree - it matches his shirt! |
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| Brittany got us candy and an Angry Mama and we got her notebooks and glow-in-the-dark stars to enjoy at college |
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| We got my mom just what she asked for - a Swiffer duster and nail polish (and we got my dad candy) |
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| She got me the dress I fell in love with when we went shopping at the Gilroy Outlets in October |
We didn't get any pictures of the day after Christmas, but it was a great day! We went and visited Uncle Dean and went out to lunch with him. We went to Kokonut Island Grill, one of our favorites in Bountiful. Later that day, we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Reid and Larissa and Bennion and Brittney. It was fun seeing them!
The next day, we went to visit my Grandma and Grandpa at their new place! It was so nice there, and had anything you could want - cookies and candy by the front desk, games and puzzles you could rent out, a schedule of activities you could go to, even a hair salon. Downstairs was a place you could go eat pretty much any time of the day, and my grandpa took us to lunch there. We enjoyed it! We got salads, a delicious tomato soup, and then I got a burger and fries, and Ricky got one of the specials of the day, Cashew Shrimp. And after that, we got dessert! Also, Ricky was impressed that there was a soda machine you could access anytime of the day or night! We were sure impressed, and loved visiting with my grandparents!
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| Delicious fries and fry sauce |
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| A snowy view |
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| This is the sign that my grandpa got from the white elephant gift exchange at Christmas! |
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| My grandparents - we can't wait to visit again! |
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| Ricky got a cute picture of us hugging bye |
So Ricky and I got to our gate to fly home, but our flight had been overbooked and they needed volunteers to take a different flight a few hours later. We were in no rush, so we decided to volunteer. We ended up getting food vouchers and gift cards for volunteering! So after that, we had some time to spare and looked for somewhere to eat in the airport to use our food vouchers! It was a fun and tasty little adventure to end our trip!
