Christmas time in Salt Lake City

We went to Salt Lake last week for some Christmas festivities. Of course we checked out the lights at Temple Square, as well as doing a special star hunt at the Grand America. They have display windows throughout the hotel that have scenes from a special children's book. In each scene you look for a star, and then you look at your card to find out which clue goes with the star you found. The kids thought it was so much fun -- Kale loved finding the windows, Hallie loved to find the stars before everyone else, and Rachel thought it was cool to figure out which clue correlated with what (especially since she was the only kid who could read). Once we found all 18 stars, we took our little cards to the bakery and they gave us 5 huge star cookies. All in all, a super fun activity.

Before we left the house Rachel and Hallie determined that they were going to bring their money so they could buy something. So, they emptied out their piggy banks (even Kale -- I think his amounted to about 60 cents), and we headed off to Salt Lake. We went to Gateway Mall, but they don't have any kid/toy stores except Build-a-Bear, and frankly the kids didn't have $30 to spend. We kept telling the kids that they didn't have to spend their money. They could just go home and put it back in their banks. Hallie was not about to let that happen -- she would have bought anything, just so long as she got to buy something.

As it turned out, we stopped in at a Barnes and Noble and the kids bought some magical treasures there. Rachel bought a stuffed raccoon (which she loves and brings with her everywhere), and Hallie bought a little doll (which she doesn't care about -- in fact it's still sitting in the car). It's crazy how much Hallie loves to buy things, even if she doesn't really like it, she still has to buy it. Hopefully we don't have a shopaholic on our hands, but it's starting to look like we might.

This Santa was just sitting outside The Little America hotel, so we had the kids sit on his lap and take a picture. It's the only Santa they got to see this year, so hopefully they told him what they wanted for Christmas.

Our other Salt Lake adventure happened on Monday. We went to the Delta Center (or whatever it's called now) for a Christmas carol sing-along. Ruth let us know about it and almost the whole Hansen clan went for family night. It was so much fun and it was free! They handed out donuts and coupons as we came in the door, and then it was just an hour of singing carols with an orchestra, dancing in the aisles, etc. I don't know if the kids appreciated it as much as they should have (it started at seven, and that is bedtime at our house), but I loved every minute of it! We are for sure doing it again next year.