Lights on Temple Square

 On Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, we decided to go up to Salt Lake and see the lights on Temple Square. We convinced the B family to come along with us on our harebrained scheme, and after trying to ride the Frontrunner not checking the schedule, we drove up in two cars. First stop was our favorite Thai curry hole-in-the-wall:
 We could have just fit our two families inside and taken every seat in the place, but some of the kids actually wanted to eat outside. It's a good stop on the way to someplace else -- they're fast and inexpensive and we love the curry. 
 Macy's had huge candied ornaments in their windows which had been decorated by local groups. I don't really understand the holiday importance of the elephant, but at 3+ feet, it was impressive. That trunk seems to be sticks of gum layered on each other. I'm glad that they're doing holiday windows.
 We wandered around admiring the lights, 
 and had a surprise visit from Santa and his curly-haired elf, which always helps. For one moment here, Joss was taking Santa very seriously. Actually, in his afternoon class his teacher had an elf and explained that the elf would be taking notes and reporting to Santa whether or not they were being kind to each other. He took that seriously too, but mostly when telling me about the other kids' behavior!
 While we were there, we were trying to take a family picture for the B's christmas card. We had plenty to choose from since the Beehive class had taken our pictures and then Saydi had during the summer.
 We had a hard time finding a place with good lighting, and then Rob and I are still photographers of the "monkeys and typewriters" style of taking pictures -- we take oodles and hope that one turns out.
 The Joseph Smith building and Temple Square itself were packed with hoards of people -- I don't know why we thought it was going to be empty, but we were there with most of our friends from the entire state. We managed to make our way around, see the nativity, catch a few minutes of a rehearsal in the Assembly Hall, and not lose anyone.
 We wandered over through City Creek . . .
 . . . which I don't see much even though I've been working here . . .
. . . and our last try with family pictures yielded something the B's could use! Success! The monkeys win again!

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