Christmas and More in St. George

We arrived in St. George Wednesday night after our Early Christmas and stayed up late catching up and hanging out with Ben and Suz and Whit and Teddy and Lucy.

The next morning, all the girls headed to Vegas for a little girls' shopping trip.  We stopped at the outlet mall for lunch and a bit of browsing, then hung out at The Forum Shops at Caesers for a few hours, perusing the beautiful luxury goods and enjoying good food.  It was so fun to just hang out together all day!

While we were livin' it up in Vegas, the boys stayed at Suz's house and watched movies.  Well, that is, they stayed home and watched movies after going on a 3-hour action-packed Can-Am adventure through the rocky and sandy wilds of Southwest Utah.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we were fortunate to be invited to go on a private tour of the St. George Tabernacle by some friends of ours.  The Hintons were our neighbors in Orem before we moved and they've kept in touch.  They spend every winter in St. George and serve as historical sites missionaries, giving tours at the different sites in the area.  The sites were closed to the public on Christmas Eve so we had the whole Tabernacle to ourselves.  We loved learning more about the construction and history of the building.  And it was fun to put on an impromptu concert, with all of the kids taking a turn on the Steinway, and Cat accompanying me as I sang at the pulpit at which many Presidents of the LDS Church have spoken.

The people who built the Tabernacle used stencils like the one pictured
to paint the pine to make it look like hardwood.

When we were finished at the Tabernacle, we walked around the historic district a bit before getting lunch.  Then I took some quiet time at the house while everyone else went to the pool and hot tub in Ben and Suz's neighborhood.

That night Suz put on an amazing Bethlehem dinner, and my aunt and uncle joined us.  They took time to tell us about their experience in the Holy Land several years ago and show us some of the things they brought back from their trip.  We did our Christmas Eve program together before Reed and Jen headed home.  Then we played a few games.

Christmas Day!  The kids slept in even later than we expected and we had a great time enjoying Suz's treats while we opened presents.  The kids had one gift each from Mom and Dad, and a few things to open from Ben and Suz or from family who had mailed gifts to their house.  I loved that with a smaller number of presents, they seemed to pay more attention to the things they received, and enjoy them more.

We left that afternoon to begin the next part of our journey: a humanitarian trip to Mexico!