'Tis the season to see the lights

'Tis the season to see the lights.  And when you are in Utah that means going uptown to temple square.  This we did as another Wright family adventure.  My sister Laura flew in from New York with a list of things she wanted to do.  Number 1 on her list was to sit in a hot tub.  That was a very simple request so we headed to the Legacy Center with a large part of the Wright family to soak and swim.  The next adventure was the lights.  We decided to all go out to dinner first.  My sister Steph suggested La Costa a delicious Mexican restaurant that tolerates lots of loud people and children.  One thing you can usually count on in a Mexican restaurant is that they love families and we have one large enough to fill a restaurant. After dinner the Reeves family and mine took the train uptown while my parents and Laura took the car.  (Laura was sick of taking trains.  It was actually on her list to ride in a car. Its funny the simple things you can miss.)
The kids loved the train ride.  Brennen was sure it was a Christmas train because he just did the Polar Express in school.  Once we got to our final train stop we headed over the the Church museum because they had a collection of nativities from all over the world.  Since both my mom and I collect them we couldn't miss it.  My favorites were the teeny tiniest nativity I've ever seen.  It was placed inside a small test tube like case. There was a creche' and figures so tiny you really needed a magnifying glass the see them.  Who could possibly work with something so small? Apparently Chileans can.
I also love the Polish carved piece.
As we walked around enjoying the lights and nativities I felt very happy and nostalgic.  Of course the weather was freezing cold a whole 24 degrees, But chasing kids around kept us warm enough.My favorites are still the luminaries they have placed about.  The detail is amazing.
One amazing thing I hadn't seen before was a perfect scale model of the Salt Lake Temple.  The south side was open reveling all of the rooms in perfect detail right down to the door knobs.  My first thought was, "this is amazing now people can see what's inside and how beautiful it is.  Maybe it would help them understand a few things or calm their fears."  My second thought was, " this is a dream doll house."  They even had computers with pictures of all the actual rooms that you could explore around in.

After the lights the train goers headed up the road to the Grand America hotel.  My nephew Paul was sure they were going to have gumballs because they happened to have them one year.  I told him they didn't have them last year and I am pretty sure they were going to have them this year.  He was determined and very disappointed when we got there and there were no gumballs.  Sorry Paul maybe next year.