Amy's New Year's Eve!

Our new years eve:

We spent the morning in our usual Saturday morning chores routine. By 12:30 we had agreed on the plans for the day. We drove into Salt Lake City and parked under the conference center. We gobbled up a few oranges, Capri Suns, and homemade cookies while I googled what was open for the day on Temple Square (it looked so empty). The Joseph Smith Memorial was open so hooray! we don't have to go home and we put on our gloves and out of the van we went. The joy of the elevator did not disappoint. And tradition of youngest pushing the buttons was controlled. Last adventure of 2016!!

We crossed to Temple Square and were pleased to find the Visitor's Center open. We explored exhibits, learned more about Serving Others, and used the restroom before braving the cold again. Church History Museum was closed, as I had said, but we made our way through Temple Square imagining the Christmas lights in full display. 

We were happy to enter the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Megan recalled her aunt's wedding reception, good memories. We first tried out the children's area in the Family History area. Coloring pages, books, magnetic boards, baby dolls, play food, puzzles. And a fun family photo green screen, you can picture yourself in places all over the world including Temples. 

Joseph ended up taking the older two into the Legacy Theater to see the new Meet the Mormon shorts while I let the younger ones play. They finished one film and enjoyed it so much they insisted on bringing us for the second. It was really well done and enjoyable, for those over 8. However, Henry chewed and rubbed all over his face my Christmas chapstick. It keeps him quiet, but I wish something could just be mine sometimes. Halfway through the documentary, Jane whispers to me, "When is the movie going to start, they are just talking." Well...the wiggly wumps were glad to move on to the cafe place where we spent $8 on large, sweet, chocolately chunk cookies. Yum, but oh my sugar consumption.nWe were all glad to shuffle quickly back to the parking garage, buckle up and go home. 

After getting home I whipped up some dough and we designed our own personal pizzas. Then, as is common in our house we each selected one activity of our choice and we took turns having a "party". We started with Lydia's "Family Gymnastic Challenge". It involved a lot of criticism and judging, but she LOVED my round-off. Then we watched Jane's movie of choice and Megan's. That's when Henry fell asleep. Next, we played Joseph's game Apples to Apples. Isaac had a lesson to prepare for his Deacon class so he gave up his game of Wii. We were slowing down at this point and ended up watching TV or working on the computer til 11:30 when we all chose sleep. My choice of journal writing will be completed today. Happy New Year!