Christmas Extras

On December 27th, we drove up to Salt Lake with Clara and Paul's parents to visit temple square.  More to see the temple than the lights, which was good since it was FREEZING (I didn't already mention this - it was 69 the day we left California for Utah and it was 18 degrees when we drove in that night.  At one point during the week we were there is was 4 degrees.  And it "warmed up" to the high 20s partway through the week.  I was a popsicle the whole time.). 

 

Anyway, the 27th is the anniversary of the day that we were sealed as a forever family in the temple so we have been able to commemorate that special day the past two years with Clara and we really love this tradition.  Afterwards we walked around the indoor portion of the City Creek Center and went out to eat at Bombay House (the service was horrible but the food was amazing).

 

 

I snuck this video of my dad on Christmas morning while we were waiting for the other girls to wake up (Adelaide was up first, bless her heart.  A niece just like me.)  He didn't realize I was videoing him which is why I sound all quiet when I asked him to retell a story he had told us the night before about one of his earliest Christmas memories.  I love that I captured this story and hope I can get many  more like it from him and my mom and my siblings, especially now that I have my new audio equipment for the camera.

 

Paul and I wanted to go to BYU with Clara since it has been a while since we have had a chance to visit campus so a couple days after Christmas we headed out in the morning after breakfast.  First stop was the law building where Clara ran wild through the carrels, which really do look like a giant maze.  I got all nostalgic there (and I'm not even being sarcastic - I love, love, loved going to law school). 

Then it was on to the Wilkinson Center where Clara was afraid of the cougars in the entrance at first.  I won't lie - we are totally going to do whatever it takes to convince her to go to school at mom and dad's alma mater.  I may be a little heartbroken if it doesn't happen.  (Is that putting too much pressure on her?  Probably.  Sorry, sweetie.  I'll be proud of you wherever you choose to go to school.  But "go cougars!" is all I'm saying.)

 

Paul was pretty much beside himself over the fact that a Chick-Fil-A has been installed in the CougarEat.  We totally had lunch here and even though eating Chick-Fil-A on campus was a new experience, eating in the Wilk brought back SOOOO many memories.  I started at BYU when I was 17 years old, after all, and more than any place in the world, BYU campus feels like home to me.  Isn't that weird? 

 

We spent some time in the BYU bookstore where I found some awesome kid books about adoption (love adding to our adoption library - I should post about those some time) as well as a couple of kids books for Clara that are perfect for church (one about Jesus and one about the Holy Ghost). 

After that we went to the Harold B. Lee Library (the HBLL) and explored.  Paul and I used to study together here as undergrads when we were dating.  We would go there together and then I would make him leave my alone so I could focus and I would go find a secret corner and hide from him because otherwise he would try to distract me constantly.  We laughed about that while we were walking around.

On the 4th floor of the HBLL there is a kids section and an awesome mural depicting characters from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other fiction.  We sat on the floor there with Clara and played "I Spy" for a while, which she loved. 

Then we wandered over to the Eyring Science Center where the Pendulum Court Café is during the semester (it is a food nutrition lab that serves lunch for part of the semester and it is seriously my favorite place to eat on campus when it is open).  We showed Clara the dinosaurs and crystal exhibit and played with the hands-on science experiments in the atrium that teach about vortexes, density of different materials, and magnets.  We really made a day of our little BYU trip and I was glad that there was so much to keep Clara entertained the whole time and I still have a bunch more ideas of places to take her for future visits.

Our friends, the Liebers, bailed on us and moved from San Jose to Highland, UT earlier this year and built a beautiful new home.  Clara and Claire were buddies so it was fun to see them play together while we caught up with Peter and Melanie.  Clara was really enraptured with the toy curling iron, blow dryer, and brush set that Claire got for Christmas so I am on the hunt for an inexpensive set.  Melanie said she got it at the dollar section at Target but I couldn't find one at ours so if anybody happens to stumble across one, let me know, okay?

Oh, and here is a video of Clara caroling during December.  I filmed whatever snatches I could whenever she started singing and this is the best I ended up with.  She knows quite a few songs now though and I never could catch her singing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town". 

 

This has nothing to do with Christmas, but it was filmed in December so I am posting it here too.  I love watching Clara and Paul play together.  Swordfight is one of Clara's absolute favorite games.  Listen closely at the end where Paul's sword breaks.  Clara says "oh dear" which is one of my very favorite phrases of hers.

And finally, just to prove that everything isn't always all hunky-dory for us (which I know the past few posts have probably seemed like), here is a video of Clara throwing a tantrum on December 8th when I was trying to get her to sing Happy Birthday to her cousin, Emma.