One of our very favorite parts of Christmas each year is traveling to Utah to fully celebrate with our extended family and friends. It is a long road trip to get from the Bay Area to Salt Lake City (we usually average about 11 hours to make the trip) but it is worth it every single time. No question. Our kids have never known Christmas without Utah and wow, it felt like such a reward to get there this year. Both of our highschoolers were fully burnt out from school/finals/races/training and they did a deep dive into all things snow/cozy/Christmas/video games/treats and family. They REALLY needed the break.

Our first few days in town were not snow filled nor were they particularly cold. There is something extra special about Christmas in snow (I grew up outside of Washington D.C. and remember MANY white Christmas’s so I really love it) and we were all collectively worried that there would be no fresh snow for our trip. But the Christmas miracles prevailed and sure enough we got some snow on Christmas night! It was magical. Then it got cold. Like…so cold. Remember, we have all now lived in Northern CA for like 14 years and we legit cannot handle the cold. Oh my gosh how did I ever survive going to school in Utah in the winter? I swear I have no memories of being cold or complaining or even having proper winter clothes while I was at BYU but obviously I made it through??? Luckily the freezing temps didn’t happen until halfway through our trip so we survived.

We spent a ton of time with family:

We spent a lot of time with good friends that are like family (this is the benefit of coming through Utah twice a year; I always get to see my friends who are spread out from all over!):

We enjoyed a perfect, fun, relaxing, beautiful Christmas Day with our family. Highlights in the present department this year was a VR for Playstation 4 system for Simon, many forms of Addidas clothing and hair/makeup things for Sophie, a 2DS and clothes for Seb and a bunch of new clothes and writing supplies for Sadie. One of the highlights of my Christmas Day was taking a monster nap on my MIL’s couch; as soon as I got up from said nap, Sophie laid down and passed out for two hours. That couch is magical, I tell ya. We had the LOUDEST family dinner with everyone Christmas night; so much laughing, yelling, singing and all around craziness that I am not sure can be topped. It was the best.

Sam and Simon did a little skiing at Alta Ski resort with Ben, Andy and Joel. Simon had a bad cold for most of the first part of our vacation and he seemed especially sick the night before this ski adventure and so I didn’t think he would end up going but a boys day of skiing was high on his list of things he wanted to do and so he pushed through.

Sophie and I spent a day in and around Temple Square right after Christmas. City Creek is GORGEOUS and was a fun place to spend a little Christmas present money, then lunch with Elna at one of my favorite restaurants, Blue Lemon. It had just snowed the night before and all of downtown SLC was a winter wonderland and no where more beautiful than the area around the Temple. We spent time in the Visitors Center as well and had some great conversations together about family history and the importance temple work.

We also visited the LDS Giving Machines which was a far more emotional experience than I was prepared for! We had wanted to go last year but the machines closed down early before we got into town and we were really disappointed to miss out on the experience. This year, we carefully researched all of the different giving options and chose some things that were especially meaningful to us. We chose to donate mosquito nets that would help nine families (both Sam and Sophie are especially sweet meat to mosquitoes and regularly have problems with mosquito bites so this one was a no brainer), polio vaccinations that would cover 100 children (again, this felt really important because Polio has been erradicated in our part of the world thanks to simple vaccinations that are easy and commonplace to acquire; we wanted that same ease for children in other countries) and finally, female empowerment kits (these are menstruation kits for five girls that make it possible for young women to attend school even when they are on their period. In many developing nations, period supplies are non existent and young women need to sit out of their schooling for the duration of their period. Sophie felt especially strongly about this particular donation). The Giving Machines are active for some of November and all of December and are currently placed in five areas: Salt Lake City, Utah; Gilbert, Arizona; London, England; NYC and the Philippines. If you have a chance to visit one of these locations in late 2019 I strongly encourage you to participate in this extraordinary way to give!

We spent a total of 10 days on our Utah trip and as always, it is never quite enough time. Until next time, Utah! Stay warm!!!