Family Round Up for December 2010...so far

In lieu of my normal weekly "Wednesday Writing", I figured I'd play a little catch up since I haven't posted any family events/news yet in December.

Naturally, we're prepping for Christmas and doing all sorts of holiday cheering. Throughout the month we visited Temple Square to see the lights, the nativity and the Christus. We went up to Ogden to see their Christmas village. Both of these were great fun and are a great annual tradition. We went with cousins to each one and had a good time.

Then back in Salt Lake we attended the Dickens Festival (in its first year back in operation after many years of absence). The kids were unsure of what to expect but they had a ball stepping back into 18th century London for a good old fashioned Christmastime and a meeting with Father Christmas.

We also went up to a baptist church up in Layton to take their Journey to Bethlehem where we walked from location to location with a 0 B.C. Jewish family dealing with Romans as we journeyed to Bethlehem to pay our taxes. Along the way, we learned of a new star, saw shepherds and even angels and finally ended our journey with a stop at the manger.

We've also had our ward Christmas party and a family Christmas party with Lynette's mom's extended family which was fun since we hardly ever get to see them anymore.

Julia had her Christmastime dance presentation which was very low key and fun.  She loved showing off what she's learned so far.  They're still working on their dance for the big recital in May, so they were a little rusty, but still very cute.

Later in the month, we had our Cub Scout Pack Meeting which was a special treat because Jason earned his Arrow of Light badge. They had a couple of bird & indian enthusiasts come in and give a very cool presentation. A hawk flew into the room with the Arrow of Light badge in its talons and dropped it on the table for the presentation. Jason got to hold a falcon later in the meeting. It was a good time. He also got a commemorative arrow to hang on his wall.

All in all it's been a good month so far. It's hard to believe that we're just a couple of days away from Christmas. Everybody's pretty excited and looking forward to this weekend. And that's the basic wrap up for the month…with more pictures and fun to come after the holidays.