This is going to be a long one...mostly ranting...feel free to skip it!
So for years now, Keith and I have been planning to make it up to Temple Square in Salt Lake to see the Christmas lights. This year we were determined to make it! My sister got tickets for a concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and David Archuletta (sp?) and so we decided we would go on Saturday-yesterday-and combine it all in one trip. Smart right? Sometimes I think the Universe is yelling so loud not to do something that I can't distinguish it from the din of insanity that such yelling creates and thus am unable to listen. A common thing in yelling, I think...not much really gets heard.
Well Saturday afternoon as we were figuring out what time we needed to leave since we had some errands to run up in that neck of the woods while we were there, my sister texted me that her husband wasn't feeling well and they weren't going to go to the concert. We were then adding one more stop to go out to Eagle Mountain and pick up the tickets, rather than just meet them there. We decided we'd better leave by 4:30 (the concert required you in your seats by 7), that seemed reasonable for all the stops we'd need to make. Well as we were gathering to go, we couldn't find our camera. A camera is not technically necessary, but as this was the first time we were actually going to go see the lights in about three years of planning to, we wanted to document it. After an hour of searching and tearing apart our apartment (not a large apartment mind you) we decided we would take the video camera and use it's camera feature and call that good. We headed out, leaving our apartment looking like a tornado had recently hit. Alex was not happy about getting into his carseat--he screamed and strained against the straps for the first 25 minutes of the trip asking for help to undo his seatbelt. This was familiar as the night before we were headed up to a friend's party celebrating her husbands graduation with his MBA...a friend I haven't seen in years--that night we didn't make it to our destination...after the 20 minutes we decided it wasn't worth it. We WERE going to make it this time though!
So we continued on our way, Alex eventually calmed down with a bottle and we made it to my sisters to get the tickets, we then headed to Keith's Uncle and Aunt's house to drop off a gift for a gift-exchange that his family does. We realized at this point that we weren't going to make it in time for the concert. Not a big deal, as we aren't raving David Archuletta fans and with an already ornery child, it wouldn't have been a fun experience.
We made it up to the area and then spent the next half hour or so driving around searching for parking. Turns out we picked a popular night for seeing the lights. We eventually parked at the Capitol building and made our way down a HUGE hill. The lights were beautiful, the area was very crowded, but people were happy and friendly and we even ran into some family! After we went around and saw everything we headed back to our car. It was quite the workout to get back up to the car. It was three blocks of steep grade hill, pushing Alex.
The next surprise of the night was as we stripped off his snow suit we discovered he had peed out his diaper and was soaked from the bottom of the diaper down to his feet! Poor little guy--didn't complain at all! We got him changed and headed home. We discovered that we were close to the time that the freeway was going to be closed at Pleasant Grove (a couple of miles north of where we live) so we knew we needed to hurry. Turned out that we weren't going to make even that far before we lost the Freeway! It was closed much earlier than expected and sent us on a very long, circuitous route to get to where we needed to go. We got home shortly before midnight, exhausted, but safe! Now, if we had just listened in the beginning that maybe this was a bad night to go, we might have avoided mess after mess, but we were glad that we finally had made it as a family to see the lights and enjoy the beauty of the true reason we celebrate this season...over 2000 years ago, in a lowly stable was born our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who came to save us all, to give us freedom and hope! We're so grateful for the gift of Love given that day and that continues to bless us as we accept Him into our homes and lives!
Once I figure out how to get the pictures off the video camera I'll post them!
No comments:
Post a Comment