The Annual Trek to Temple Square

So post-Christmas, as I may have mentioned before (did I?), we left L.A. for Ootah, which is where my entire father's family lives, but one - plus, well, my immediate family which of course includes my father, and they all live in Iowa, poor suckers. A few of my mother's nephews also live in SLC (Salt Lake City) with their families, and I also have numerous childhood, college and family friends who live throughout the SLC valley. Sufficieth to say, there are lots of people in SLC whom I love and adore, so lots of pictures were taken while we were there. The fam pics, of course, I won't share here, but I will show you some of the pics I took while we were at Temple Square with FIFTEEN members of my father's fam...that's about two-thirds of the clan. Not bad. Anyhoow, check out the crazy lights! ~ Click on the images for a larger, better view!
When I was little, my mum and dad would bring me to the MoTab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) Christmas concerts broadcast on TV each year. Because of the whole broadcasting effort, there was a "No children Under Age 8" policy, yet I distinctly remember the time I was 5 years old, told to keep myself quiet as can be and to NOT reveal my age if asked, well aware of the rules. I even recall recognizing and reading the signs posted at the tabernacle entrances, stating the rules, and my father brought me anyhow... Why I remember it as "my father brought me" and not my mother, I dunno. She was always there too. I just remember being given my instructions to 'shhush' by my father and I remember thinking at the time that he was such a "sneaky sneak" for bringing me to the concert, not that I was complaining. I loved those Christmas concerts! - the other ones they have year-round, not so much. But I gotta say, MoTab's pretty darn impressive. My 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Sudwicks, sang in the MoTab choir and I remember searching the choir seats for her. Have you seen how large the MoTab choir is? Check out the picture shown in the upper right on this website ---> link here. I think I found Mrs. Sudwicks once, and that was only because I was at home, watching for her on a MoTab TV broadcast and the camera had zoomed in on her singing for a brief moment. For years, until we left UT in '85, I remember attending those Christmas concerts each year... All the pretty people dressed in "their Sunday-best," and all the cute missionaries everywhere. Every Christmas, we went to Temple Square to wander the grounds and marvel over the lights and displays. As a child, I had loved the outside nativity scene most, with it's audio narrative playing over the outdoor loudspeakers. It's still like that today, but this past visit, it didn't have the same affect it had had when I was a kid - it only made me miss my mother.