Concert, UT Game, Super Saturday

The Saturday after Thanksgiving I sang in the Millennuim Chorale's Christmas Concert.  After last year's  disaster, we certainly made up for that chaos this year by singing in the historic Salt Lake Tabernacle.  [Don't worry, it didn't even come close to burning down. ;)]  The concert was a beautiful, marvelous, and spiritual experience.  This year, Lex invited ANYone in the world to come sing his Christmas oratorio, Gloria.  If they passed the audition and could make it to SLC for 4 rehearsals the week of Thanksgiving, they were in.  He also extended the invite to anyone who could not make it to SLC but would record themselves singing (to a recording with Lex contucting) so they could participate in a "virtual" choir.  The virtual choir sang the finale with us.  Lex had a "click track" ticking in his ear the entire song so the live and virtual choirs stayed together.  

I'm second row, in the middle, right behind the mic stand.

My loving, awesome, super supportive husband.  

The day after Thankgiving, I attended my first (of many) U football game. Yes, I'm still loyal to my alma mater (Go BYU!), but at least I got to spend some time with my man.  (Editors Note: Don't let her fool you. She loved every minute of being on campus, was so impressed by the greater level of school spirit and devotion than she experienced at the school "down south", and it has been confirmed that she cheered "GO UTES" at least twice. Making progress my friends.)

And here's something I forgot to blog about.  The last Saturday in October, our relief society  had their "Super Saturday" activity.  I signed up to do three of the crafts.  

A "Days 'til" block. (Chalkboard paint-how cool!)

Apron

This thing took pretty much the whole time (4 hours) and I made a big enough mistake I have to put in another hour or two to fix it.  The straps crisscross in the back and I made them too small at first and had my mom help me fix them when she came to visit a week or so later (THANKS MOM!).  I had so many people help me with this apron, so don't be too impressed that I sewed this.  I still really have no clue how to follow and pattern.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out. :)  

 I didn't have time to even touch my third project (tooth fairy pillows).  I'll have to post about those later when I finish them.  

Thanksgiving

We were lucky enough to celebrate/eat at TWO Thanksgiving dinners this year.  

My dad's side of the family, the Thompsons, reserved a church building the Saturday before Thanksgiving in which we could hold our festivities.  I mostly just got pictures of the "crowd"--around 90 people in all. My grandpa had old home videos playing in the background for people to watch and reminisce at their leisure.   They also had the Utah football game on in one of the classrooms, so Dan was a happy camper.  

See if you recognize anyone in these pictures.  :)

The kids had a blast having so much room to run around.

The day before Thanksgiving, Ben woke up with a goopy eye. Great!  He'd had a cold for a while, so it turns out he had pink eye and an ear infection.  Thank heavens for antibiotics!

Thanksgiving day we went to Dan's parent's place in Mantua with all but two of Dan's siblings and one of Dan's aunts and her family.  

The lovely table BEFORE

AFTER- Everyone was well fed! (Editors note: Dan was apparently quite stuffed)  

Cute favors/name cards

The sleeping after the turkey.

Some of the ladies

More sleeping/relaxing

The two handsome babies present.  This was about as close as we let them get to each other since we didn't want to infect baby Eli.  

Pretty happy at the moment for being so sick.  

McKenna and cousin Russell watching Super Why on uncle David's phone.  

I was such a great weekend, sick baby and all.  We recognize and are grateful that we are SO blessed both temporally and spiritually.  Life is wonderful!      

Disney on Ice

As I said in my last post, we went to see Disney on Ice while my parents were in town. 

My Dad, Mom, Jonathan, Mickelle holding Ben, McKenna and Dan

 I took LOTS of pictures since this was our first time.  McKenna was, of course, the main reason we went.  She has almost seen every movie featured.  It was a blast to see her get into it.  I felt bad we couldn't buy any souvenirs.  Everytime they walked by us in the aisles, she would hold out her hands for them to give her one of whatever they were selling...but really...$25 for a spinning light wand? No gracias.    

For those of you who have never had the chance to go, here's a little taste. 

The hosts of the show

Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald

Followed by Alice in Wonderland

Peter Pan

The lost boys

Hook and Mr. Smee

Tinkerbell

Peter and Tink

Lion King

Hyenas

The wildebeest stampede 

Nala and Simba- a very impressive couples skate

Snow White

Seven Dwarfs

Aladdin

(They also had a flying carpet.)

The Little Mermaid-very cool with black lights.

Tangled

The lanterns

At the end, they brought out ALL the princesses (with their Princes)  for a big finale!  We took pictures of the ones we hadn't seen yet.  

Sleeping Beauty

Mulan and Cinderella

Beauty and the Beast

Here are some pictures of McKenna (and the boys) being enthralled by it all.  

I might have been a little enchanted by it all too. :)

We did buy her some Mickey ears which she was less than thrilled about since it didn't light up or make music. 

Waving

Clapping

Singing 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the night since you can see her little stretched out neck, straining to sing her heart out. :) Thanks again, Mom and Dad!