Temple Square, A Christmas Tradition...but why?

Don't get me wrong, I love to go see the lights at Temple Square. I remember going every year growing up and thinking it was almost magical to see so many lights. I loved watching the little video and seeing the beautiful Christus statue, all while warming up inside. I loved the nativity and I especially loved the glowing temple that didn't need any lights. No wonder I wanted to carry on this tradition with my own family, right?

Well, you know how you envision how perfect something like this is going to be? We were headed out as a family to enjoy the temple grounds together. We would meander through the visitor's centers, listen to a few choir pieces, and take in all that Temple Square had to offer to put us in the Christmas Spirit. Yes, it was going to be cold, but bundling up was all part of the fun. What I hadn't pictured was the insane traffic, the millions of people (side note, don't go the Saturday before Christmas), kids having to go potty, and kids wanting out! So, we lasted a whole 40 minutes, maybe an hour, though most of that time was waiting to meet up with everyone. We did a very quick tour of the lights and called it good. No statue of Christ, no video, no nativity-we were done!

There were some definite highlights, however, and those included Capri's fascination of the temple-she would not take her eyes off of it as we circled around, Roman's expressions, "More lights, more lights...oh gosh," and of course, eating at Crown Burger after. Yum. Too, we met up with my cousin and his girlfriend from Australia and she was so fun to talk to-something about that accent! All in all, being with my family is always fun and if something is not going as planned, we aren't about to sugar coat it-we simply laugh it off and with time (some things take longer than others) it becomes a funny memory.

Our little family all bundled up:

My mom and dad who are always so willing to come along:
Cheri and Cody-aren't they cute?!
Roman and Capri-this was how Capri sat a majority of our trip:
The best part of the night at Crown Burger:
p.s. Tucker told me to zoom in to fix the red eye but I insisted I didn't need to...that was a mistake. Sorry about the creepy looking people!