Ockey Family Adventures: Christmas Adventures

Family pictures in the winter always look dark and cold!

We had a bunch of adventures in December that were Christmas related. One of our favorites was a trip to Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point. Before Melanie moved to California, she asked us to go, so we made the trip, even though it is quite expensive. We loved Luminaria, though. The boys especially liked being with cousins. The lights were amazing, and we spent a couple of hours walking around. We also enjoyed the gingerbread houses that must have taken hours to build. The boys liked telling and hearing the stories in the Garden with statues of the Savior. It was a really nice night, and after a while, we even stopped thinking about the cost.

Luminaria has millions of lights. This is the main show.

This area actually smelled like peppermint!

The Ockey and Webb kids enjoyed our last adventure before they moved away!

The gazebo was popular, but not a great place for photos.

We did get a slightly crooked family picture, though.

Every tree seemed to be filled with lights.

Mel moving to California has been hard on Mom. They are so close!

We'll miss being crazy with the cousins.

That's mistletoe, so we are justified in our public display of affection.

The statues of the Savior were our favorite section of Luminaria.

Dad can't quite hide behind the little snowman.

Mark loved the life-sized Lite Brite!

There were lots of gingerbread houses and a gingerbread ship.

Seth liked this one with moving parts.

This is the Place Heritage Park had us back for free. They love to give us complimentary tickets to their events, and we love to use them. We've been to their Candlelight Christmas before, but it is always fun. The boys like the donuts and the dancing in the schoolhouse. Mom and Dad like the Nativity and the wagon ride. This is always a great adventure for us.

Those are our three happy little elves.

Mark took this picture of Mom and Dad.

The boys had fun making crafts like this garland.

They also got to make a bees' wax candle.

We have always had fun at the Pioneer dancing.

Dad is an expert. He teaches his students Pioneer dances.

Father Christmas was waiting for us. There was no line.

We enjoyed the last year of the private Fenn Nativity this year. They are closing the Nativity because they have sold the property, and it is going to be developed. This was sad for us, but we still liked seeing the angels sing on the haystack and listening to the shepherds tell their story. We've really enjoyed this invitation-only Nativity over the last three years, and we'll miss it.

Mom loves this picture because the moon looks like the new star at Jesus' birth.

The angels singing on the haystack is always the highlight.

The boys like seeing the animals outside the stable.

It's been years since we did the Provo River Cruise, so we went to try it out again. The lights were really nice and Seth had never done this boat ride before. He was surprised when Santa came rowing up in a canoe. He was really into the Santa scene this year, which was fun.

The boat was pretty crowded, which was nice on this freezing cold night.

Mom and Mark were pretty chummy all night.

The boys loved this adventure.

Dad ran for hot chocolate while we waited in line.

The boys watched a movie in line and enjoyed the warm hot chocolate.

Mom had an early Christmas present for the boys this year, too. She got tickets to the Jazz game, and we went to see them play the Thunder (it seems like we always see them play OKC). We are usually geared up for a Jazz win, but they aren't very good this year. Still, all Seth cares about is eating popcorn. Mark and Dax argued over their favorite players (Dax says "Hood is Good" and Mark prefers rookie Donovan Mitchell. It was a really fun game even though the Jazz lost pretty badly.

Seth has taken to doing his own hair. It's lovely in this selfie.

Dad's usually too busy yelling at the court to pause for a picture.

We were pretty high up, but the new seats they installed this season are amazing!

Seth ate most of that popcorn. Mark had a few of Mom and Dad's nachos (no cheese, please!)

This is about 20 seconds after we bought the popcorn...

Grandpa Ockey has also been asking us to come see him on his mission at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Since UTA was having a free train day we hopped on Front Runner and rode the train all the way downtown. It was fun to ride the train, and it was nice not to find parking. We enjoyed our time with Grandpa, and he did, too. He gave us a tour of the building and directed us to the nicest movie, which was about the Three Witnesses. It was a really nice day.

Surprisingly, Seth didn't love the train. He kept asking how much longer.

The older boys liked the ride. They'd only done it once before.

We should have taken a family picture. This one sure is beautiful.

Grandpa was surprised to see us.

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building was all decked out.

This is the first year they've done vending machines. You can "buy" a donation for the needy.

This fake looking photo is real from the window of the South Visitor's Center.

Grandpa gave a nice tour.

We took a picture at the top looking out over the temple.

We'd never seen this map, which shows every temple as a point of light.

The organ in the chapel of the building has the black and white keys reversed.

It was pretty cold waiting 15 minutes for the train. Only "Slugger" didn't mind.

One of our best traditions is making ornaments with Aunt Laurie. This year she had us saving up toilet paper rolls for three weeks. We turned them into beautiful snowflakes and flowers. We've been making ornaments since before the kids were born, and we have too many to even fit on the twelve foot tree anymore! Still, we like looking back through our favorites. The boys love this tradition.

Dad ruined his first ornament, but he still made one.

Mark was pleased with his blue flower.

Seth's turned out great, too.

The boys look forward to the Ockey Family Christmas Party every year for two reasons. First, Santa will be there with a gift for them. Second, the night will end with eggnog icecream and your choice of hundreds of exotically flavored candycanes. There were a lot of cousins at the party this year (as always). We had a great time.

Mark wants to sit on Santa's lap forever.

Seth is the perfect age for Santa. He asked a million questions about him.

Seth got to jingle the bells from Santa's sleigh.

Dax takes the Pascal's Wager approach to Santa Claus.

The boys and Dad found tickets to the BYU basketball game in their stockings on Christmas morning. So a few days after Christmas they headed down to the Marriott Center and watched the game. BYU is pretty good (and they were playing poor Portland) so they won by 25 points. Again, Dax and Seth ate a lot of popcorn and Mark and Dax argued over their favorite players. One scored 28 points and one scored 26, so they were both happy. It was a great end to a really fun December!