Until last December, it had been ages since I had seen the gorgeous Christmas lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. When I was a twelve-year-old Beehive, the young women from my ward in Provo, Utah traveled up to the Salt Lake Temple to do baptism work. We entered the temple on a chilly December afternoon. To our amazement and delight, when we came back outside in the early evening, the Christmas lights were aglow on Temple Square. This was the first year of Temple Square's Christmas display, a tradition which has become famous worldwide.
The Empeys drove Gary M. and me to Salt Lake the evening of Wednesday, December 2, 2009. The week had been bitterly cold with low temps in the teens, so we dressed as warmly as we could. Maddie resembled the little brother in "A Christmas Story" -- bundled with so many layers inside her snowsuit, her arms would not bend!
As expected, the lighting display was breathtaking. (Actually, we could barely see through our breath!!) We slipped into the North Visitor's Center while waiting for the nativity presentation to begin. Maddie was able to identify the Christus as "Gee-Gee". We also ducked into the Joseph Smith Building with hopes of finding hot chocolate, but the gift shop had just closed.
From Temple Square, we drove straight to a downtown McDonald's for hot chocolate and cookies. Thanks Spencer, Erin, Maddie and Gary M. for braving the elements with me! It was so wonderful to see Christmas at Temple Square once again.
