Christmas party and Temple Square

The annual Hendriksen Christmas party is normally on Christmas Eve, but sadly I think that will be changing. This year it was on the 22nd. It was snowing the whole way up and we were a little nervous, but thankfully we all made it up safely.

At the party- Daphne, Ethan, Kristen, Melodie, Charlotte, Rosie, Julia

We headed to Temple Square to see the lights after the majority of the party was over.

We got to see the last presentation of the nativity program; we were glad that we weren't too late to see it.

I was going to get some photos of all of us inside temple square but just as I was ready to take the picture the lights went out. They are definitely prompt, lights go off right at 10pm.

At least the lights were still on at the Main Street plaza just East of the temple.


Our group: Derek, Ethan, Rosie, Julia, Kristen, Charlotte, Andrew
(Daphne in the stroller and Melodie taking the picture)

And our little family in front of the temple.

School Christmas Program

The Christmas program at the school is probably the most attended function of the year, so I try to get there early to get a good seat. This year my mom and sister Melodie were coming to the program with my nephews and niece-- Josh, Claire, Andrew, and Peter, but they needed a ride. I got ready as quickly as I could and went over to pick them up. We got to the school at 8:40, twenty minutes before the program started, and it was already crowded in the gym. Oh well!

I was lucky though, I still had a good view of Ethan and Julia from where I was sitting.
So for anyone who's interested, here's a sample of the program.


These first two are of Ethan, he's wearing a red shirt and is in the bottom row towards the middle.

These second two are of Julia, she's in a red shirt and is in one of the middle rows and her hair is pulled back.

The kids last day of school was the 22nd. I was thinking that was really late to start Christmas break but it ended up saving me since I wasn't able to get anything done until that week because of hundreds of Christmas orders. I was lucky that I had done some shopping online or I really would have been in trouble.

Sledding at the Park City condo

While staying in Park City we were able to go sledding for the first time this winter.

There was a little hill in the back of the condos where we stayed

and that's where we started out.

They finished up sledding here and Derek took the kids to find a bigger hill.

Ethan went down and hit a rock at the bottom of the huge hill and it dented his sled.

He was hurting at first, but luckily he was back to normal before long.

The kids really wanted to play Monopoly while we were there so we finally relented.

We played in the lobby of the condo, which was also the only area where the internet was working, so I was able to be online at the same time.

We were so happy to have a few days to relax!

Olympic Park

Towards the beginning of December we got away from the craziness of work/school/preparing for the holidays, and took a little trip to Park City.



We lucked out and were there the exact weekend of the pre-olympic ski jumping competition at the Utah Olympic Park.

It was amazing to be SO close to the ski jumpers!

The kids had lots of fun playing in the snow at the park.

Did I mention we were SO close?!

Viewing the competition from one of the upstairs decks,

do you see the ski jumper on the hill next to us?

As we were leaving we saw this snow cat:

The driver saw the kids looking at it and let them go inside and check it out.

He said it was the only one of its kind in all of North America!

It was an amazing experience, and I'm glad we were able to go!

Christmas Concert

Derek and I were able to attend the Tabernacle Christmas concert in December along with Devin and Emily, and Kristen and Craig. The guest singer was Natalie Cole, and the concert was wonderful.

Thanks to my mom for watching the kids so we could go!!



We hit some heavy traffic on the way up, so we ended up sitting up in the very top section of the Conference Center (last time our seats were really close to the front), but at least we were all able to sit together, and we had a great time!

Natalie Cole singing with the Tab Choir

Live Nativity

Last year I found out about Provo's Live Nativity and really wanted to go,

but it only runs for one weekend and we missed it.

Luckily I found out about it ahead of time this year,

and we went with some friends.

It started with a nativity show inside the Provo Tabernacle,

and then we were able to go outside and see the live animals.

There was a big crowd around the animals at first, but it quickly died down

and we were able to get up close for a few photos.

(Of course Ethan refused to be in any of the pictures.)

Here's Julia next to the llama.
This is the same llama
that made the night much more exciting
when it escaped from its pen
and took off running around the yard
next to the Tabernacle.

We were worried that it would go through the gate into the street
but luckily they caught it before that happened.

It was such a fun night!

Black Friday Zoo Trip

Wow, I'm way behind on blogging!

This first catch-up post is from back in November.

The day after Thanksgiving instead of shopping with masses of people

we decided to visit the zoo.

It had been years since we last visited Hogle Zoo,

and even though it was cold

the kids loved it.

Mom and baby elephant-- they were so cute!!

These little guys were very interested in Julia.

The turtles were HUGE!

Can you see the mom and baby giraffe behind them? So cute!

And of course we had to visit the playground!

We found this area right before leaving.

What a great way to observe the animals!

The Christmas Spirit

This month has been crazy, and I'm way behind on my blogs.

So hopefully I'll have a little time over the next few weeks

to catch up.

But until then,

I hope you all have a very

Merry Christmas!!

Check out this sweet little video on the true meaning of Christmas:

The Christmas Spirit