December 2018 Part 2: Dashing through the Snow (and to lots of Christmas Parties and Musical Events)

We got snow early on in December, which is probably the only month Brian and I are excited to see snow. We've learned in the seven years we've been here that the snow doesn't always last in our neighborhood, thanks to the lake, and so we made sure to take advantage of the good snow by going sledding in our HOA park. Gabe got snow in his gloves on one of his first excursions out and was a little bit miserable the rest of the attempt. At least I think this is the one he wasn't upset. We still made him sled anyway, hoping to cheer him up. 

 Sweet Gabe has to learn everything the hard way. I saved him after I took this picture

And we got him all squared away for the next time. 

 Rachel made this awesome snowman.

We got to have dinner at the Tree Room at Sundance again this year for Brian's work team's Christmas party, and , yet again, it didn't disappoint.

 And this year, Adobe's main company party was in downtown Provo. They had lots of fun things: arcades, food, piano bar, and lots of other things that I can't remember. This one was my favorite so far.

 In December, my piano studio has their Christmas Recital at a nursing home. This year, Michael and Rachel got to perform, even though Michael takes lessons from another teacher now. Rachel was so cute, but I think she got flustered when her music was higher than she was used to. She did great and had all the residents melting over her.

 Back in October, when we were there for Fall Break, my dad mentioned that Kristen Chenoweth was going to be the guest artist at the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Tickets went up for grabs the Saturday we were there, so we had four people on four laptops desperately trying to get enough for us all to go together. My dad managed to get 4 tickets. As December approached, my mom and dad decided they couldn't swing the trip down for it, and the concert was close to Taryn and David's anniversary and David wanted to do something else for their date night, so we invited our friends, Brian and Stephanie to come with us. We ate at the Red Iguana (I think that is the good one) and it was AMAZING! Then, we got to go to the concert:

It. Was. Amazing! I love love love Kristen Chenoweth, especially after we saw her at BYU Homecoming Spectacular a year or so ago, and she was just as delightful, if not more so, at this concert. 

During the last week of school before Christmas Break, Gabe and I got to go to not one but two school Christmas Sing-alongs. Thank heavens they were not at the same time! Here's Michael getting ready to sing "Jo Penguin"

 And Rachel singing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

 Isn't she the cutest hippo you've seen?

And, of course, honorable mention goes out to all the Christmas music we got to listen to throughout the month of December, thanks to Google Play.

We had a merry time dashing through all the snow on our way to music and parties!