Christmas Staycation-Tea With Santa

After experiencing Witches tea at the Grand America, we knew we wanted to take our boys to Christmas tea with Santa, and it did not disappoint.

Our view was of this gorgeous Christmas tree while it gently snowed.  Seriously Christmas snow globe moment.

 I wasn't sure what the boys would think of the whole "high tea" thing, in fact I had visions of them throwing tea cups and saucers, but they actually did really well and totally went with it.

Yummy whipped cream.

I was impressed that the boys all tried the "different" foods.  The Grand America did provide some very fancy peanut butter and jelly for those who were picky (cough cough McKay and Lincoln).

Hunter insisted on having herbal tea like me.  The rest of the boys and Josh all got the delicious hot chocolate.  I humored him and little did he know he would love it, and now asks me to make it for him all of the time.

In the middle of the tea Santa arrived!!

Lincoln got to go up an help ring bells while the kids sang songs.

 I wasn't sure what the kids would think of visiting Santa, but they were all good sports (and I think were way into it).

 McKay was shy around Santa and his wife, but they were so cute with him that he quickly warmed up to him.  We hadn't prepped him on what he wanted and he asked for a "

After all of the kids got to see Santa, he read a story with them.  At first Palmer wasn't going to have anything to do with it, but as you can see, he sneaked up there and listened. 

 Once it was over, we checked out the decorations of The Grand America.

We also did the window scavenger hunt.  The windows were so cute and each window had a question the kids had to answer.

The scavenger hunt ended up at this huge real gingerbread house.  It was so amazing!  The kids also got a treat for finishing.

This year was another successful staycation.

Christmas Staycation-Day 3

 The last day of our Christmas Staycation, we woke up to this beautiful view.  I love looking over City Creek and Temple Square.

We had a slow relaxing morning and later went to Starbucks for some hot chocolate and treats.  

We spent some time walking around City Creek and seeing all of the Christmas decorations.

We always stop into Deseret book and see what they have in their windows.  It is always something awesome.  This year they had a machine that you could put little parachutes in a tube and it would shoot it out another tube.  The boys loved it.

After that we went to their candy counter and filled up some bags with their yummy treats.

We also checked out he incredible ZCMI (Macyes), windows.  They were huge ornaments with pictures done in candy. 

 After that we headed to an art exhibit by Al Rounds.  We bought the boys paintings of the temple for their rooms.

We were lucky enough to be there when the artist was there and he signed the boys pictures.  

 After that we headed to the Grand America for tea with Santa (next post).

Our last adventure of our staycation was to drop McKay off at a babysitter and head to Savior of the World.  It is a play that is put on at the Conference Center about the birth and death of The Savior and it is INCREDIBLE.  Hands down my favorite Christmas thing we do.  

Christmas Staycation-Day Two

 No Christmas season would be complete without visiting beautiful Temple Square.  We took the boys home for school during the day and Josh went to work, and then we headed back to the hotel and more adventures.  We took the boys up to the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to get a good view of the beauty of all of the lights at once.  I really is so breathtaking.  

Lincoln was especially thrilled...

 We lucked out and went on a "slow" night (slow for December anyway) and there wasn't even a line to see the Christus.  

 Our favorite tree is this big huge one all decked out in red lights.  They don't do it every year, so we love when they do.

 My face after a surprise Josh gave me.  All of the boys were in on it and it was a pretty incredible night.

 The boys checking out the surprise.

We also went to the Beehive house for a tour.  It was all decked out to look like Christmas in Brigham Young's Time.  Palmer is doing a report on Brigham Young, so we have tried to learn as much about him as we could this year.  Sadly, this picture of Brigham Young's cloak, is the only picture I got of this fun little tour.  I need to go back.

I honestly love this tradition so much, it always gets the spirit of Christmas into our season.

Christmas Staycation 2013-Day 1

Last year we started the tradition of a Christmas "Staycation".  We went to Salt Lake and stayed in a Marriott and did a lot of fun Christmasy things in Salt Lake.  On our first night, we went went to the Olympic Oval to go ice skating.

 McKay usually is in his stroller, but this time he insisted it was his time to learn to skate.  I love the little baby "skate-walkers" that they have.  He did really well!

 But fell a few times...

 The other boys were zooming around us like it was their job.  We just got passed over and over.  They have gotten pretty fast.

 We all love ice skating, we need to go more.