Christmas Celebrations, Part 2

We continued to celebrate Christmas through the end of December and well into January. The kids had fun playing with their new Christmas presents:

Grandpa helped Elisa put together her new bed. Santa bought her a new loft bed for Christmas, as she had been begging for a loft bed for awhile.

Ian enjoyed making beaded animals from his kit that he got for Christmas.

My mom gave me this old piano that was missing it's lid, but I bought some fake plants at Walmart and I think it look pretty darn cute as planter.

The kids ran around the house speaking into their walkie talkies that Aunt Lisa bought for them.

The kids enjoyed trying out my eye massager, which I bought for myself for Christmas.

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December 30th--A trip to the Mesa Temple to see the lights, for the first time in several years:

It didn't take too long to walk through, I think the kids liked it. 

After seeing the temple lights, we visited Organ Stop Pizza, less than a 10-minute drive from the Mesa temple. It was a first for us (except Gabe, who had been there already on a band field trip).  The food was okay, but the main attraction was organist playing an instrument that surrounds the entire building. He took all kinds of requests: a train song medley, Let it Go, Sweet Caroline, the Theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spongebob, he could play anything! I'm impressed that he can remember all of those songs. It was super fun and amazing to see the organist at work--the entire front of the room had fixtures that grooved along with the organ.  We ordered a few pizzas and an appetizer basket. I'm not a huge fan of the crust style though. As we first walked in to sit down, the organist was playing a train song, haha perfect for Gabe! What a fun place!

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January 7th

Erik and I went to the Phoenix Symphony for my Christmas present. They played a violin concerto by Mozart, and the soloist was amazing. They also played the overture from Beethoven's only opera. Alas, we were not allowed any photography of any part of the concert.

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January 14th: Erik and Elisa enjoyed her Christmas present of Disney on Ice. They saw performances from Mary Poppins, the Incredibles, the Mickey Mouse Club House, Moana, Frozen, the Lion King, and Aladdin.