2020

12 Days of Christmas: 2021

This year we went on a destination 12 Days. We incorporated some old favorite activities and added a lot of snow. We also started this one before Christmas. We went in search of snow and found ourselves in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.

Each night one of our kids opens a box pertaining to the night of the 12 days. It has a rhyme pertaining to what we will be doing that night that they have a lot of fun deciphering what it will be. Below I provided some of the rhymes with an explanation of what we did for that night.

1st Day of Christmas

Partridge and a pear tree

Partridge starts with "P"

So does packing, you will see

the partridge flies to wide open space

Texas has pears so let's go on vaca-tion

5 outfits and one swimsuit you will need

tomorrow at 6 we will take the blue sea

(Blue sea is code for our blue highlander we call le mer or the sea in french)

We told the kids to pack their bags the night before because we were going to a destination for this years 12 days! With school being online due to COVID, we could take our laptops and do schoolwork in the car. This mostly worked, but we had a lot of glitches due to low cell service while tethering to a phone. We stopped a few places along the way, but it takes a long time to get out of Texas!

2nd Day of Christmas

One of our fun stops before making it to the Salt Lake Valley was in Gunnison, CO. While eating lunch at a delicious BBQ place named 5 B's BBQ, it started to snow heavily !!!! The kids, especially E1 and E2, were so excited and played outside on the snow-covered patio while the rest of us enjoyed our lunch.

3rd Day of Christmas

This evening was our first night out in the area. We decided to take the highly recommended boat tour of lights at Provo River Lights but the night was young, so we went over to University Place in Orem and had fun frolicking in the snow-dusted lights. All was fun until someone threw snow in their siblings face and then it was time to go home.

On the Provo River. They moved the boat around by puling on an overhead cable

Enjoying the outdoors while staying COVID free

University Place in Orem. We stood inside the tallest tree and took our cover photo while the lights changed.

Strolling through the light-covered walk. They changed colors while you walk through them.

4th Day of Christmas

We visited Olympic Park in Park City and the Olympic Park Museum. This was one of my family's favorite memories from this trip. We saw potential Olympic skiers practicing their jumps (shown left). We toured the slopes where they were practicing their flips and landings. It was so exciting to see these very talented skiers.

While watching, my children also played "Who can break off the most ice and stand on the lamppost base," A fun game that always ends in snowball fights.

After we had our fill of watching the skiers, we headed into the Alf Engen Ski Museum where we were immersed in the hands-on experience of the winter Olympics. We had so much fun trying out the different exhibits. There was a ski jumping simulator that we all took turns on as well as an avalanche safety control. We took pictures on the ski lift/gondola. Learned a lot about the history of skiers and their training for the Olympics.

Kids playing on the lamppost

Kids on the ski lift to no where

Hubby tries out the ski simulator

the slopes map- where to next?

5th Day of Christmas

Our kids were so beat and needed to finish up some school work, so we changed some plans and went shopping for our soon to be missionary while in the mecca of missionary shopping opportunities. We happend to find a tree that was full of American Girl Dolls dressed in name tags with her name on it! It was a sign. So we forked over a wad of money to get all the great clothes from the Sisters Missionary Mall in Ogden. Day of shopping is fun with the girls! Plus tomorrow is a 2 in one day kind of day!

6th Day of Christmas

Our first attempt at cross country skiing at Soldier Hollow Nordic Center. This day they had free lessons and free rentals. What an awesome opportunity! We headed to the Olympic Cross Country track and slipped our way outside to the instructor who gave us a lot of hope and a fast instruction and to the top of the track we went, scared out of our minds. We met some amazing people on the way over who helped us navigate our new footing and new terrain. One was so kind to us and made this event one of my favorite sports! We took a video of him here to show what could be with a lot of experience and practice.

Girls on the first hill

This area doesn't let you start slow, that is for sure. To get to the track, you have to go down a hill. They do have a little section that is grooved, so you stay straight. Once you figure this out, it can be so fun, but at first very intimidating.

Fall smart

There is a trial and error portion of learning to ski. Here is our guy learning how to fall.

We next went up the hill and did some fantastic tubing! This was literally right next to the cross-country skiing . We had an amazing view and the day was perfect!

We stopped at the cutest burger joint on our way home from Park City. They had a train running overhead that went through the whole restaurant. AND...they offered gluten free options that were so delicious. Check them out for great food and fun Dairy Keen; Home of the Train

7th Day of Christmas

Ice Skating at Peaks Ice Arena in Provo. They have 2 ice rinks, and you can do both! This is also home to the practice venue for the 2002 SLC Winter Olympics. It was a perfect night to show off my skating skills. I took lessons with this girl here for one year. My grandmother used to take me skating, and I wanted to pass on that tradition to my kids! Some liked it; others did not. But the facilities were excellent! We enjoyed looking around a little at BYU's campus on the way home. We have yet to find the famous creamery, though.

8th Day of Christmas

During the day we played some games as a family, worked on puzzles and relaxed. At night we went to Temple Square and met up with some cousins! Unfortunately, due to COVID, you could not walk through the square, but we got to see some things from afar.

Playing Flux

The gang at Temple Square

9th Day of Christmas

This day was packed! We started out with skiing lessons from the only ski school that had snow. We travelled to Powder Mountain in Eden, UT, about an hour and a half north of where we were staying. They had a deal for those that have never skied before. They were also willing to accommodate our huge family in the deal, we were so grateful! Ski rentals, lift passes and 3 hours of instruction were included in the best price in the area that we found. We were all a little worried about our abilities after cross-country skiing. But we had an amazing instructor who helped us every step of the way and continued to encourage us. Only a small few of us were ready to try the actual slope and they were too nervous to go alone, so we waved goodbye to all those brave people and went down into town.

We stopped at Ogden's Christmas Village where we peered into tiny houses decorated in all kinds of different themes.

That evening we visited with friends that we knew before they moved. And on the way home stopped to see and epic Christmas light display in a nearby neighborhood in Saratoga Springs. This light show is so good it has it's own google map link. Check out their facebook page for directions and details. You can see what we saw on YouTube here

10th Day of Christmas

Tonight was a fun night that we want to continue after this year. We started out at a sushi place that we have at home, however, they were set up very differently. We thought we knew what we were getting into, but the servers had a thick accent and we learned we were not asking the right questions. After a very difficult meal due to too much sushi we didn't want, we headed over to a very fun venue, Nickel City. The kids and adults had so much fun playing really good games. Even had some prizes to win!

11th Day of Christmas

Traveling back home. Stopped by some fun eating spots.

12th Day of Christmas

At home by Christmas Eve. We are exhausted but so excited to relax over the holiday break. Merry Christmas!

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