Temple Lights

I want to be better about taking our children to the temple grounds. They can feel the spirit and experience the temple just by being able to walk around! Through this, I know that their love for the temple will grow, and they will greatly look forward to the day they get to go.

Over the holiday break, we went to go see the temple lights. We took Grandma and Grandfather Franklin with us! We went and saw Courtney and Matt's new house, went back to their current house for dinner, and then went to see the lights.

There are no words to describe the feeling there. Here are some highlights.

Sariah's favorite part: The Nativity. She's entranced with the baby Jesus, and the star that was above him. When we pulled up to the temple, she immediately spotted the star and said, "There's the star! That's where baby Jesus is! Let's go!"

Matt, my sister's husband. If you look closely, you can see their brand new baby, Ashlynn, tucked away inside his jacket:
Courtney's cute butt with the two kindred spirits:

You know how family pictures go. Never a good one. Best we could do! Don't you love my niece running to be in the picture with us?!
Courtney's cute family:
Grandma and Grandfather Franklin:

My favorite part, the wisemen. They are my favorite because they traveled YEARS to go see the Christ child. He was a toddler by the time they got there! These camels are huge, and are far away on the opposite side of the visitor's center, demonstrating their travels. Such reverence when looking at them from afar.
A cute story. While inside the visitor's center, we went up to the Christus statue to listen to the presentation. Sariah was in my arms, and we were standing at the back. In the middle of the presentation, Sariah leans her head against mine and whispers in my ears, "Mom, why isn't Jesus wearing any shoes?" (The Christus is a statue of the resurrected Christ, with his arms outstretched so you can see the nail prints in his hands.) I kind of chuckled to myself and then answered with: "Because He's now living with Heavenly Father, up in heaven. There aren't any thorns or stickers, just nice soft ground."

It was a wonderful experience, and one that I look forward to doing each year!