Bearly There

I don't have all our Christmas pics uploaded yet, so the actual obligatory Holiday Post is still waiting in the wings. In the meantime, I thought I'd post these pictures and take a quick stroll down memory lane...

When I was a little kid, we used to visit the Christmas Village in downtown Ogden each year. Noah was kind enough to endure my need to reconnect with my 4-year-old self, and we stopped by the Village while we were downtown on Christmas Eve. It's basically a mock-up of Ogden's companies and buildings with a Christmas theme, and Santa is in a house in the middle of it all. (Tell me that's not a sweeter memory than standing in line at the mall...) Despite all the work that goes into recreating each business in the area and the mechanical elves putting on a very convincing display inside, my favorite part of the Village was always THIS guy.

My Dad took my picture in front of this bear when I was probably two or three, and from that point henceforth I just assumed he belonged to me. (A bit territorial, yeah. But I was the middle child, and ownership opportunities were few and far between. You took what you could get.) So it was sort of bittersweet this year to find the bear in this half-lit existence, I think he's seen better years. I think I'll start a "Save Allison's Bear" fund.

I also wanted to add this one with the younger siblings in tow - mainly because I loved the giant Collin on the right. Don't get me wrong, he's a tall kid. But I don't think he could swallow Megan WHOLE as this picture may have you believe.