Poppies and Papercuts

Did anyone happen to get a good look at the moon the past few nights? The full moon this month was closer to the earth than it has been in over 20 years! It was amazing!

I took this picture the other night after coming out of the LDS Conference Center and walking through Temple Square. We had just attended the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Since there is such a high demand for tickets to this event, you must enter your name in an online raffle a month in advance and just hope that your name is selected out of the 70+ thousand that enter. Low and behold, my mom received 4 tickets! It was such an amazing concert and I am so glad we had the opportunity to go! We were quite nervous because we were told that you had to be in your seats 30 minutes prior to the concert or your seats would be given away. I had this happen to me before at a devotional with President Hinckley and have also heard other's horror stories about loosing seats at various events held at the conference center. If you have ever tried to drive downtown during the month of December, you know what a nightmare and a headache it is! We were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic for over 30 minutes, only having moved 1 block in that time! Wes, my mom and I jumped out of the car and told my dad that we would run to the conference center and claim our seats while he parked the car. We had to run 3 blocks with only 10 minutes left to get into our seats! When we got there, the line was HUGE! They were scanning each ticket, searching purses and having everyone walk through metal detectors. We finally made it in and found that our seats were right up front, only a few rows from the stage! We were so excited! Then...an usher told us that since we were not in our seats on time ( we were 7 minutes late) that they were given away and if we still wanted to see the concert, we better hurry up to the balcony where the few remaining empty seats were and that they were filling up quickly. Dad is still not in sight! We run upstairs and I tell Wes and my mom to save my seat as well - I have to find my dad since it is not reserved seating, just reserved "sections"! I run back downstairs while hearing the orchestra begin their first number. As I come to the entryway of the conference center, I see my dad entering through the metal detector and the ushers slamming the doors behind him. He was the last one they let in. Once the music starts, doors close! Hundreds of people are left outside, tickets in hand and furious! They are too late. My dad and I race back upstairs to try and find my mom and Wes in a crowd of THOUSANDS (seriously, this place holds 20,000 people)! As we race up the escalator and enter through the doors to the balcony, we happened to end up walking right next to Wes and my mom as they are looking for available seats. We find an usher and he guides all of us to 4 empty seats right away. We sit down and the choir starts to sing. Our luck was pretty good that night but the music and performances were even better! 

Next year we are taking Trax!