Christmas lights in the nights

This year has been the season for seeing the lights in a variety of venues.
In addition to the traditional lights on Temple Square — which are always gloriously beautiful and really, really cold — we've seen the lights at the Utah Lake State Park, the Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point and the lights off the freeway coming home from Logan.
We made a journey up to the Alpine Living Nativity and to Midway to the International Creche Exhibit.
For those who've never seen these or who want to see these, I've put together a little primer:
+ The lights at Temple Square are free and full of beautiful lighted trees plus a life-size ceramic Nativity scene. It's always well attended (translation: crowded!) and it can be freezing. The Visitor's Center is open though and warm. And you can take the Trax up, park your car in any of the lots on the route, from the end of the line in Draper to 13th South and avoid the traffic. It's free to ride the Trax in the downtown area.
+ Christmas in Color is a new drive-through lighted display event in Provo at the Utah Lake State Park. It costs around $25 a car and you drive on a marked path with headlights off to see the lights.
The displays include a couple of car tunnels, singing snowmen, dancing lights and music that is synchronized to the light show.
+Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point in the Ashton Gardens is new and involves strolling along the garden paths to see 25 different lighted areas. The trees are just one part of this offering. There are lighted bushes, overhead canopies and a stream. It's inventive and clever. The center display with several thousand luminaries is a tapestry of colors and patterns. Small children will like it for a few minutes. Older ones and adults could easily spend a couple of hours in awe at the creativity and colors. A bit pricey: Adult tickets are $20 each. Children are $17.
+There are also the lights in Spanish Fork and a display off the freeway on the way back from Cache County. They are cheaper, about $5 a car.
+The Alpine Living Nativity is an interesting and aromatic event held outside and in the barns at the farm owned by mayor Don Watkins.
It only costs about $5 in donation and includes a free hot chocolate at the end. There are live camels and sheep and a burro. (Hence the natural aromas.) It replicates a visit to Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus.
+The Interfaith

Creche Exhibit in Midway is stunning and free. The collection of Holly Zenger is displayed in  the Midway Town Hall in a series of rooms set up all around the meeting hall. On the stage is a breathtaking display of Fontanini nativity figures. Outside, there's ice skating and the opportunity to buy something warm from a food truck. It's over for this year (usually on the first weekend of December) but it's an annual Christmas treat so you can go next year

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Every once in a while, I am offered complimentary tickets to a traveling show that's stopping in Salt Lake City.
Usually these are last-minute deals that involve me re-arranging my schedule and dragging my happy husband along to something we hadn't planned to see.
This time it came with a chance to see the new Eccles Theater up close, something I've wanted to do since it opened.
I knew it would be helpful somewhere in the future when "Wicked" comes to town or "Hamilton." I'd know the way to the bathrooms, for instance and be able to guess how long it would take to ride the TRAX in from Utah County.
So I agreed to come up and see "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" even though I knew the material in the show probably wouldn't be LDS-approved.
I asked Marc about going and he said, "Why not? It'd be educational."
Well, it was and it is.
I did a little advance research so I knew something about the plotline.
I knew it would be edgy and probably outrageous.
But I'm a grown-up person who has reviewed all kinds of productions over the past 40 years.
I figured I could handle this.
Hmmm. Not really.
It was a little more than I figured on. Way more.
The lead character, Hedwig, is a transgender superstar with some issues. The actor who plays him/her does a remarkable job as far as acting in concerned. The costuming and staging is dramatic and creative.
Hedwig is trying to engage the audience — much like a lounge singer — while churning about how he/she and others in similar circumstances are being treated.
It's bold and, in some cases, shocking.
Then there's the volume level and the strobe lights.
I was having to hold my hands over my eyes to keep my brain from delivering a migraine.
The CO2 smoke was disturbing me as well.
By the end of the show, I was nauseous and dizzy.
I couldn't wait for it to stop.
Now that it's over and I'm back home safe and sound, I'm haunted, and not so much by the physical stress as the emotional reaction to the story.
Why is there such anger, so much emotion? Why bring Jesus into the conversation? (There are several references to accepting Christ as a Savior and Redeemer that mock Him outright.)
And why did I think a 65-year-old uptight grandma could cope with this?

I know the way home!

When my son was around two or three, he thought he was pretty self-sufficient.
He'd go all over the neighborhood visiting his friends and seeking adventure. It was a friendly neighborhood with lots of little kids so usually I didn't stress too much.
But one particular day, he'd been out for a longer time than usual and I had been searching for him for quite a while.
When I caught up with him, I started to scold him and remind him that he was a small child and it could be dangerous to just go off with no supervision or permission.
I was right at the part where I was explaining, "Dana, I didn't know where you were! That scared me."
He responded with vigor, "But mommy, I knew where I was!"
I don't know if that incident played in his mind the other day when his youngest daughter didn't get off the bus at the stop by their home.
Seems Erica had become confused about the instructions and when the buses all took off, she figured if she was going to get home, she had to walk — kind of a long walk considering she lives in east Highland near the other side of the Cedar Hills Golf Course and she goes to school at Highland Elementary.
I happened to be going by the elementary school when my son called me.
He was fairly frantic and told me to stay close and look around in case she was still in the neighborhood.
Then he proceeded to back track Erica's steps.
Since her older sister had stayed home with a cold, Erica didn't know for sure if she was to get on the bus or wait where her mom sometimes picked her up. So nobody noticed when she didn't get on the usual bus.
Once the buses all left, she simply decided she had to walk which was all right with her since she knew the way.
Never mind that it's a really long ways for a 5-year-old and very cold outside.
She's pretty independent.
She actually made it a good distance, crossing busy roads and trudging along in the correct direction when a lady noticed this 5-year-old child, alone, walking east into the storm.
She stopped to check the situation out.
"My name is Erica! You can call my dad!" Erica declared, being careful not to share too much detail and backing up so she couldn't be put in the car.
Dana was most relieved to hear from her.
We called off an Amber Alert, reassured the school officials that we'd found her and got her safely home.
We thanked Heaven.
So now that all is well, I can't help but think that the child has inherited her father's attitude.
"I know where I am so there's not a problem!"

Men are from Mars, Woman want to talk

The invitation was welcome.
Marc and I have read "Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus" by Dr. John Gray and believe pretty much in his philosophy: men and women are wired differently.
Thus we don't always connect properly or at all.
Men tend to want to fix whatever problem arises and be done with it.
We women want to talk about it, analyze it and figure out how to resolve it, usually through deep conversation.
When this happens in our life, my husband tends to think I simply want to fight.
I think he wants to avoid.
The Men are from Mars thinking is that women are a LOT more emotional in their reactions because there are more emotional parts to their brains.
Venutians can't rest until they dissect the situation and understand it.
Martians just want to rest. They really, REALLY don't like conflict.
When we were invited to the show at the Jeanne Wagner Theatre in Salt Lake Saturday night, we leapt to go.
We made a dinner reservation and checked the TRAX schedule and off we went despite the cold and the fact that we have something to do almost every night and day in December.
Stand-up comic Josh Hyman essentially does an energetic, somewhat outrageous monologue using the material in Dr. Gray's books. He walks the audience through his relationship with his wife and brings the audience along for the ride.
He's funny and real and, in some instances, pretty R-rated as he talks about relating to the ones we love.
He doesn't mince any words and when he talks about the husband "tending her garden" when it comes to his wife, it's kind of hard not to blush.
He's got it right.
And it's refreshing to hear topics generally kept fairly hush-hush in public settings discussed with candor.
I'm not sure everyone would appreciate this offering.
But if it's approached with a sense of humor, it's great.
I liked what he said about how women keep points, giving men one point for anything large and small that they do and say.  (They give themselves a point for every step in what they are doing so we women are almost always ahead in points.)
He talked about how valuable men are to women and vice versa.
In the end he said all men really want is Trust and Acceptance while women want Affection and Understanding, pure gold (AU).
He said he was heading home to mend a rift with his wife before it reached unfixable levels.
We laughed.
We learned.
On the way home, Marc was reflective and unusually quiet.
I wanted to talk about it.
I wanted to know what he was thinking, why he wasn't saying anything.
Hmmmm.