Zoo Lights {Christmas traditions}

Christmas traditions keep getting better and better as years go on. In 2007 E's family started a new Christmas tradition of bundling up and heading to the zoo at nightfall right before Christmas. Back then Zoo Lights was brand new to Utah. But we loved it. We loved the cold. Loved getting hot chocolate, loved getting piping hot soup at a favorite restaurant either before or after and loved to add a new tradition to our long list of December "must-dos".

Since 2007 we've only missed one year at Zoo Lights because this little guy was only a couple weeks old, and we felt like it was too cold to go out with him. But he did join us last year, on his first ever Zoo Lights experience, so by this year, he was a seasoned pro.
It was quite cold. The ice sculptures had no trouble staying frozen.
Everywhere you looked there were beautiful lights. Up in the trees, lining all the paths, and even near some of the animals that were awake.
Some of the monkeys were awake and James looked on with eager fascination.
Most animals were asleep, but the lights were beyond fantastic.
Mama and James near a lit gingerbread house.
Eight months pregnant and rocking the baby bump.
The zoo set up some portable heaters around the grounds. As you can imagine, these were "hot spots" for everyone. (My cleverness just kills me! Ha!)
My boys.
The tigers were awake and giving quite the show. It was a little PG-13. Most adults were laughing and most kids were wondering what the heck was going on.

And because I never blogged any photos of last year's trip to Zoo Lights (what was I thinking?) here are two from last year.
My cutie pie one year old. Makes me miss him being small.