The Oakland Temple

We headed up to the Oakland Temple this past weekend to see the Nutcracker.  The Oakland Temple has a big auditorium on the temple grounds and they have a lot of Christmas performances in there.  I tried to get Nutcracker tickets there earlier in the month but they were sold out.  I was sad I missed it, especially since the performance is free.  I checked again a few days ago and more tickets had become available so I snatched some up.  It took us about an hour and a half to get up to Oakland (75 miles away).  Oakland is our assigned temple and its closing in the new year for some refurbishment.

Inside the auditorium.  I told the kids I would let them pick something from the dollar store if they didn't tell me things like "I'm bored" or "when will this be over?" loudly during the show.  Matthew and Anna did great.  I think they are old enough to really enjoy the show now.  Grant tried hard and didn't tell me any of those things but I could tell he was getting restless.  John and Emma had a hard time and did ask me those things loudly during the show.  They tried to be quiet when I asked them to.  

Waiting for the show to start.

During intermission I took the kids right outside and gave them treats from my purse and let them run around to get some wiggles out.  Then we went back in for the second act.  The show was lovely.  It was performed by a local youth ballet company and the music was recorded, not live, but it was still nice.

After the show in the lobby.

It was just getting dark when we left the auditorium.

From the temple ground there is a nice view of the bay.

My mom lived in Fremont (nearby) when this temple was built.  She said the first palm trees they put in did not do well and died.  These ones look like they are doing good.

If you look really hard you can see the bay in the upper right of this picture.  Great views!

A short time after the show ended the temple Christmas lights came on.

We popped into the visitor's center for a few minutes.  Some kids were playing with these nativity dolls.  My mom made a set very similar to this that I loved to play with when I was a kid.  At first I wondered if they were hers and had somehow made their way here but they have different clothes - I think either my brother or sister have the other dolls.  The kids at the visitor center were having a ball playing with them.  I thought I had better not try to steal them away in my purse.  :)

It was fun to visit the temple and I'm glad we got to see the Nutcracker.  Such beautiful music.  The drive home from Oakland was painful and long.  The freeways were all backed up (this was on a Saturday night) so we took side streets all the way to San Jose.  It took a while.  But worth it.