December 19

December 19 is the birthday of my sister-in-law Ya-ping and also the anniversary of my cousin Tammy. But not all of my memories have anything to do with those events.

2011. I went to my ward's Christmas party at our bishop's house; I parked on Eagleridge Drive because the bishop's culdesac was full. They had a really good meal provided by a ward member who's a professional caterer. Someone had also brought pretty Christmas sugar cookies. I talked to Isaac Wood, whom I hadn't seen since high school. He told me he was studying Linguistics at BYU, but he was wanting to be a coach. He said something about me being really smart, but I said we were equally smart. He said that might have been true in the past, but it wasn't anymore. Then he called me Kram Ellivlem, hailing back to our elementary school days. I think I brought a candle for my white elephant gift. A guy named Frank, who had been baptized in the Orchard 11th Ward many years earlier, came that night and played pool. Boyd Tschaggeny talked about just gathering random stuff he found in his car, like an air freshener, for his white elephant. I was worried that the white elephant exchange would take a really long time (like it did in 2009), but they had it arranged to go faster. Paul Castleberry picked a present that was a "Rise and Roar" BYU shirt. He wasn't too happy about it. When it was my turn, I went and took it from him, because I didn't know if I'd get a better present. He was glad I took it, until he opened his next present, which was a decoration of a basket with pinecones in it. He started saying he wanted the shirt back. He kept advertising "Pinecones! Pinecones!" to whoever's turn it was. That night, Kelton Gubler ended up with a disgusting children's book (perhaps one geared to encourage kids to become potty trained). I learned that the shirt I got was from Isaac, and another person in my ward told me he had considered taking the shirt from Paul. Lee Millard came downstairs dressed in a Santa Claus outfit. Our bishop talked about people sitting on Santa's lap; Peter Moosman said he would if Santa existed. I kind of wanted to get a candy cane from "Santa" but I didn't. I was putting on my shoes to leave and the bishop asked me if I had gotten one of the mugs the ward was giving as gifts, but I had gotten mine at church one Sunday.

2010. I attended both the family ward and the singles ward that day; I think they both had an organ and a piano play together during the closing hymn.

2009. In the morning I walked up to the corner of Raygene Way and Gary Way to help the elders quorum move in a new family. But no one was there, so after a while I went back home. Then my parents and I and Ya-ping and Preston and Franklin all got in the Suburban to go to Provo. I brought some MoTab CDs, Ring Christmas Bells and Spirit of the Season, to listen to. When I wanted to listen to Spirit of the Season, my mom said that Ya-ping didn't like that CD. We went to Campus Plaza because my mom had looked at an apartment for me there, but the place was already filled. So then she called someone at Jamestown on Condo Row, but that spot was taken. However, they gave us the number of one Colin Barber, who was selling his contract next door in Stratford Court. So she called Colin but he was going to a reception, so we would need to see the apartment later. While we waited, we went to the Bean Museum, where they got a musical hamster toy for Franklin. They went to get some bread for the boys to use at the duck pond while my dad and I went up to campus to look around. We went in the Wilk and I wanted to look at some things in the Bookstore. I was surprised they sold clothes and I saw them selling a Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly game. Then we went back to Stratford (we learned that a student had played with a ball with the boys at the pond) and went up to apartment 303. We met Colin and he showed me the apartment. Ya-ping kept talking about how clean the apartment was. Colin said they didn't do cleaning checks, which was false. Colin gave me the numbers for my roommates the Jeffs and James. Colin said something to Ya-ping in Chinese; he had learned some from visiting Taiwan. Preston strummed on a string on some instrument in the living room, which really annoyed me. I was further annoyed when we discovered that he was looking at Colin's phone--at five years old he had no respect for others' property. Franklin turned on his annoying hamster. I signed a contract, but I had to sign into MyMap to get my ID number. I've lived on Condo Row ever since. During the car ride home, Preston asked about Allie's family situation. Preston had been asking all that day when we were going to go home.

2008. I'm wondering if this was the time that it was really cold outside, like -3 degrees, but it didn't feel too cold to us because it wasn't windy. Elder Love and I walked to see one Rexa Moffett, who lived with a nonmember roommate. I think they gave us some dessert with pineapple. She talked about how we were wearing sweaters because of the cold. We probably asked her to provide a ride for our investigator Christol. I'm not sure if all of this happened this day. But this is what my journal says:
"I just reread the entry for this date from a year ago. Much has transpired. Then I was still in the 'wow' state. Now, today was just another day.

"It was actually a pretty good day, although our numbers didn't show it. After our sacred planning we shoveled the walkway for an old man in our complex [the man who owned a P.T. Cruiser]. Then we got a Christmas invitation from the Adamses, who are not members, and we were able to invite Christol and Michelle to the party tomorrow, and they want to come. Tonight the sign on the bank said it was -1."

2007. That day we got up in the morning and met the sisters at their house to get a ride to zone conference. We rode with a member from their ward. We drove to the South Hill stake center, which had Christmas decorations up. At zone conference I met Elder Johnson, whom I had known since preschool. He asked who my companion was, and when I told him Elder Chun, he said I was in his district. President Clark  announced that we could sleep in on both Christmas and New Year's Day and that we could watch a Disney movie on each of those days. Sister McNaughton asked if they could watch The Nativity Story, but we were watching that movie during zone conference. I pulled out my planner and decorated the page for Christmas with a garland. They gave us CDs as gifts. One was a piano CD, one was a burned CD of the BYU Men's Chorus singing "I Love the Lord" (three times), and one was a "Missionary Hymn Project," but there was only enough for each companionship. Then we broke off into our individual zones. We all introduced our companions, and I said something about being a newbie. President Clark was there and he said, "Isn't it wonderful?" that I was a brand new missionary. Then we went into the cultural hall to watch some things. We watched a clip of a narration from a MoTab concert about the WWII (WWI?) soldiers refusing to fight on Christmas. Then we watched The Nativity Story. After zone conference, we picked up my boxed bike and put it in the member's car. On the way home, Sister Shaw said she thought it was funny that the movie was in English but they sang a German song with Latin words ("Silent Night"). We passed a crematorium and had a conversation about cremation. We visited one Sister Stubbs, and then I think we might have assembled my bike.

2004. I can't remember if my cousin Terrill's farewell was on December 12 or December 19, so I'm going to include it here. We drove my grandma from Fillmore to Delta and my dad hit a bird with our car. I was sitting next to Allie, who was not quite seventeen months and who had just discovered how fun it was to tear the pages in her Shrek book. I discouraged her from doing so. A lady spoke before Terrill. She told that ridiculous story about Santa saying "Teach the children the true meaning of Christmas." She put on a Santa hat, in the middle of sacrament meeting! I kind of laughed. But then she pulled out a little Christmas tree and decorated it as she told the story. It was really awkward and I couldn't believe she thought it was a good idea. Then after church, we went someplace and had dinner with those other Melvilles. Before leaving Delta, my dad stopped in a gas station and bought gas. He told us that the guy in the station asked him if he was Mike's dad. My mom said that was weird, because Mike looked older than my dad. We stopped someplace so I could take pictures for my photography class. It is this detail that indicates to me this occurred on December 12, but I just don't know. It could have happened a different day.

2003. During seminary, we did nothing but sing hymns. Pam Day (the piano player) asked to skip "Angels We Have Heard on High." Then I think during Spanish class, we had our white elephant party. Ben Driggs was unhappy with the gift I gave of green olives, but Mrs. Birdsall said she loved them. I got a plastic apple container that was filled with mints with Bible verses on them. On the bus home, a girl gave me some Ferrera Rocher chocolates. That afternoon, I studied the countries and capitals of Africa for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then when everyone got home, we went out and saw Elf in the theater. I thought it was funny, but I didn't like the language. Then we went to a Chinese restaurant for Ya-ping's birthday. The owner had some kids who were coloring at a table. As we were driving home, David translated that Ya-ping had said that she felt like Aladdin because she got all the wishes she wanted for her birthday.

1999. It was the Christmas program, and I was speaking. My grandparents came to our church. I had forgotten to take my scriptures up to the podium, so I skipped the part of my talk that quoted scriptures. I said that we too often think of the angels speaking matter-of-factly, when we should have them speaking enthusiastically. (That idea was stolen from one Dr. Edwards relaying a story about Madeleine L'Engle.) Later that day, Sister Stewart told me she liked that I said that gifts aren't called receifts, because we are supposed to give them. Then we had a family party at our house. The Thompsons brought a gallon (or two) of eggnog and laughed at us when we diluted it with milk. A Samoan family came and they were awed by our ten-foot tree. Susanne said, "But it's fake," and they said theirs was fake too. One of the Samoan kids was looking through a book of Christmas songs and called Good King Wenceslas "Good King Wencel."

1998. This might have been the day when my cousins were over and I got really mad at Joey for spoiling my "Mark's Corny Magic Show" act, but it might have been another December day. My friend David Christensen dropped off a gift for me. It was in a gift bag, and I peeked in and could tell it was Awesome Apple, one of the Nutra-Fruit Heroes. So I opened it early. (This may have been Christmas Eve.) I think my cousins and I watched The Witches. My dad had put up some more Christmas lights in our dining room windows. I was surprised to see that they had pink lights. 

1997. It was the last day of school before the break, and we third-graders sang variations of "Jingle Bells" for our program. That night it was Tammy's wedding, and my sister was sitting at the booth where everyone signs their name. It was a really nice venue, all decked out for Christmas. At that time, my cousin Todd and his girlfriend (now wife) Deanna liked to have me sing to them. I remember standing outside the place, singing to them (and I think Deanna's parents) all the "Jingle Bells" renditions we learned. I think Deanna's mom thought I was done before I was. I think they especially liked the cowboy version.