December 23

I'm going to remember as many details as possible about Christmas Eve Eve.

2011. I remember going out to ask my dad, who was in the garage, if he wanted to go to the temple, but he didn't. I went running, but it had been so long and it was cold and I didn't last long. Was this a day we went to Costco? I can't remember. I had a welcome home party for Hillary Ulmer. I think I was cutting up the pineapple while listening to Michael Buble's Christmas album. My parents were going someplace, so they took me with my tray of fruit to the Ulmers. I knocked on the door and Latecia answered. She let me in and Hillary saw me and said, "O M gosh," I guess because I looked so different than she was used to. Then we sat in the living room as more guests arrived. There were lots of people from high school there. One of them asked who I was, and when I told him he was surprised. I remember saying I hadn't been in the living room since elementary school. Brother and Sister Ulmer had erroneously believed that the party started later than it did, so they weren't ready. We had a potluck dinner with pork sandwiches and other things. I remember Hillary saying she loved the pineapple. She complained about the meals she had on her mission, that they were always tortillas and beans but they had different names even though they were the same thing. I asked Casey Opperman how she was. There was a lot of conversation about YouTube videos; Hillary was saying she liked "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" parts 1 and 2. Jenny Ord mentioned Weird Al's "Perform This Way" spoof of "Born This Way." Someone said something about Katy Perry and Jenny said she found her catchy, that she heard all those pop songs on the radio because her siblings set the presets to pop stations. On someone's phone they watched a video of "Vader Did You Know." Alexa said to Hillary, "I'll have to play you some of my Christina Perri songs." I said I liked Christina Perri, and someone said, "'Arms' is good, 'Jar of Hearts' is good," and someone else said it sounded like she just collected body parts. The Ulmers gave all of us guests the little gifts (maybe a box of Andes mints and an ornament?) they were giving to all the neighbors. Then I walked home with my empty fruit tray.

2009. My dad and Ya-ping and I went to the airport to pick up David. I was waiting by the escalators, and there were families there waiting for missionaries. They cheered when they saw them, and some punk teenager was booing. I heard someone else who had witnessed the event say, "That was pretty exciting." Then I got a call that David was already in the car. So I walked out to the car. David said he should start calling me "Sticks." Then we went home. Franklin was really excited to see his dad. Almost as soon as we got home, my dad asked David if he wanted to go see Avatar. He didn't seem to really like the idea of going to see a movie when he had barely seen his boys, but he went anyway. While they were gone, we watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. When they got home, they said that Avatar was more of an experience than a movie. Later that night I was watching that terrible movie The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas. Preston kept asking questions like, "Why are they running away?" At the part where Santa belched and turned into a fruitcake, David said there were multiple things wrong with that. I knew some swearing was coming up, so I turned the volume down. Since the kids were kind of noisy, my mom asked me to turn the volume up. I said that there was swearing coming up. David said, "It's sad that Frankfurt has seen this so many times that he knows what part to turn down." I told him I had only seen it once, and he said it was crazy that I had such a photographic memory to know what part it was.

2007. During the Greenbluff ward's church, a little girl was running around during the sacrament with a jingle bell necklace on. Elder Chun was laughing and told me it was the Hokes' daughter. After sacrament meeting we met the woman who had been in a car accident and to whom we gave a blessing. After church, a member (Sister Raab?) gave us some gifts. There was a container of caramel corn and gift certificates to Pizza Hut ($15) and I think Taco Bell ($10) and someplace else ($10). That night we had dinner with the Hokes. Before we had dinner we went tracting, and we asked someone who wasn't interested who might be interested. He pointed to the Hokes.

2006. We went shopping at Smith's Marketplace; it was absolutely crazy. Then we had a hard time getting out of the parking lot. Then I think we went to Costco; Highway 89 was packed. My mom pulled out some Hershey's Special Darks that her friend Jackie had given her because she didn't like them. I remember saying that I wanted to see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D the next year if I wasn't on my mission yet.

1999. I wonder if this was the time we had Christmas Runts, but I don't know. 

1997. I remember going to the Quilted Bear. I wanted candy bubbles; we got a bottle for me and a bottle for my young cousin Rachae. We got a three-inch nutcracker for me. I remember seeing bottles of candy pills, some of them relating to ages (like "Nifty Fifty"). Then we went to Shopko. For my mom, I found a VHS of the colorized version of It's a Wonderful Life. For my sister I got a Mary Higgins Clark book called Silent Night; I remember telling my brother later that it was either that one or an Anastasia one. He told me the Mary Higgins Clark book was a better choice, but I told him that the Anastasia book was also Mary Higgins Clark, so he said it didn't matter which one I got her.

Making this post made me remember some things about Christmas Eve, so I went and updated the years 2008 and 1998 on that post.