December 21-27, 2014

Time to remember Christmas week from last year!

Sunday, December 21. During sacrament meeting, I was passing the sacrament. Before church, we were sitting to get ready to pass, and Keith Savage said he was nervous to pass to the stand "because of you-know-who," since President Eyring was sitting up there. I told him that I was nervous because I was saying the opening prayer. When it was my turn to say the opening prayer, I was so nervous that I didn't want to adjust the microphone and had to stand on my toes, and I gave a very unusual prayer, and I didn't want to make any eye contact as I returned to my seat. Our meeting was largely musical, with narration by Brandon Owens and a concluding talk by President Eyring. In the evening, we watched the Rejoice and Be Merry! MoTab/King's Singers concert. I wrote my blog. Then I walked up to a game night at the Gublers' house, and I think I got there the same time as Nathan Loveridge. First we played Taboo. One of my words was "hologram," and I didn't think to mention Star Wars until it was too late in my turn. David Hawks said he would have guessed it if I had said that earlier. Bob Pedersen got "Monster," so he began singing, "I'm friends with the..." David and I got it; Rachel Baschuk said, "Isn't that Lady Gaga?" and I said no, it was Eminem and Rihanna. After the game I went in the kitchen and had some chips and salsa. I was talking with Kelton about high school teachers, and he said he had seen Mrs. Duffin (the chemistry teacher) at church in West Yellowstone, and she had remembered them. I was surprised, because I didn't know she was Mormon--I told Kelton the story about the time one of my classmates was talking about Ken Jennings with her and said, "Did you see that article in the Church News?" and she had responded "I don't get Church News" in a tone that seemed like "Don't assume that I do." While this was going on, other people were playing reverse charades. I told the Gublers that I hadn't been in their house since 1998, and I was telling them what I remembered about that day, including that Jacob was really mad they had gone to Costco without him. Then we had a discussion about how Donald's mom was about the same age as the oldest Gubler. Then I walked home, and as I was walking down Raygene, Steven Jessup said hello to me--he was at the house of his brother, who apparently lived on our street.

 Monday, December 22. I only planned on working a partial day. In the morning I cleaned our fridge while watching Hogan's Heroes and The Andy Griffith Show. Then I went to work, and after work I walked over to the place downtown where my ward was having a Christmas party/dinner. I was early, but the Church History Library closed at 6. It was in a confusing location. I stuck my backpack in a hiding place so it would be out of the way, and I helped set out silverware, then I sat at a table until my bishop asked me to help move a couch. Stephanie Ogden sat by me and said she had been told she should know who I was but didn't. We talked about working downtown. Then our guests for the evening were a bell choir, and they were pretty good. There was an ugly sweater contest, but I find those pointless, and Brandon Loveridge won for his light-up sweater--no one would ever wear that, and I thought the point of ugly sweaters was that they were things that people really used to wear. Then I ate the food, including the really tasty baby carrots from a slow cooker. There were really fancy cakes, but most of them were not Christmassy. I think Taylor Miller was singing and playing songs, including "Ho Hey," a song I don't like. Then I went home, and I think we watched The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas, and my mom said it wasn't any cleaner than Elf. I think I delayed watching it to watch Christmas episodes of Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies, but that might have been a different night.

Tuesday, December 23. At work I worked on Conversations with Mormon Historians. That night my mom and I went out shopping, to Shopko and Barnes and Noble. At Shopko (I'm pretty sure) I got Vanilla Cupcake Goldfish with red and green sprinkles. Then we stopped at Atlantis Burger to get pumpkin spice eggnog shakes, and we took them home to watch Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July. I wrote in my journal:
"Today I slept in before going to work. I worked for about five hours on Interviews with Mormon Historians and read interesting anecdotes about LaMar Berrett's reputation in WWII and about an early Salt Lake resident buying a ticket with a turkey and getting chickens as change.
"Tonight we went to Walmart, Shopko, and Barnes and Noble. We also got eggnog shakes for while we watched Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July."

Wednesday, December 24. In the morning I went running, and I saw an inflatable decoration at a house, and it was a different decoration than they had previously had. I saw some snow in the eaves of some of the houses I passed. When I got up to the Wild Rose Trail, it looked muddy, so then I went over to Tunnel Springs Park. I think by that point I had become exhausted and walked, but then I began running again. The Bonneville Shoreline Trail looked muddy too, so I didn't go on it, and I ran down a road to pass a house where I had been assigned to home teach but had never been. Then I ran home again, and I was disappointed that my total run/walk was only around forty minutes. I went downstairs to lift weights--there weren't any Christmas shows on that I cared to watch, so I decided to watch my Hogan's Heroes DVDs, and I was delighted that the episode just happened to have a Christmas scene in it, even though it wasn't a Christmas episode. Then I showered and prepared to make gingerbread. Susanne and Allie came over and asked why I wasn't listening to Christmas music; I said I was just going to turn it on. I expressed my disappointment that I had only run for a total of forty-three minutes that day. I put some wassail in the slow cooker. They played games while I cooked, but Allie helped me for a time. The recipe didn't call for any cloves, so I added cloves, as my mom and sister said I should. The recipe called for a cup of water, but it didn't say what to do with it, so I threw it in the batter, and it made it really runny. I put the batter in some cookie molds, but when they were cooked they were burned and terrible. I added lots and lots of flour to the batter, along with more spices, until the consistency was right. I was quite pleased with the result; for these I rolled them and used cookie cutters. Then I made frosting and put it in a plastic bag, but there was another hole in the bag, so they got progressively uglier.

As my Christmas shuffle playlist played an organ song, Susanne asked, "What is this playlist? Organs are ugly," but I told her it was my own playlist, and she was fine with it. But then later she wanted to change it, even though she initially liked it, because it was "quiet"; Allie said we could turn the volume up, but that wasn't what she meant. But she did say she loved "Oh Hush Thee, My Baby." Later, Sue, Chancey, Nicole, and the two little boys came over for something and wanted my mom to take a Christmassy picture with her good camera. She did, but she couldn't figure out how to get it on her computer. At one point the boys were eating fruit snacks, so to be doing the same thing as them Allie got the last leftover Halloween fruit snack, and I was a little disappointed because I was going to eat it at New Year's. I put on my red Sperry shoes with my festive socks, and Susanne asked when I got the shoes, and I told her the day before Easter. Three-year-old Nathan was having me play Christmas songs on the piano, including "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." At that time, my playlist played the Lower Lights' "Mary's Lullaby," and Susanne said she loved it. Then it played Korn's cover of "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," and she asked, "What is this!?" Then Sue's family left, and we discussed where we were going for Christmas dinner. My dad wanted to order pizza because there had been one time on Christmas Eve when they ordered pizza and it came loaded with toppings, so he wanted to see if it would happen again. We didn't think that was a good reason to order pizza, so we planned to go to Chuck-A-Rama. I tried to see if it was open, but Google kept insisting that it was and I couldn't find otherwise, but Google lied and it was closed. So then we went to Texas Roadhouse. The radio was playing "Santa Tell Me"; Allie asked if it was Ariana Grande singing and I confirmed it was. That restaurant was too busy, I think, so then we went to Sizzler and did their salad bar. As we left, my mom thanked one of the employees for letting us come in on Christmas Eve, and he said he was glad they weren't working Christmas Day. As we got in the car, I ate the red-and-green lollipop they gave us. I told my dad that 98.7 was a much better Christmas radio station than 100.3. (I'm sorely disappointed now that 98.7 isn't a Christmas station this year. That's the only reason I even cared about that station.) He said sometimes he liked the classic Christmas songs. The radio at that moment was playing Ryan Shupe, whose Christmas CD I had recently bought. Then we went back to our house, and I had some wassail while we watched Christmas for a Dollar. My mom pointed out that it had been filmed at This Is the Place Heritage Park, which I hadn't noticed, but once I did, I could no longer imagine it as anything else. Susanne said it was a cute movie, but they didn't stay the whole time. We went to bed, and I wrote in my journal:
 "Ah, Christmas Eve.
"This morning I went running, but after thirteen minutes I had a sideache, so I walked for four minutes and ran for thirty more. The trails were muddy, so I ended up running by the landslide.
"Then I made gingerbread. The recipe was horrible, but I ended up making it work quite well. Sue and Chancey's family came to get John's stocking. Then we went to Sizzler for dinner. Then we watched Christmas for a dollar, while drinking the wassail I made."
At some point I woke up and noticed that I had turned off my Christmas tree lights in my room but didn't remember doing so. I remembered that I had left the back porch light on, so I went to turn it off, and snow was already accumulating.

Thursday, December 25. In the morning we learned that Susanne was going to bring my grandparents with her to our house, so they could carpool because of the snow. We didn't open presents until they arrived, and I had to turn off my Christmas music since Grandpa is hard of hearing. I was telling everyone about my strange night. Allie hugged me when she opened the One Direction CD I got her, and she hugged Grandma and Grandpa when she opened their present. I got walrus kitchen supplies (hot pad, oven mitt, ice cream scoop) and a narwhal screwdriver. They said they saw the screwdriver at Gordman's and had to get it for me, because they would likely never see one like it again. My mom knew I got her a calendar before she opened it. Once I had to go out and shovel snow, and I played Christmas music from my phone; I remember Mideau's version of "O Holy Night" playing. Sue's family came over, and they Skyped with my cousin Quin on his mission and she passed the laptop around the room for everyone to talk to him; I asked him if they used area books or iPads. Grandma asked him, "Do you tract?" which I found an odd question. At one point my mom read a fictional story in a biblical setting while the rest of us were just sitting in the living room. I was kind of bored. When the story was over, Grandma gave a groan of approval. Sue said that when she had bought the pumpkin pie at Kneaders, she jokingly told them not to put it in a box so we would think she made it. I don't consider pumpkin pie a Christmas dessert, so I didn't have any. Throughout the day, baby John had been taking my hands to walk him up and down the stairs. Peter at one point saw the Napoleon Dynamite TV show I had got my dad and he didn't know such a thing existed. He asked me what I liked to do besides go to concerts. He told me that when he was in Nashville, he bought my nephews presents and told them they had to like him more than me. Franklin had said, "What's wrong with Uncle Mark? He's nice to us," and Peter told him he could like me, he just had to like him more. Then he related the story to my mom. That evening we went downstairs to watch It's a Wonderful Life; Susanne had wanted to go home, but my grandparents wanted to stay. We had to turn the subtitles on for Grandpa. Meanwhile, Allie was upstairs watching Christmas episodes on Disney Channel. Grandma and Grandpa laughed at scenes in the movie, including the line "I've been saving this for a divorce in case I ever get a husband." When it was over, I said it wouldn't be on my rotation next year; Grandma said, "How come?" in her tone of almost disappointment, and I said just to give it a rest. That night I turned my Christmas music on again and washed dishes; the narrated story of the Tabernacle Choir came on. I got a friend request from Leslie Gates, which I accepted. At the same time, Jon Rose showed up in my newsfeed with my former roommate Eric Scott West, and as I hovered over his name, I saw that we had fewer mutual friends. I discovered that Nathan Garlock unfriended me, which really surprised me, because just recently he had "liked" one of my blog posts. Then I wrote in my journal:
"An enjoyable Christmas day.
"I had a weird night. I woke up in the middle of the night and my tree lights were unplugged, but I don't remember unplugging them.
"It was rather snowy, so Nan brought G'ma and G'pa to our house. I got walrus kitchen supplies, a narwhal screwdriver, a Nashville Tribute CD, a Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly, and a speaker.
"Everyone Skyped with Quin; Sue of course talked the most.
"Allie liked her One Direction CD, Nan liked the dog shirts, and Mom liked her calendar. I don't know what Pops thought of the Napoleon Dynamite cartoon.
"I shoveled the driveway once, and we sat around. G'ma and G'pa stayed to watch It's a Wonderful Life. Then tonight I washed dishes.
"I learned that Nathan Garlock unfriended me on Facebook. I know I shouldn't let it bother me."

Friday, December 26. In the morning I cut up vegetables and made a crockpot vegetable minestrone soup. I took down the wooden outside decorations and let them sit out in the sun to let the snow melt a bit; I also took down the inflatable Snoopy for the very last time, since it was poorly designed. When we ate the minestrone, my mom asked if it was vegetarian; I said it was except that it was made with chicken stock. She said she would like it better with beans and said that was usually an ingredient in minestrone. I liked the soup, but my parents weren't impressed. That night we went out shopping. We went to Target, where I got some pencil socks. My sister liked the Christmas cactus socks, but I didn't care for them. I think I looked at sweaters but didn't get one. We went to Shopko, and there I got some Nightmare Before Christmas socks. I made a memory post, while listening to New Year music and 2014 music. When the "What manner of man is this?" song came on, my mom asked what it was; I told her it was on the Redeemer CD she just bought me. I didn't really care for the song. I wrote in my journal:
"Today I made slow-cooker minestrone and shoveled the driveway. I took down the pink Christmas tree and the ones downstairs and in my room. Then we went to Target and Shopko; I got pencil and Nightmare Before Christmas socks. Then tonight I wrote my week's memory blog."

Saturday, December 27. I took down my mom's Christmas village. Later, my grandparents came over, and Grandma said, "Oh, she took down her village." I said, "I did that," and she once again replied "How come" in the same disappointed, "why would you do that" tone she had used on Christmas. I said because it takes a long time to take down Christmas stuff, but the more obvious answer was that Christmas was over. My mom was out getting Little Caesars pizza for our family gathering. Jesse asked me if I had an opinion on "My Favorite Things" as a Christmas song, and I said I did have an opinion (Sue wasn't surprised). I said it had nothing to do with Christmas. Lisa said, "But we don't listen to it at other times," and Grandma said, "But we could." We were going to play games, and Sue said she had forgotten her new Telestrations game. I said I used to play it all the time at college; all you needed was paper and pencils, so I handed out paper and pencils and explained the rules. I found that this family group wasn't as fun as college kids. I was next to Jesse. At one point his picture had Santa Claus, so I wrote, "Santa tried to get by with only four reindeer." On another occasion, I wrote, "The galactic giant tried to put the moon back into orbit," because that's what it looked like, and Sue (next to me) said she didn't like sitting  by me because she didn't know how to draw what I wrote. One of the things Jesse gave me was "a girl crying in a snowstorm," which wasn't even a complete sentence and therefore wasn't fun. While we were playing, Baby John was walking around, and as he got to our stairs, Grandma said, "There he goes," and he tumbled down the stairs and began crying. Chancey rushed over to him, and I was feeling annoyed that he hadn't been watching him more closely, while I worried for the baby's welfare. He was OK. Then we read and looked at all the pictures. I noticed that Lisa's snowflakes had eight points instead of six. Some of the responses were bizarre. My grandpa had drawn a picture that was obviously a bunch of men playing volleyball, but Grandma interpreted it as "Shepherds at the manger." I guess she thought the ball was a moon. Sue shared some cheesecake bites with us, and I started out with a strawberry one, which wasn't as good as I expected. John took his and put it in my hand--he evidently liked me--and he even pushed my hand up, as if motioning for me to eat it. It was cute and funny. Nathan threw something at one point, and all of us told him he couldn't do that; Allie later said she didn't know why he did that, because he wasn't even mad. Lisa was holding Nathan, and he asked her what our star decoration said ("Wisemen still seek Him"). After they left, I said, "Do you think it was weird that they let the babies eat pizza on our couch?" and Mom responded "And cheesecake," and I brought up the meme expression "This is why we can't have nice things." This is a portion of my journal:
"This afternoon I took down Christmas decorations. I thought Mom didn't like me doing so, but apparently she was fine with it.
"Jesse, Lisa, Sue, Chancey, Nicole, John, Nathan, and G'ma and G'pa came over to play games and eat pizza. We played the Pictionary/Telephone game. It was fun....John remembered me from Christmas, remembering that I would take him downstairs. At one point he fell down the stairs. And at one point, Nathan was throwing things."