Have a Very Merry Christmas! (12/24/08)

[1]I have to be brief today. I'm emailing today because our preparation day was switched to today for Christmas Eve. We are emailing at the Davenport library which is closed on Mondays because the Cheney library is closed today. There is only one computer so I don't have much time. We got our hair cut today at a good old-fashioned barber shop in town. It seemed a lot like Floyd's Barber Shop but not as friendly. It was cheaper than Great Clips.

Thanks for the Christmas package. I didn't realize you'd already sent it before I made my Christmas request. Today I'll be getting the package from Aunt Terri. I wanted to send out a lot of Christmas cards but I didn't have enough time and I was only able to send to you, Grandpa and Grandma, and Dave and Ya-ping, I think. I can't remember any more I sent.

I'm worried about the call home. We are going to be able to sleep in, and watch a Disney movie. The one we selected is nearly three hours long (guess which one it is!) so we had planned probably calling in the afternoon but we can probably move it up. Two o'clock there is one o'clock here so we may have to adjust our schedule a little bit.[2]

It has continued to be cold and snowy. It was about sixteen degrees today and it feels very warm compared to the negative two we've had. On Saturday night we went to the Ritzville branch Christmas party. It was important for us because we had fourteen nonmembers and eight less-actives show up. We had to leave that night to Davenport before it got snowy and windy (the drifts here can be colossal) and we got about a half hour out of town when the newly-called first counselor of the branch presidency called because we had his keys. So, we had to turn around, and got home late. The next morning there were a lot of drifts. We had about twenty people at church. It was the third Sunday but the high counselor couldn't make it, so it was a short meeting. It was only worth having sacrament meeting. Davenport does a better job of clearing the roads than Spokane does, but the whole state of Washington is dumb. A bigger snowstorm in Utah wouldn't affect everything as much because they just plow and move on. But up here, it's like, "Oh, no! It snowed! What are we going to do? Guess we have to shut everything down." Last year they closed school for a week and I didn't see a plow until a week after the snowstorm. The Davenport Elementary School this week should have been closed because their boiler went out, so fish died, toilets froze, tiles broke, and cold ensued, but they merely started late, so everyone was mad.

My time is about up but I can talk to you more tomorrow.

Love,

Elder Melville

---

[1] The title of my letter is the title of a song in the Children’s Songbook.

[2] As it turned out, we ended up snowed in at a members’ home in the middle of the Washington farmlands on Christmas Eve, so we spent the night there and used their phones in the morning to call our families. When we finally left, we were late to a dinner appointment, and then we watched Mary Poppins with the couple we lived with part-time.

I'm Mr. Icicle, I'm Mr. Ten Below (12/15/08)

[1]It truly feels like Christmas now. We finally got snow in Ritzville. It snowed a little on Friday but most of it melted. It was a little deeper out in Odessa, another small town in the  Ritzville branch. We woke up Saturday to fresh snow and it snowed most of the day. The big problem is not with the snow, however; it's with the wind. Some of the highs this week are in the single digits, and with the wind it feels like -20. Noses and cheeks instantly freeze when we get out of the car when the wind is blowing. I sent a letter to our mission president asking what he expects of us in such dangerously cold weather. Today I spent some money and bought thermals (thermal garments aren't terribly warm or comfortable, and with regular ones I don't have to wash them every time I use them) and boots. The rubber overshoes I got for my mission keep the snow off of my shoes but not out of them.[2] I hope the boots will fit properly; I didn't want to tighten them too much in the store because it would take too long. They are size 12 because the 11s weren't wide enough (curse my wide feet!).[3] It should work out, I hope.

Most of the snow is dusty because it blows off the dirt and then the dirt gets blown around. Most of the snow is not original snow; it's mostly stuff that's been blown from elsewhere. It's been amazing to watch it blow. It looks like little snakes slithering on the road, or little spinning gusts heading down the sidewalk. I have been wearing every warm article of clothing I own. That works out for most of my body except my face. Even if I were to wrap my scarf so that I looked Muslim I'd still be cold.

I should be shipping off a package today or tomorrow, I hope. It has a Halloween dodgeball as the biggest item.[4] I also decided to throw in all the letters I've received on my mission. If you could find a place for them (even if you keep them in the box) I would appreciate it. Most of them are from you. I also threw in a memory card with the explanations (I hope you can find them with all the letters, and FYI, my picture frame does not take the stick). I will send home gifts. The family present is nothing big so you can eat it immediately. You'll be able to tell what I got for Allie and the combined one for Preston and Franklin. You'll probably think it's stupid but they were right where we were and I didn't want to go to the toys because I can never decide what to get. You can decide if they're worth wrapping for them or not.

I did get some ideas for Christmas if it's not too late, but they're not too important so don't worry if it is. It might be fun to have the scriptures on CD (for long car drives when we don't get to study), or rechargeable batteries since my camera eats them pretty quickly. But whatever you get will be fine. If possible, it would be fun to have wrapped gifts. We already have one to open on Christmas, but I don't think living in an apartment will allow for a mystery Santa like last year.[5] If you want our home address to send them here it is:

104 E 2nd Ave # 9

Ritzville, WA 99169[6]

The members we stay with in Davenport were making sloppy joes and I mentioned the sandwiches you used to make with the ground beef and cheese and peppers, etc. Later she specifically asked me to ask you for the recipe. While you're at it, it may be fun to have recipes for Christmas sugar cookies or a buche de Noël. I probably won't make them for Christmas but I'd like to know I could.

We got a call that I got a package but it was sent UPS so they couldn't forward it. Hopefully the sisters in Cheney will be going to the office (since one of them is going back to Temple Square) sometime so they can pick it up. I don't know from whom it came, because I know you know to send USPS.[7]

Two years ago, among my glowing ornament decorations, twenty-nine Christmas shows, and three-year-old niece, I found myself sadly saying things like, "This is my last Christmas." Now, with my homemade wreath, common MoTab, and Micah 5:2 written festively on the whiteboard, I find myself with the same sentiment.

I wrote this for personal study on the day after Thanksgiving.

"O Holy Night" for some reason makes me particularly depressed. I have no more Christmases on my mission.

Some of the reason for this is a dream--a nightmare, perhaps--I had on Tuesday night. In it I went home. I got home and I was like, "Now what do I do?" I was trying to make up excuses not to call President Brower to release me, like, "It's Monday night so we can't interrupt his FHE." (That will actually be a valid concern when I get back.)[8] I went on a walk and I cried. But then I realized it was 2008 and I still had another year, and that made everything better.

But the dream made me realize the truth. I'd always had little fantasy scenes of everything being perfect when I got home. Now I realize that it won't be that way. I'm going to be sad and have no idea what to do.[9] I don't know how soon it'll be before I watch TV or listen to music because it's been forbidden for so long. The year 2008 is almost over, and I go home in 2009. It's so sad.

As for killing Elder L., Elder B. was my only non-three-month companion (he was six weeks). But companions are staying together longer. The mission is getting a large number of missionaries so there will be an increase from around 77 companionships to 90. We are speculating that they might split our area and one of us would stay in each. We agree that if that happened I'd probably stay in Ritzville and Elder Love would stay in Davenport. But this is complete speculation and probably won't happen.

I hope to send my Christmas cards off today.

Love,

Elder Melville

---

[1] The title for my email comes from a song from The Year without a Santa Claus.

[2] The Mr. Mac salesman sold me some rubber overshoes that weren’t terribly useful.

[3] My memory of getting size 12 was because we pressed the “customer assistance in shoes” button at Walmart, but they took too long to respond, so we left.

[4] I never saw that dodgeball again.

[5] Since I lived with members my first Christmas, somehow word got out that I didn’t have any presents to open on Christmas, so someone got some for me.

[6] If some nefarious person wants to use this address to go heckle missionaries, they don’t live there anymore, so joke’s on you!

[7] “From whom it came” is an awkward construction from my prescriptivist days. The package was from my Aunt Terri.

[8] The night I got back was a Monday, but it was the stake president’s counselor (and the bishop who sent me out) who released me.

[9] Yeah, that basically happened in real life.

December 28

This time I'm going to remember what happened on December 28, three days after Christmas. Unfortunately, I can't remember many years about this date, and I only remember 2014, 2008, and 2007.

2014. President Henry B. Eyring was at church that day, which I didn't expect. Peter Moosman was one of the speakers, and he began by saying, "You are looking at a spiritually sick individual," caused by not reading scriptures or doing other things. He shared an experience saying the prayer at his Christmas dinner, which strengthened his testimony. There was some extra time at the end, so President Eyring addressed us. He told us how he married later, and how his wife's parents didn't really approve of him, but he was very bold in proposing and she accepted. It had started snowing when we were at church. I began driving home, and I think I was listening to my new Nashville Tribute Redeemer CD. I took Eaglewood Drive up to Foxhill, and there were lots of cars coming slowly down the other direction. When I was coming down Raygene in front of my house, my antilock brakes came on. But the snow didn't last super long. My home teachers, Mike Angerbauer and Chad Hogan (substituting for Nathan Loveridge), came over. The conversation turned to my work, and I went and brought out my copy of Mapping Mormonism, so I showed them where my name was in it. I wrote my culminating blog post for the year. We played my new Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly game; we wanted to do the fast way, but even that was slow, and we had to pause the game for another day. I think my mom picked the Jack Skellington playing piece. This is my journal:
"President Eyring was at our sacrament meeting again this week, and there was extra time, so he told us about how he got married. It started snowing when we were in church, and the anti-lock brakes came on right in front of the house. I spent the afternoon working on my year-in-review blog, but there were breaks for my home teachers (Mike Angerbauer and Chad Hogan, who was subbing for Nathan Loveridge), dinner (chili), and a game night (my Nightmare Before Christmas Monopoly). I shoveled the driveway once."

2012-2013. We were in California both years. I'm sure if I remembered one thing that happened specifically on this day, I would remember a lot, but right now I can't remember anything.

2011. I know I worked that day, but I don't remember anything.

2010. I was in Tennessee visiting my brother's family, the last time I ever visited that state, but I don't remember that day specifically.

2008. It was the day before transfers, and Elder Love was being transferred. We taught a girl who was dating a member of the Ritzville Branch, and she seemed to accept everything we taught, but we thought it was more for her boyfriend's sake. But she didn't live in our mission, although she would be going to school in Pullman. That night we had dinner at a birthday party for John Galbreath in the branch. He had received a Neal A. Maxwell quote book for his birthday, and they had ginger ale. They had a three-year-old daughter who was hilarious and talked about her imaginary friends. She said they slept in her bed, and her dad told her they couldn't sleep in her bed until she was married. She had received a doll named Lucretia for Christmas, and her mom was saying that sounded more like a black name, even though the doll was white, but there was a white Lucrecia in the branch. I journalized as follows:
"I am thirteen [months] today. We taught Sarah, the girlfriend of Andrew Burt, who lives out of the mission. We also said goodbye to a few others for Elder Love. We had dinner with John Galbreath and family. Their daughter Taylor is hilarious and very imaginative, telling us today all about Steve, Johnny, and Jackson."

2007. We visited a less-active member, not knowing how we would be received, but he invited us in immediately and was very friendly; we began regularly visiting him. I think this was the time we drove to the Franklin Park Ward's church building because Elder Chun needed to conduct a baptismal interview. There was a convert there who was enthusiastic about soon leaving on a mission, and we were telling the other elders about our upcoming appointment that we assumed would be a bash session; Elder Chun told Elder Gammon how the wife said she had read the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants, and the husband said, "How did you get a D&C?" Elder Gammon said we should have corrected him to "Doctrine and Covenants," since he had a thing about not using that abbreviation. That night after our meeting with Kristi Waylin, Elder Chun got lost and we were going down an ice-covered hill and couldn't back up, so some people came to help push him back up, and I felt awkward as I got out of the car after they were already helping. In Spokane they didn't really plow snow, and there were many times we got stuck on icy roads. We went on a road in the Greenbluff Ward to check on some people we had tracted into the previous week. We talked to a new man who said his wife had lots of Mormon family (and I think we later learned she was on our ward list). And I think we took these pictures that night, although I'd have to double check the original photo information to know for sure (I just took these from Facebook):

 We liked this church sign:

I wrote in my journal:
"Today we taught Richard Swinkles, the only member in his family. We are trying to reactivate him possibly to influence his family. Elder Chun had to do some baptismal interviews, and then our potential investigator wasn't home. We met with Christi Waylin, a former investigators [sic] whose boyfriend is a less-active member. They are strengthening their relationship by wanting to come to church. The previous missionaries did an unsatisfactory job. We taught a good lesson but it was very difficult because she has very rambunctious children.
"We then got stuck on a road again by some houses so people helped us push again. We set up a return appointment for a possible investigator who was gone yesterday. Then we talked to a man on that street, and Elder Chun pulled down an enormous icicle."

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."

The Sunday after Thanksgiving

The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the first Sunday of the Christmas season. I'm going to remember what I can about the day.

2014. We were driving out of California, and my parents wanted me to turn on my Christmas playlist from my phone. We loaded up our car early in the morning while everyone was asleep. Throughout the day we munched on grapes, bagels with lunch meat, sugar cookie Pop-Tarts, chocolate candy cane granola bars, and candy cane Tootsie Pops. A lot of the music that played was remnants from my Halloween music (since it had recently been played on my phone), meaning it was Nightmare before Christmas. At one point Jan Terri's "Rock and Roll Santa" came on, but I was disappointed when it stopped streaming. My parents had had enough when Marilyn Manson's cover of "This Is Halloween" came on. Then they switched to a Beauty and the Beast tape. It was snowy as we were driving through Nevada, and I remembered that we had forgotten our Hotel Transylvania DVD and my pumpkin-shaped pie dish. After we got into Utah, they turned on FM 100.3. They played one Christmas song, noting that Christmas music wouldn't be in their Sunday lineup until the next week (even though they play Christmas music way early on weekdays). They played a song about moms praying for their missionary sons, and my mom related to it. We went home and unloaded some of the stuff from my car. Then my mom and I went to my grandparents' place, where my niece had been staying. My grandparents offered us leftover Thanksgiving dinner. My mom didn't eat much, but I had a couple of helpings. There were pieces of bone in the turkey. My grandma was telling my mom how a longtime family friend was in serious condition after a treadmill accident (and he did pass away from the injuries). When Allie came home, she had some of the sugar cookie Pop-Tarts and said, "These are good." I think she even took one into her room so she could have it the next morning. I wrote a blog.

2013. I don't really remember this day, but Facebook tells me I wrote on both of my blogs and was excited about Mideau's free download of "O Holy Night." I think I watched "The Nativity."

2012. The ward clerk, Michael Wyatt, had asked me to take his place at bishopric meeting that morning, so I did, wearing my polar bear tie. My roommate Scott later asked about my tie and said it was winter themed; I thought it was more Christmassy than wintery because of the North Pole. Again, I wrote on both blogs, and I think I watched "The Nativity."

2011. I gave a talk at my sacrament meeting, which you can read here. Paul Castleberry told me I gave an "epic talk."

2010. It was snowy, so I asked my dad to drive me up to my church (I think I had tithing settlement). He did, and then my family came to hear me talk. I had told Allie that she needed to be quiet at church, because my sacrament meeting was quieter than the family ward and she had a tendency to talk. Consequently she didn't want to go. Michelle Moosman talked to my parents after sacrament meeting, and my mom told her why Allie hadn't wanted to come, and Michelle said, "We do have a quiet sacrament meeting." I asked Peter Moosman to drive me home; he regretted having worn Toms on a snowy day. I told him he didn't need to drive down Raygene, because I could walk, but he did drive me. He was listening to the Nashville Tribute Band Joseph album, saying he didn't like country but loved that one. I told him I had bought it at an LDS bookstore in my mission boundaries, and he said that was lucky, because he didn't have one in Kentucky.

2009. I was very sad to leave my final area of Lewiston, Idaho. At church, Brother Robinson (I think?) presented me with some farewell goodies: Power Bars, because I had "the power," and a pomegranate for the seeds I planted, and a pear for the fruits of my labors. One of my converts, Katelyn Heath, told me she had been to the temple for baptisms the day before, and I was very happy for her. During sacrament meeting for the YSA branch, I leaned over to Elder Tamblyn and told him it was time for me to leave, so he came out in the foyer to wish me goodbye. Then I got in the car with the Robisons (not Robinsons), who were driving me up to Spokane. We had to stop in Pullman to pick up Elder Hansen, but he had his suitcase locked in their car, and his companion had gone across the state border to go to church in Moscow, so we had to wait for him to return. I think the Robisons gave us some food they had packed, and I also ate my goodies, including the pomegranate, which Elder Hansen called a "weird fruit." I made myself add to my pushup queue for eating Power Bars. Then the Robisons dropped us off at the mission home. I remember asking Elder Bewley about the Carter children I had taught in my first area, whom he had apparently baptized later. He said that Jonathan was twelve and got up in testimony meeting and gave a very dynamic testimony, almost comically so. I told the story of one time when we were trying to get them to guess "Holy Ghost," and they were guessing all sorts of random things ("Nephi!"), and when we told them the Holy Ghost, Alex (a girl) said, "I know a real haunted house!" President Palmer asked how old Alex had been. I went in for my interview with him, and he asked what my longterm plans were. He told me that dates didn't need to be big things; they could just be going for ice cream at the Wilkinson Center. President Palmer's son Geoffrey was telling us about the Star Trek movie. I noticed that President had a book on his shelf about Mormons and evolution, and I remembered I'd have to read it sometime (and hoped my evil companion Elder LaPratt would see it). I was very sad and cried when I went to bed. (I've moved on with my life now, but writing this does fill me with nostalgia and a little bit of sadness.)

2008. Lucrecia, an excommunicated member, came to church, and she wanted to meet with the branch president, because she was very desirous to be baptized. Since she was our only investigator, we waited to start our Sunday School class until she was there (the others were a single sister and our branch mission leader and his wife). She was very happy when she came in. She told us what the branch president had said she needed to do for baptism--no coffee, no cigarettes, no alcohol, and then she could talk to him again. Our lesson that day just happened to be chastity. It was very awkward. The lesson said, "Breaking the law of chastity can cause you to commit a greater sin, abortion," to which Lucrecia said, "I forgot to tell him about that. It wasn't my fault, the government made me do it." Sister Moffett kept pronouncing it "prah-creation." That night we visited the Johnsons, and Denise told us she wanted us to teach chastity to her daughter. I did write in my journal that night, but I think it would be inappropriate to put here.

2007. Family members were coming up for my farewell talk. Sarena was admiring our Little People nativity and Pilgrims, and I was surprised she hadn't heard of Fisher Price Little People before. A member of the stake presidency was presiding at our meeting, and he said he had been in our ward when I was a kid. One of my mission prep teachers was in the congregation, and so was Rachel Cope. During my talk, I explained that I had come to terms with going on my mission until I sprained my ankle and thought I would have to wait longer. I talked about Joseph Smith's Civil War prophecy, and I talked about some of my coworkers. I had a Muslim coworker who thought that another coworker was a Mormon, but I didn't think so--the Muslim said she could tell Mormons because they were very nice, and she turned out to be right about the other girl. I also talked about the coworker who had been on a mission but obviously wasn't active in the Church--"She had the same name as a villain in a Disney movie, and it fit her perfectly." I didn't know whether she was mean because she quit the Church or if she quit the Church because she was mean. After sacrament meeting, my bishop asked me into his office and gave me a Boy Scout coin to take with me. As I came out, Hillary Ulmer, Latecia Pope, and Rachel Cope (all of them married now) noted that I was indeed limping. They asked, "Was your coworker named Maleficent, Ursula, Cruella, or [someone else--maybe Yzma?]?" When I said Ursula, Rachel said it was no wonder she was mean, growing up with a name like that. My cousins tried to get me to go home, but I opted to stay at church. During Sunday School, the topic was being a "peculiar people," and someone cited my talk. After church, Austin Anderson asked me if my coworker's name was Cruella, and I told him Ursula.

2003. I wrote in my journal:
"I've been bad this weekend [devious face] I've had too much chocolate (hot chocolate and candy) and eggnog. I haven't written in my journal, and I didn't read much. Oh, well. This week I'm not going to watch T.V. period. As a seminary class we're going to sing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" for the school. I've been learning the tenor part. It's too high but only one note higher than the bass, and the bass goes too low. This week I have put up Christmas Decorations."

1999-1997. We might have been decorating our Christmas tree in 1997. I can remember one Sunday when my mom was late to sit with us at church (she might have been at choir practice), and she was disappointed that the opening hymn was an ordinary hymn: "I wanted to sing a Christmas song." I pointed out that the closing hymn was "The First Noel." 

Meeting Apostles

Watching general conference made me reflect about the times I've seen the Apostles and members of the First Presidency in person.

However, I'm not going to include being present at meetings, except when these meetings were more intimate. Therefore, I won't talk about a 2004 stake conference with Elder Packer or a work meeting a few months ago with Elder Bednar.

On October 17, 2009, Elder Bednar came to visit my mission. It was the last proselyting day for the missionaries who went home a transfer before I did. Our ward mission leader, Brother Presnell, drove us from Lewiston up to Spokane, to the stake center next to the temple (technically in Spokane Valley). We greeted all the missionaries we knew, and there were swarms of Spokane's blue gnats. I said they were worse in Lewiston, and my companion, Elder Tamblyn, agreed. Sister Craven, one of the office missionaries, came up to me and said she recognized my name because she had just been filling out my going-home papers--which wasn't something I liked to talk about. We all got on some bleachers that had been set up in front of the temple for a mission-wide picture. When Elder Bednar arrived, I overheard a missionary say something a little vulgar--and no one laughed, apparently realizing it wasn't appropriate to the situation. I think we sang a few songs, and my evil former companion Elder LaPratt was loudly suggesting songs to sing. As we were going in, I saw Elder Bednar in the hall, and I wondered if we were supposed to go in that way. Elder Warren, my previous companion, sat with us because he was annoyed that some Spanish elders had felt entitled to sit at the front and took his spot. Brother Presnell sat up on the stand in the choir seats--I think they asked the non-missionaries to do that because we were having a Q and A with Elder Bednar. Elder Rasband asked about a certain principle, and Elder Robinson stood up and recounted the story of Jethro and Moses. When Elder Bednar got up, he told us to not write down anything he said but to write down what the Spirit taught us. He also asked us not to go blabbing about what he said in the meeting, for fear that the "telephone" effect might happen, where his words get distorted. ("Telephone effect" is my own term, not his.) At one time my former companion Elder Betenson said something in answer to one of Elder Bednar's questions, and Elder Bednar said, "I could just kiss you!" I knew that must have made Elder Betenson happy, since he loved Elder Bednar. We then left, and apparently Elder Bednar was speaking to young adults from the area; we saw Lindsey Burrup from our Lewis-Clark YSA branch. Then Brother Presnell took us to a Chinese buffet, and some other missionaries also went there; I think they might have sat with us. When we got out of the restaurant, I remembered why I had quit wearing those shoes: it was raining, and my feet were getting wet because of the holes in the bottom of my shoes.While Brother Presnell was getting gas, I asked Elder Tamblyn what he thought of the meeting, because he was a little sullen for some reason. He said he absolutely loved it.

One evening in the late summer or early fall of 2010, my mom and I drove up to a road so I could go running and she could go walking. When we got to a four-way stop, I told her, "Don't run over those pedestrians," and my mom said, "Especially since he's in the First Presidency!" It was President and Sister Uchtdorf. Sister Uchtdorf waved at us and we waved back. We wondered why she waved, but my mom pointed out it was probably because she was thanking us for stopping for them. We saw them many times walking along there. Once as I ran by, I said, "Hello, President and Sister Uchtdorf," which is a mouthful to say while running by. He said, "Hello there."

A year later, in August 2011, while my family was on vacation and I was wearing brand-new light blue shorts, I had intended to go running, but I wasn't feeling up to it, so I was walking back towards my car. I saw the Uchtdorfs approaching, and I felt bad approaching them on the narrow sidewalk, so I walked in the gutter. I didn't plan on saying hi this time, because I realized they surely got greetings all the time and maybe got tired of them. But even though I wasn't going to say hi, he said hi to me, even though I was walking in the curb and there were trees between us.

My mom also used to talk to them sometimes, and that same 2011 August I saw them talking with a man in his yard. We also saw them at Costco.

In December 2014, I was asked to give the opening prayer in sacrament meeting on December 21 for the Christmas program. I got an email beforehand announcing the program--and the speaker was President Henry B. Eyring! That, of course, made me very nervous. I was also supposed to bless the sacrament, but when I got to the chapel, others were blessing it, so I passed instead. I was sitting next to Keith Savage, and he was saying he was nervous "because of you-know-who." I said I was nervous because I was saying the prayer, and he said, "Don't mess up!" I was so nervous I didn't even bother to bring the microphone down to my mouth and instead stood on my tiptoes. It certainly wasn't a prayer I usually say. During the meeting, I was sitting on the first or second row by myself, and President Eyring kept staring at me while he was speaking. It got a little uncomfortable at times, although it wasn't scary because he always had a smile on his face. I can't quite remember what he said, but I think he talked about listening to the Spirit to know how we can help people. (I know, it's horrible that I got to hear him and I don't remember what he said!)

A week later, he visited our ward again, and since there was extra time, he spoke again. He talked about his unusual proposal, how he married late, and how his wife's parents didn't think he was good enough.

These are the only intimate encounters I can remember having with those Church officials. But I can say that with all three of these men, even though my encounters were brief and not very personal, I felt nothing but love from them. And I feel like they honestly believe and strive to practice what they preach.

December 5, 2009

Some of my previous posts have included the first time I met two of my nephews, Preston and Nathaniel. But since my middle nephew, Franklin, is turning 7 this week, I'm going to remember the day I first met him. He was born while I was on my mission, so I didn't get to see him until I was home five days, when he was twenty-two months.

In the morning, my parents and I went to the airport to meet Ya-ping, Preston, and Franklin. My dad and I went up the escalators where new arrivals came down, while my mom waited at the bottom. We were waiting and waiting, when suddenly I saw some kids run up to my mom. I thought, "Who are those girls, and why are they going up to my mom?" Then I realized they were my long-haired nephews, so we went down and met up with them. As we were going up the elevator, I tried talking to Franklin, who was very shy and clinging to his mom. Ya-ping was saying, "You look different!" In the car on the way home, I was  turning around and tickling Franklin on his leg, which made him giggle, which made my mom laugh. He also began singing the "Elmo's World" theme song: "Ma, mawmo, maa!" We got home, and Sue had brought Peter over to see them. My parents and I went to our church for our ward Christmas breakfast. Lots of people (such as Evan Gubler) were coming up to me to welcome me home. They told me that I had gotten taller, but I think that was just an illusion because I wasn't as fat. The guests for our party were bagpipers, which I found annoying and un-Christmassy. We left early, and when we got home Peter was playing with Preston. I tried to talk to Preston, but he just responded by blowing raspberries.

That afternoon, we had a large trip with family to different stores. It included me, Mom, Susanne, Allie, Ya-ping, Franklin, Sue, Peter, and Quin, so of course we drove in the Suburban. Jesse might have been there too, I can't remember. Preston had been napping when we left, so he didn't come with us. First we went to DI, I think because Ya-ping wanted to get clothes and stuffed animals for the boys. While we were there, Allie said, referring to the Thompsons, "They like Franklin more than me!" My mom told her that I was still around her, while the others were playing with Franklin. At one point, Quin told her, "We get to see you all the time, but we don't get to see Franklin as much." Then we went to Walmart, and as we were going in, we had a conversation about elderly relatives on Facebook. At one point, my mom called my dad, who was home with Preston, and when she was done, she said that he had said that Preston was fine now that he had stopped crying. We went through the Christmas candy aisle, and I wanted to get mint miniature candy bars. But then Ya-ping said she wanted to get miniature Snickers with Christmas wrappers, and I couldn't justify getting two things of candy, and I resented her choice of generic candy over special mint varieties.

When we got home, Preston was watching Harry Potter on TV with my dad, which Ya-ping wasn't too happy about, because she thought it was violent.

Early Christmastime memories

In this blog, I will try to remember some of my earliest Christmas-associated memories. I'm going to try to stick to memories that happened before I entered elementary school--meaning I was five or younger.

(I was going to post this last week, but I forgot. It was the first week I missed posting on this blog. But that's OK, because this isn't my priority blog.)

I remember a visit to Temple Square with my cousins and grandparents. Some of the lights had little flowery coverings surrounding the lights--I think that was a 90s thing. I remember walking up the ramp to see the Christus statue and being fascinated with the planets on the mural. I think it was this same trip when I remember driving home in my grandparents' van, and there was a plate of Christmas sugar cookies.

I can remember looking out the window in our living room overlooking our driveway and watching my family bring in our Christmas tree.

I can remember making a homemade garland with cranberries, and I think my cousin Tammy was there; the next year I wondered where it was when we got out our decorations.

Once in preschool, we went to an old folks home and danced, I think the Mexican Hat Dance. Afterwards, they gave us those red suckers with white powder on them. Then I went to the Festival of Trees (I can't remember whether it was with them or with my family) and they had giant plastic suckers like the ones we had gotten. (I'm not sure whether the decorations were meant to look like those suckers, but I thought they did.)

Perhaps that same year, I also went to the Festival of Trees with my family and got an anthropomorphic Christmas tree filled with candy. My brother got a snake with 24 pieces of candy so you could eat one a day until Christmas. We came home and caught the tail end of a cartoon about the Twelve Days of Christmas, and then my cousins had to go home. I think that the adults said, "It's over" when it was at a commercial break, but we kids didn't believe them. But when the commercial break was over, it was only the credits, so they had been right.

I liked to watch my Christmas Sing-Along, and I remember asking my dad when Christmas was, in part because I wanted to watch it.

One time I went to my friend David Christensen's house, and his dad had drawn a picture of a stick of holly, a present, and a candle. We were impressed with how he had drawn the holly leaves. So I decided that I wanted to draw one myself. So I lay down on the kitchen floor with my crayons and drew the picture. I couldn't draw the points on the holly leaves, so they were just regular leaves. I figured it didn't matter what color the present was, so it had pink ribbon. My mom was very impressed.

One time I was playing with our neighbor, Taryn Pay, on the day we were bringing out our Christmas decorations. She found two wreaths, one made out of cloth and one made out of twigs. She suggested we put the wreaths around our faces and walk around like that. I was annoyed that she kept the cloth wreath and made me use the scratchy one.

I remember getting in our car one December and driving down the hill. The stars were literally twinkling in the sky in a flashy cartoony manner. I'm pretty sure this was a dream.

My sister was tutored by Coach Wangsguard from South Davis Junior High when I was just a little kid. One time during tutoring, my mom and I went outside and played in the snow. One of us threw a snowball at the window. When we went inside, Wangs said she had said, "Who threw that snowball?" We had a puzzle-piece reindeer on our fireplace, and Wangs asked me what its name was. I said it was Rudolph, and she said, "It can't be Rudolph if it doesn't have a red nose!"

I remember hearing "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" on the radio a few days after Christmas, and I wondered why they were playing a Christmas song after Christmas, but I think I deduced it was because Christmas was over and the song was only relevant after Christmas (because it was past tense).

I loved playing with our plastic nativity, and one angel for a long time was separated from the rest of the nativity.

My mom made little Christmas mice that held candy canes in them as the tail. I remember being at my grandparents' office in their old house with my cousin April and there were leftover candy cane mice.

My grandparents had a garland with musical bells in it. I loved hearing it, and I fell in love with "The Little Drummer Boy." I thought the "rum pum pum pum" was hilarious.

We had a little paper with flaps that described Santa Claus traditions in other countries. That paper made me think of Santa Claus differently than most people. When I heard people say that Santa Claus went around the world in one night, I thought they were wrong. Our Santa Claus only had to travel across America. Other countries had their own Santa (Father Christmas, Père Noël, etc.). If you ask me, that makes a little more sense than there being only one Santa for the whole world.

December 21-27, 2013

It's time to remember last year's Christmas week.

December 21. I remember lying in bed while I heard my mom talking on the phone. She relayed stories about Nathaniel to Sue, and she was talking to her friend Jackie and I heard her say she would have to tell me something. I found out that what she needed to tell me was a funny ambiguous statement that Jackie had misinterpreted the night before; my mom had texted her something like, "We are in Fillmore for a wedding, and the reception is terrible." She meant the cell service was terrible. Sometime that day, we went to Chuck-A-Rama. At the table, there was conversation about gay marriage being legal in Utah. My mom said she didn't think gay marriage should be illegal but she didn't like the way the law had been handled. My dad said her opinion was because she had listened too much to David; Susanne said she had lots of gay friends ("well, not a lot"), including a couple with an adopted kid, who Allie said was really cute. There was also talk about the movie Elf, which I don't watch. Allie asked why not, and I said it was because of language. She said, "There's not any inappropriate language in that movie," and Matt chimed in and said there was some. My mom also talked about a person in their primary having to give a heartrending lesson because she had a toddler die. I got a brownie covered with Christmas sprinkles, and I noticed that some of them had fall sprinkles. I got some peppermint hot chocolate as well. I think Jackie came to our house that day and asked if my mom had told me the "reception" story. Jackie said she thought, "That poor girl, having a terrible reception!" That night we got Arctic Circle for dinner. My mom got eggnog and gingerbread shakes, which looked identical, even though the advertising showed that the gingerbread one was a chocolatey color. We watched Miracle on 34th Street. Allie was with us, and said, "This reminds me of Saving Mr. Gates, even though I've never seen it." I mouthed to my mom what an incredibly weird thing that was to say.

December 22. In the morning, my parents pointed out to me an ad in the newspaper with a hilarious typo:

That afternoon, I made gingerbread, using both a special Christmas cookie sheet and Christmas cookie cutters. Frosting was made and I used it to add details to the gingerbread cookies. I also made wassail. Then we watched the DVD of the MoTab/King's Singers concert.

December 23. I went with my mom to perform various Christmas tasks. (I know Allie was with us at some point, but I don't remember her being with us at the beginning.) We went to a mall in Salt Lake because my mom wanted to get slippers for my grandma. She asked a saleslady, "Where is the lingerie?" and I thought "Where are the slippers?" would have been a more appropriate and more accurate question. We met up with Sue, Nicole, and their two boys. We traipsed all over the mall, including stopping in a store with earrings in case I wanted to get them for Allie. There was a guy working for an LDS DVD company who tried to offer us a free movie; I felt bad that everyone ignored him. When we went to the Hallmark store, Nathan/Wallace was playing in fake snow and yelling at anyone else who tried to play in it. We admired their monthly Peanuts ornaments and I ended up getting an ornament of Jack Skellington on his little automobile from Christmas Town. Allie, ever obsessed with playing with Wallace, rode with Sue while my mom and I went some other places. I remember having some minty candies in the car, and we went to a shoe store to see if they had slippers that my mom wanted to get for Grandma. Then we went to a Sprint store to get my Grandpa a smartphone. They didn't have any blue phone covers, so my mom got a green one instead. It seems they also gave us some headphones. The rest of the family went to go see Saving Mr. Banks at the theater, but since the movie doesn't fit my standards, I didn't want to see it. I went to Walmart and Target. Walmart was very busy, and I think I was annoyed at a cart in the parking spot. I had to park the car, move the cart, then pull completely in the spot. It seems that as I was taking the cart back to the store, a lady took it from me, since there weren't any carts there (I wasn't planning on using a cart anyway). I looked at Christmas CDs, but I didn't get any. Then I went to Target, where I got earrings for Allie. I was delighted to see a set of holiday socks--socks for Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and the Fourth of July. Of course I had to buy it. I also bought some red and green Goldfish crackers. Then I waited around in the car while I waited for the movie to be over, trying to watch YouTube music videos. After the movie, we all went to Sears and looked at clearance Christmas stuff; Sue gave us the Lego set Peter had bought for my nephews. Then we wanted to go somewhere for dinner; since my grandparents were with us we went to Zupas. My mom got a dessert to share, but there weren't any seasonal desserts. I showed Wallace my Nightmare before Christmas shirt, and my mom mentioned that when I was a kid I would have my thumb in my mouth, my finger in my nose, and another finger in my belly button. We watched my grandparents drive off, my grandpa driving somewhat recklessly, not using his blinker and such. My mom said, "What do you wanna bet they die while he's driving?" My dad had had some kind of dental work that day, so on our way home my mom went to Orange Leaf so we could get frozen yogurt, one of his favorite things. Of course, I was delighted to see that not only were there three Christmas flavors of yogurt, there was an abundance of Christmas toppings. We went home and gave the yogurt to my dad. That night my mom and I watched Christmas for a Dollar, and I was ashamed to admit that I liked it.

December 24. Strangely, I don't remember what happened this day. I know we watched White Christmas, and I certainly was packing for California.

December 25. In the morning I turned on my Christmas playlist, but I just turned it on from the beginning. But one of my presents was Kelly Clarkson's Greatest Hits: Chapter One, which had "I'll Be Home for Christmas" on it, so I stopped my playlist, put the new song in it, and then put it on shuffle. When the Lower Lights' bluegrass version of "Once in Royal David's City" came on, my sister said that a famous actor was good at playing the banjo and tried to find it on Spotify on her phone. I think she tried to find other songs, and Matt said to her, "There's already music on." She tried to advertise Spotify to me; I said I heard that Google Play was the same idea, and Matt said that Spotify was better. I saw she had a Halloween playlist, and I said, "Wow, your Halloween playlist is bigger than mine," but I think most of the songs weren't actually Halloween songs. We finished our preparations to go to California, and then we went to my grandparents' house for brunch, where Nan snapped this picture:

Among other breakfast items, my grandparents made spiced apple cider. I was astonished that it tasted like the powdered kind, even though it wasn't. Peter remembered me quibbling about the usage of cider and wassail, but he got it backwards--I think wassail refers to the drink with apple and citrus, while cider is just apple cider. Jesse asked me what I got for Christmas, and I told him I got a slow cooker. He asked if I was going to make anything special in the slow cooker; I told him that I might make corned beef and cabbage at St. Patrick's Day, and he said, "That sounds terrible." Then we went to the airport. While we were waiting to board our plane, I was listening to Christmas music on my phone and experimenting with saving music in Google Play. I noticed a little thumbtack icon at the top of my phone, but at this time I didn't realize that I could swipe down from the top and see app notifications. On the plane, my dad told me that he had put a peppermint candy bar in my stocking because he thought I would like it because it was seasonal; he had gotten it from work. I was eating it and he asked if he could try some of it. When we landed, Ya-ping picked us up and drove us to their new apartment. Baby was excited to talk to us, but we couldn't call him "Baby" for long; it was on this trip that he told us he wasn't a baby and we couldn't call him that. In their room, he said, "That's brudden's bed," and I said, "That's your brother's bed?" to which he said "Uh huh!" I thought "brudden" was how he said "brother," but I soon learned it was how he said "Preston." He told me that he had "hixteeng buses," and for the rest of the visit he told us about his sixteen ("hixteeng") new houses and moms. He kept talking to us, and David said, "He's not usually this talkative." He took a Wii game to show us, and Preston yelled, "Don't shake it!" Nathaniel kicked him, and my mom said, "Oh, no," and he had to go to time out in his room and cried. Later, he jumped on his dad and said, "I almost [unintelligible] my dad." I said, "You almost what your dad?" to which he said, "Uh huh!" That made everyone laugh. (Apparently he said "killed.") That night we watched Monsters University (David had to keep telling Preston not to give things away) and then It's a Wonderful Life. Preston kept asking what was going on in It's a Wonderful Life.

December 26. When I got up, Ya-ping had made me a Jack Skellington hat. We took BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit, to go to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where my mom bought passes for us to be able to return to the museum and be more economic. We drank from the toilet drinking fountain and played with the other exhibits, including the spinning chairs, the ball jump that does math, the peg board where you can make marble ramps, and others. There were a lot of people there. We then went to a park across the street, in the middle of the city. My mom and Ya-ping walked to Subway to get us dinner while the boys played on the playground. I watched Nathaniel to make sure he was safe. Then we ate our dinner. We saw a man running shirtless, and my mom said he must be cold, but it really wasn't cold. David wanted to do running races with Preston, me, and my dad. I won every time. We walked past a place where people were ice skating, and I reflected that I probably will never go ice skating in my life. Then we returned to the BART station; David said to Franklin, "What's on Uncle Mark's shirt?" He said, "A cat in a space suit." David said, "Can cats really wear suits like that?"

December 27. I think I remember sitting on David's couch, listening to my music from 2013 and sharing my Facebook Year in Review.

November 26-30, 2013

Time to think about what went on last Thanksgiving time!

Tuesday, November 26.  My corpus linguistics class was cancelled, but when I went to my Old English class (I entered the building via a different door, since I didn't have class before it), there were only three of us there. Our professor told us that she would note that we were there that day and give us more points than the rest of the class, but she dismissed us. I might have gone to get pumpkin soup for lunch and get some Bookstore pumpkin fudge. Maybe I got the fudge after my writing class; I don't remember. Then I drove home. That night, I asked my mom if she wanted to watch Garfield's  Thansksgiving, but she didn't. That night before I went to bed, I made a Facebook post saying, "If you start your Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving, you can't be my friend anymore." I had had my smartphone for just over a week at that point, so I didn't have all the settings set how I wanted, so after I had gone to bed, my phone vibrated because someone had commented on the post. I think that was what made me figure out how to turn off the vibrating from Facebook, since I didn't want to keep being awakened at night.

Wednesday, November 27. My mom and I went to Costco in the morning, where we bought pumpkin and pecan pies. Then we drove out to West Valley because I wanted to go to Port of Subs so I could get a Pilgrim Griller, a sandwich with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. My mom liked hers, but they were expensive. Then we went to the Distribution Center, where I wanted to get a Pearl of Great Price manual and a MoTab CD, Sing Choirs of Angels, because I needed a recording of "Away in a Manger" for my hymns playlist. I was going to pay for them, but my mom did. Then we drove to Winegar's to grab a few more things. I wanted to listen to the Mamas and the Papas CD that was in the car, so I skipped to the album's later songs. As "Somebody Groovy" was playing, we saw a girl in another car dancing very energetically, and it seemed to match up with what we were listening to. Then we went home, and my mom took a nap while I updated my hymns playlist. Then I realized that I had two versions of "God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand"--one with an extra verse, and one with the verses out of order. That afternoon, I went running, and when I was going past the Bountiful golf course, I saw a bunch of wild turkeys. That made me so happy, and I decided that I would cross the street when I turned around so that I could see the turkeys better, but when I went back past them, the turkeys were all gone, even though they were close to my turning-around point. That night I turned on my Thanksgiving playlist while I helped clean. Allie and I helped peel apples for my mom to make apple pie. Eventually, she said we had peeled enough, so we could eat the apple that was peeled but not used. I was surprised when Allie immediately took the apple and took a bite out of it. I was going to cut it up to share.

Thursday, November 28. In the morning, my family had turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. One of the performers was Lady Antebellum, and they were singing songs from their Christmas album. Allie said, "Do you like her?" Later we had to go to my grandparents' house to pick up chairs. The 99.5 radio station seemed to only play commercials. I switched to 98.7, which was just talk, and the guy was talking about children's bodily functions. My mom told me I had struck out twice. Then I switched to 97.9, and Lady Gaga's "Applause" came on; my mom asked me who it was. A repairman came to take out our old, obsolete swamp cooler. While he was here, he agreed to do something else--maybe patch up the hole? I think he had been late. After he left, my dad asked me to help him turn the light fixture in the bathroom upside down, because it was too dark in the bathroom with the present configuration. He dropped one of the screws, and it landed in the sink, but fortunately I grabbed it before it went down the drain. My dad said he was glad I was there. Then I went running, and when I was near the Bountiful golf course, a kid, probably about 10, said, "Happy Thanksgiving!" I was a little disappointed not to see more turkeys, as it was Thanksgiving Day, but when I got home I made a Facebook post about seeing them the previous day. In the late afternoon, relatives started coming. When 2-year-old "Wallace"/Nathan came in, he called the Pilgrims on our front step "Grandma and Grandpa." Peter said, "Those are Pilgrims, not Grandma and Grandpa." They told me that Wallace knew the "This Is Halloween" song, so at one point he was lying on the floor, playing on an iPad, singing the song. I lay down on the floor to hear him, and as soon as I did, he got up and left, which Peter found funny. I think at one point he was "playing" the piano and singing "This Is Halloween." Peter was telling me that he had the Duck Dynasty Christmas album, and he told me I should listen to it to see if I thought it was so bad it was entertaining, or whether it was just bad, because he knew it was bad. Jesse and Lisa came, and Jesse told me how dismayed they were that his in-laws had their Christmas tree up and the kids there were watching a Christmas movie. The turkeys weren't quite done when we were ready to start, so we starting eating without turkey. Wallace ate my last candy corn sucker, and at one point he put his sucker down on Quin's shoulder--Quin was simultaneously amused and annoyed. (Later that evening, he asked where I had gotten the suckers, and when I told him Macey's, he said he wanted to go there.) After dinner, I was telling Susanne how much I liked the Buzzfeed article she had shared with all the GIFs. Susanne was showing them to my dad, and he was really laughing, even though he hardly ever laughs. Renee was looking and laughing as well. At one point I showed Susanne my roast turkey socks, and April was trying to get her attention and said something about "talking to your brother." After people had left, my mom and Susanne were saying that Renee was high on something. I turned on my Thanksgiving music while I did dishes, and my mom sat in the living room and sometimes sang along. She felt bad for not helping, but she had done a lot of work that day, and I was fine washing them. Then I went to bed.

Friday, November 29. I think that in the morning I started playing some of my new Christmas CDs. I loved the songs on the Lower Lights' latest album. That afternoon, we went to meet my aunt Sue and some of her family to go see Tangled, which was new in the theaters. When we got in the car, I put in the new Kelly Clarkson Christmas album. We were on the freeway when "Run Run Rudolph" came on, and my mom said it wasn't very Christmassy. Nan said she liked it, then asked who it was. When we were at the theater, waiting to go in, Wallace was identifying the animals on the display for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. We got in the theater early, as the previous showing was ending. I was looking at things on my phone, and my dad told me I needed to watch the credits so that I wouldn't watch them after the movie. We got to see the giant snow monster put Elsa's crown on after the credits. I was looking at pictures on Awkward Family Photos, and I was amused by another ugly Easter bunny picture. Throughout the movie, other viewers were laughing and overly enthusiastic; they clapped at the end. After the movie I went to the restroom, and Wallace asked where I had gone. Sue was telling my mom that one of the voices in the movie was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Nicole corrected her. Then we drove to my grandparents' for some reason. On our way there, we were having a conversation about American Idol winners--Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have been the most successful, but sometimes you hear about Daughtry, and Phillip Phillips has had decent success. I was confused with Kelly's singing "Just one cigarette more" in "Baby It's Cold Outside," since I thought she was strongly anti-smoking. I wanted to go to Target because one of the ads the previous day advertised walrus lounge pants, which of course I had to have. On our way to Target, we went to Home Depot. While my parents were looking at boring things, Susanne and Allie and I looked in the Christmas stuff. I found a blue-dyed poinsettia, which I thought was awesome, so I got it. When we got to Target, I was talking about what I should do with my poinsettia once Christmas was over. My mom said I should throw it away, as it's hard to get them to bloom again; I said I could give it to the office where I worked. We looked for the walrus pants and couldn't find them, but Nan found walrus socks. My mom was going to ask at the clothes help desk, and she discovered there was a cart near the desk with some walrus pants in it, but there was no tag. They told us we could buy them. We looked through the Christmas stuff and got some teal and pink ornaments for my new pink tree. I also got some Christmas-shaped Goldfish and Wheat Thins, and I might have got some Christmas Tic-Tacs. My mom got mint chocolate and peppermint white chocolate M&Ms. At some point on our outings that night, a car was driving down the road with their headlights off. I said, "I hope they crash into a pole." My mom and Susanne said, "You would say that just for not turning on their headlights?" and I said, "That's why I just said a pole." (I now agree that was too harsh.) I think that night I watched the Addams Family Christmas episode, and I think I also watched a Beverly Hillbillies episode. My mom watched with me (and encouraged me to watch more), as she was working on something in the room.

Saturday, November 30. At our house, Susanne said we should hide the M&Ms so Allie wouldn't eat more. She was dismayed and said she wouldn't eat more. I asked her why, then, she would be unhappy with them being hidden, if she wasn't going to have any more. I helped put lights on our tree. Then I drove back to Provo. I showed my roommate Scott my blue poinsettia, and I said if we had red and white poinsettias, it would make Fourth of July poinsettias. He said you couldn't mix holidays like that. I started some laundry, and Scott asked me why I didn't do my laundry when I was at home. I think I told him that I had done some of it. He went out and got a live Christmas tree and set it up with a friend while listening to Christmas music, including Debra Fotheringham's "With Wondering Awe." I think he popped popcorn and had a friend string it. I had things I had to do--maybe homework. I listened to samples of the Duck Dynasty Christmas album and texted Peter to tell him I thought it was entertainingly bad. He asked if I was going to add it to my playlist; I said no because I didn't watch Duck Dynasty. I think I was listening to my own Christmas music. This was back when Scott was still a decent person and would talk to us.