Christmas week in review
Lisa writes:
Sunday, Dec. 23
Jenny Oaks Baker performed "Ave Maria" in Sacrament meeting.
Monday, Dec. 24
Midnight Mass at Holy Spirit. Full house. We ended up sitting in the section with the strangely low ceiling, weird tinny speakers, and pew buddies who refused to sing. I think it was past their bedtimes.
Tuesday, Dec. 25
CHRISTMAS! Went to Mass again, this time with Tom's mom. St. Luke's this time, with the teensy kid Nativity scene (with the very reluctant Jesus and the attention deficient 3-year old shepherd). It was great. Back to the house to open gifts. I got some fantastic new shoes and Tom got a fun new camera.
Wednesday, Dec. 26
"Mary Poppins" arrived via Netflix. Tom discovered Julie Andrews is "a total hottie."
Thursday, Dec. 27
Flew to Salt Lake City. Guy at the airport had his guitar. Delayed flight stress cancelled out by excellent Christmas music. Got an exit room for one of the flights. Got a free upgrade on our rental car in Salt Lake.
Staying at timeshare next to Conference Center (aka The Mega-nacle). Due to the large number of us (15) and the time of year (New Years Eve) my mom had to wheedle and connive enough rooms for us, which means we're all having to move from one room to another at least once during the week. This is an intricate and complicated operation which required the creation of The Chart. My dad is Creator and Keeper of the The Chart. If we loose this piece of paper, we're doomed.
Friday, Dec. 28
Toured Welfare Square and bought myself a fantastic hat at Deseret Industry for 50 cents (video), dinner at the Joseph Smith Building Garden Room, watched from the 10th floor as one groom and bride after another posed on the steps on the East side of the Temple. A volunteer that we talked to said there were 64 weddings that day and 50 the day before. After lunch, we sent Mom and Dad back to the hotel (Mom has a cold) and walked around Temple Square looking at the lights (video). Now, this was our first year as homeowners to put up outside Christmas lights. It was a lot of work. I cannot imagine the manpower that must go into stringing the gazillions of bulbs on all of these trees. And then the even more tedious job of unstringing them. I think I'd be tempted to just unplug everything and get a pair of pinking shears to cut 'em all loose.
Saturday, Dec. 29
Breakfast with Heidi and Co. (video) followed by lunch with parents at Lion House. We went there because a section of Dad's extended family was having their annual Christmas lunch there. Met with many cousins whose names I can't remember. Also met up with former college roommate Heather who was passing through on her way to Wayne county. Happily received her gift of homemade caramels and toffee and have been scrupulous about brushing my teeth ever since. Another sister arrived with her family in tow and we dragged them on tours of the Conference Center, church history museum, and Temple Square again before Tom and I headed off to Saturday night Mass at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. This is a spectacular old (1917) building just two blocks from the Temple. The Presbyterians have a nearly-as-impressive building right next door. The Masons have a big white stone temple (with sphinxes out front!) a couple of blocks further down the road, and we also drove by the Utah Muslim Society this morning. Oh, one fun thing about Mass: Catholics typically have picked up the habit of walking out of Mass during the last hymn. The Priest processes out then, and many people break rank and follow him out the door rather than finishing up the song. The Salt Lake diocese has caught on to that trick and now has everybody sing the last song BEFORE the closing remarks and final prayer. Clever. (free bonus: see video of Benjamin and the kids greeting us)
Tom adds: Sun Dec 30 - Mon Dec 31
I have observed elsewhere that organizing Lisa's family is not unlike herding cats. But somehow at least some of us got organized and Lisa and I joined the Parsons for a trip to Logan (video). We had lots of fun playing cards, Monopoly, sledding, and practicing tai chi as a group. Lisa and I also got to hang out in the primary classes at the LDS church right across the street from where the Parsons live. We took full advantage of doing choreographed dancing to the "Hello" song that the kids sang us, much to the amusement - or perhaps embarrassment - of some of the nieces. During the trip, the challenge, however, was to avoid getting sick. Taylor started things out with a nice cold, and then kindly shared it with Tim and then Christian. Fortunately, the Christmas spirit of giving stopped there, and nobody else got sick. Hooray! Then back to Salt Lake City (where we got to spend some more time at the cathedral for a special Catholic Mass - because you can never spend too much time at church!) for a some of the First Night activities and stumbling to bed before a early flight home.
Sunday, Dec. 23
Jenny Oaks Baker performed "Ave Maria" in Sacrament meeting.
Monday, Dec. 24
Midnight Mass at Holy Spirit. Full house. We ended up sitting in the section with the strangely low ceiling, weird tinny speakers, and pew buddies who refused to sing. I think it was past their bedtimes.
Tuesday, Dec. 25CHRISTMAS! Went to Mass again, this time with Tom's mom. St. Luke's this time, with the teensy kid Nativity scene (with the very reluctant Jesus and the attention deficient 3-year old shepherd). It was great. Back to the house to open gifts. I got some fantastic new shoes and Tom got a fun new camera.
Wednesday, Dec. 26
"Mary Poppins" arrived via Netflix. Tom discovered Julie Andrews is "a total hottie."
Thursday, Dec. 27
Flew to Salt Lake City. Guy at the airport had his guitar. Delayed flight stress cancelled out by excellent Christmas music. Got an exit room for one of the flights. Got a free upgrade on our rental car in Salt Lake.
Staying at timeshare next to Conference Center (aka The Mega-nacle). Due to the large number of us (15) and the time of year (New Years Eve) my mom had to wheedle and connive enough rooms for us, which means we're all having to move from one room to another at least once during the week. This is an intricate and complicated operation which required the creation of The Chart. My dad is Creator and Keeper of the The Chart. If we loose this piece of paper, we're doomed.
Friday, Dec. 28
Toured Welfare Square and bought myself a fantastic hat at Deseret Industry for 50 cents (video), dinner at the Joseph Smith Building Garden Room, watched from the 10th floor as one groom and bride after another posed on the steps on the East side of the Temple. A volunteer that we talked to said there were 64 weddings that day and 50 the day before. After lunch, we sent Mom and Dad back to the hotel (Mom has a cold) and walked around Temple Square looking at the lights (video). Now, this was our first year as homeowners to put up outside Christmas lights. It was a lot of work. I cannot imagine the manpower that must go into stringing the gazillions of bulbs on all of these trees. And then the even more tedious job of unstringing them. I think I'd be tempted to just unplug everything and get a pair of pinking shears to cut 'em all loose.Saturday, Dec. 29
Breakfast with Heidi and Co. (video) followed by lunch with parents at Lion House. We went there because a section of Dad's extended family was having their annual Christmas lunch there. Met with many cousins whose names I can't remember. Also met up with former college roommate Heather who was passing through on her way to Wayne county. Happily received her gift of homemade caramels and toffee and have been scrupulous about brushing my teeth ever since. Another sister arrived with her family in tow and we dragged them on tours of the Conference Center, church history museum, and Temple Square again before Tom and I headed off to Saturday night Mass at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. This is a spectacular old (1917) building just two blocks from the Temple. The Presbyterians have a nearly-as-impressive building right next door. The Masons have a big white stone temple (with sphinxes out front!) a couple of blocks further down the road, and we also drove by the Utah Muslim Society this morning. Oh, one fun thing about Mass: Catholics typically have picked up the habit of walking out of Mass during the last hymn. The Priest processes out then, and many people break rank and follow him out the door rather than finishing up the song. The Salt Lake diocese has caught on to that trick and now has everybody sing the last song BEFORE the closing remarks and final prayer. Clever. (free bonus: see video of Benjamin and the kids greeting us)
Tom adds: Sun Dec 30 - Mon Dec 31
I have observed elsewhere that organizing Lisa's family is not unlike herding cats. But somehow at least some of us got organized and Lisa and I joined the Parsons for a trip to Logan (video). We had lots of fun playing cards, Monopoly, sledding, and practicing tai chi as a group. Lisa and I also got to hang out in the primary classes at the LDS church right across the street from where the Parsons live. We took full advantage of doing choreographed dancing to the "Hello" song that the kids sang us, much to the amusement - or perhaps embarrassment - of some of the nieces. During the trip, the challenge, however, was to avoid getting sick. Taylor started things out with a nice cold, and then kindly shared it with Tim and then Christian. Fortunately, the Christmas spirit of giving stopped there, and nobody else got sick. Hooray! Then back to Salt Lake City (where we got to spend some more time at the cathedral for a special Catholic Mass - because you can never spend too much time at church!) for a some of the First Night activities and stumbling to bed before a early flight home.
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