Christmas 2021

On Christmas Eve, the Plowbuckles met up with Mom and all of my siblings' families for family dinner in West Bountiful. After enjoying a meal featuring ham, chicken, mashed potatoes, and a number of other holiday goodies, we listened to Dad narrate the Christmas story, as told in Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke—still one of our most prized possessions. Meanwhile, the niblings acted as Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and the animals in the manger, and we also sang a number of Christmas hymns found in the Church hymnal.

Once that had concluded, the 15 niblings (on my side) exchanged gifts with each other. This is a still-relatively new tradition for us, and we are loving it so far. It does my heart good to see the love these kids have for their cousins and the hugs and smiles that were exchanged throughout the evening. Their cousins are also among their very best friends. They got to open their gifts from Grandma, too.

Kate was very grateful to have received her Princess Tiana doll:

Then, my siblings and I also exchanged gifts; we do this part couple by couple. Steve and Summer got us some very thoughtful things, including this sign, which we will be hanging up in one of our bathrooms:

I guess it kinda speaks for itself.

After spending Christmas morning together and with Leia, the three of us trekked out to Grantsville to spend the bulk of the afternoon on Christmas Day with JB's parents and two of her siblings' families. We enjoyed a baked potato bar and tacos, and a number of those attending played board games while the rest of us talked or took naps.

Wherever you were, whomever you were with, my family and friends, I hope that your Christmas this year was both joyful and triumphant.

Improvables: Thirteenth Annual Christmas Show

Friday was a busy day for the Improvables. At noon, a group of us—Jamie, Kelley, Matt, Richard, and Ricky, with yours truly as MC—put on a lunchtime remote show for the good people of Overstock.com at their SLC headquarters in Midvale. The audience physically seated in the auditorium there never got larger than eight or nine people, because the vast majority were watching from home. For this reason, we each had to carry a mic throughout the performance so those watching remotely could hear us. This presented an unprecedented challenge for us, but it was one that our actors rose to meet, and they put on a great performance.

Then, later that evening, it was our annual Christmas show—our thirteenth annual!—at BDAC. The tacky (ugly) Christmas sweaters were abundant, and Chance, Jamie, Keenan, Megan, Parker, Tanner, and MC Ricky delivered another great evening. I participated by running the sound and music via Bluetooth in the audience (and it was fun to kick back for once and enjoy a show together with JB).

Well, that wraps it up for the year 2021! We now move into our annual winter break, with the next few Fridays off. Becoming a small business owner this year was something I never would have expected,  well, ever, but it has been very rewarding. Plus, my co-owner is my favorite person in the world, and I'm glad we are going on this adventure together.

The Santa Parade

How do you hold a ward Christmas party during a pandemic? The answer, apparently, is by organizing a Christmas parade.

For the second year in a row, Santa Claus and his elves drove right outside our house Wednesday night. Christmas songs were blasting over the speakers as a caravan also took him and Mrs. Claus to the other neighborhoods in our ward. Bishop Gough and the young men and women followed along, passing out gift and goodie bags to everyone (not just ward members).

 Yes, Virginia, Santa came to our house this year.

Arbuckle Family Dinner/December 2021

Sunday's monthly family dinner in Grantsville also marked the ninth and final day of our family Reindeer Games competition.

What do you mean by Reindeer Games? you ask? Over the course of nine days (one day/game for each of Santa's reindeer), my sister-in-law Alice challenged us all to various competitions of skill, in the spirit of the "Minute to Win It" TV show. For example, we had to flip a water bottle off of a basketball and catch the bottle before it hit the ground, as many times as possible within a minute. Or we also tried, in teams (families), to construct the largest tower of toilet paper rolls that would stand for at least 15 seconds before collapsing. We both participated and watched each other's efforts over numerous Marco Polo videos.

On Sunday, for our final game, we divided up into four teams for the final event: the Reindeer Race. For this contest, we had to dress up a chosen runner for each team in an outfit that looked like this (Tatum, our featured runner, here demonstrates):

After the costume was ready, the runner then had to go out into the very cold night and complete a full lap around the circle, all the while saying ho ho ho repeatedly.

This is what it looked like, with Tatum followed closely by Olivia in second place:

Tatum and our team eked out the win. After this game finished, Alice presented awards to all of the winners of the other eight days of games (I came close in two of them but didn't win any) and gave reindeer crowns to all of the participants. Steve also gave Alice a bouquet of roses as a thank you from all of us for putting together the Reindeer Games.

Here is everyone with their reindeer crowns:

It looks like the First Annual Reindeer Games was a big success! JB and I sure had a great time. There was a lot of talk about holding a Second Annual Reindeer Games next year.

As for family dinner, we had that, too. The menu included ham, roasted potatoes, rolls, and chocolate cheesecake for dessert.

Improvables: Christmas Party 2021

The Improvables' annual Christmas party took place Wednesday night. It was good to be able to meet up in person this year with our ugly sweaters in plain sight after having had to use Zoom to meet up in 2020 (just like many other social events, but I don't need to tell you that; you remember those days). The snacks were plentiful and included delicious pizza, chips, churros, meatballs, and other goodies.

I made out like a bandit (I guess?) in the white elephant gift exchange, walking away with this very unique coloring book:

(JB and I agreed we wouldn't be adding this coloring book to our cache of coloring books for when the niblings come over to visit.) Speaking of whom, JB was the envy of many '90s kids when she ended up with this Tamagotchi:

Plowman Family Dinner/November 2021

On Sunday, we gathered at Steve's and Summer's home in North Salt Lake for monthly family dinner and also what essentially was our third Thanksgiving of the month. (Family dinner with JB's clan two weeks before and then Thanksgiving Day with her parents in Grantsville were the other two.)

The turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pies, and all the other fixings were delicious, and the company was also wonderful.

Nineteen-month-old Sadie seems to keep growing a few inches every new time we see her:

Dallin also remains a favorite playmate of his younger cousins: