Halloween 2025

Halloween, objectively one of the best holidays of the year, rolled around in October, like it is always wont to do. We enjoyed ourselves a great deal.

Our first taste of the holiday came during Plowman family dinner on Sunday, October 26, for which we congregated up at Mike's and Queenie's home in Layton. As always, Queenie (aka Jana 1) had the house (and grounds) all decked out with myriad Harry Potter knickknacks and other pretty cool Halloween things.

Yes, I should have snapped more pics. Their house always blows me away each October with so many creative things that have been crafted and displayed.

Many of the niblings showed up with their costumes in tow. We had a smattering of the following (about half of which I cannot identify, as I am now officially Old, with a capital O):

Naturally, we can't get together during a month with so many family birthdays—including yours truly, Kyra, Queenie, Steve, Ike, and Ben—without playing "Pass the Parcel."

Three-year-old Lighting McQueen (Sam) was the winner!

We also had birthday cake, for which 17-year-old Kyra and eight-year-old Ike did the honor of blowing out the candles.

Well ... cupcakes, shmupcakes. Whatever.

Fast forward to Friday, October 31, for which we celebrated ... get ready for it ... Halloween night! As we did the previous year, JB and I set up a trick-or-treat station outside the front of our house to greet several dozen of our neighbor kids. My favorite costumes were the two kids who dressed up as Harry and Lloyd in the pale blue and bright orange tuxedos from Dumb and Dumber, accompanied by another kid portraying the Monopoly man, monocle included.

As for me, I dressed up as TuPac-O, a mashup of Paco and iconic rapper Tupac (... get it?). My fellow Improvables actor/musician Willis gave me that nickname years ago, so I finally ran with that idea and turned it into an actual costume this year:

JB accompanied me as her cute, Halloween-Muggle self and sat with the puppies as we greeted our trick-or-treaters.

To start with, we passed out bags of microwaveable popcorn. Once that supply had been exhausted, we went with a mix of sweet candy (licorice and Jolly Ranchers) and chocolate bars.

Once that was done, there was still more Halloween left to celebrate. Stay tuned to find out what TuPac-O, the whitest white rapper in history, and the Improvables did later that night.

50

In spite of my best efforts, I had another birthday on Friday. This one was a pretty big number and something of a milestone for me. All I can say is that it was one more than 49 and one fewer than 51.

I don't know how I got here. Where has the time gone? Emotionally, I feel like I'm about half that age at best; meanwhile, my body feels like it is 20 or 30 years older than that.

Anyhow, JB spoiled me rotten. She took me out to lunch at Penny Ann's Cafe in Bountiful, one of our favorite new local restaurants, where we always seem to get breakfast food, no matter the time of day. Apparently, if you tell your server that it's your birthday, they will bring you a free scone to accompany your meal.

JB also took painstaking time and effort to collect recorded video birthday greetings from family members, a few close friends (Pepe and Darren), and myriad members of the Improvables. It was very well put together and was very touching. I'm truly blessed to have wonderful people in my life.

Finally, many of the same people from that video congregated at our house that evening for karaoke, featuring also pumpkin cheesecake, chips, and other snacks.

At one break in the action, I caught Danny taking the pumpkins only from JB's bowl of candy corn treats. (The thing is, I also do this.)

The partygoers picked out "Weird Al" Yankovic's "One More Minute" for me to sing. I accepted. Ben, Steve, and I collaborated on Mr. Big's "To Be with You." Many of the niblings got in on the act, and I even convinced JB to sing "That Thing You Do!", which is of course the title track of one of our favorite movies.

We ended the evening by watching BYU play West Virginia in college football. The Cougars beat the Moutaineers, 38-24.

Christmas 2024 (and Beyond), Part 2

The family festivities continued with the Plowman side on Thursday, December 19, when we hosted Steve's and Summer's clan at our house for a holiday dessert night. The kids enjoyed baking and making treats with JB.

I aided the cause by watching the Broncos game on TV nearby.

As we are wont to do, the rest of the family joined with us for Christmas dinner at Biz's and Jeff's home in West Bountiful on Christmas Eve. The fixings included Dutch oven mac and cheese, meatballs, chili, veggies, and other fun stuff. Biz also came up with and led most of the games, including movie trivia and a scavenger hunt for the kids.

Our annual Christmas pageant followed, including narration of chapter 2 of the gospel of Luke by Dad (the audio recording that keeps on giving, year after year). Sadie played Mary, Ike was one of the cattle, and so forth.

Next came to the gift exchange: niblings giving gifts to their cousins, and siblings giving gifts to siblings. Always my favorite part is seeing the glee on the kids' faces as this process enfolds, both in the giving and the getting.

As for JB and myself, we especially loved the socks Biz and Jeff (and kids) gifted us that featured our two pups' faces printed on them:

We behaved mostly pretty well this year, and therefore Santa did visit our home. We got even more stocking stuffers, and I got ... more socks! Some of the best socks I've ever been given, in fact. JB gets me the coolest things.

I'm also quite fond of my new Spatula City t-shirt:

Later in the week, JB and I joined Steve and Summer and kids (now practically our next door neighbors here in North Salt Lake) to watch BYU play Colorado in the Alamo Bowl, a game that the Cougars won decisively by a score of 36-14. Some of the best entertainment of the night, however, came from two-year-old Sam, who played Peek-a-boo with us:

And so, that's how we celebrated the holidays. In a matter of hours after I type this, 2025 will be upon us. Stay tuned for whatever the new year might bring.

Not-pictured-but-still-memorable events from this Christmas season: Our ward's Christmas program featured no speakers and just music, music, music. New neighbors as well as old friends brought over candy and other treats. Getting to know the new ministering families via chocolate oranges. And so much more!

Halloween 2024

This year's Halloween season came and went for us in a blink of an eye. JB has been working hard not only at her job but everything else she does lately, and I've been recovering from a lingering infection. My wife isn't a huge fan of Halloween festivities. However, when I can convince her to dress up or go to any kind of Halloween event with me, I consider it a huge win.

On Halloween night this year, we placed camp chairs on our driveway and passed out candy to the many neighbors and friends who stopped by. Among them were Summer and her kids (four of our niblings).

Four-year-old Sadie was dressed up as Spider-Man (Girl?), while two-year-old Sam wore a Dalmatian costume:

We might be a bit biased, but they were the four cutest Trick-or-Treaters we saw all night.

Mad props also go out to the three girls we saw, one of whom was dressed up like Lightning McQueen from Cars, while the other two were traffic cones. Easily the most creative costumes we saw.

Improvables: Fifteenth Anniversary Show

Biz, Brianne, Ian, Ryan, and Steve returned to the stage Friday night for the annual Improvables reunion show. Crazy to think that we started this thing almost 16 years ago. Keenan, Parker, and I joined them for this performance, along with MC Scott and Willis on keys.

Among the many games we played were "Late for Work," "Town Hall," "Film Noir," "World's Worst," "Story Genres," "Novelist," "Musical Understudy," and "Don't Make Me Heckle." We also included another favorite of mine, "Marshmallows," which we played on this night as "Peeps" (with Valentine's Day candy clearance providing the marshmallows).

I am kind of fond of these people—and not just the two I am related to. Together, we have undertaken the greatest creative experience of my life, through hundreds of shows over the years. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to work with.

Halloween 2023

Halloween! What a wonderful holiday, and one of my three favorite holidays of the year. (The other two are just around the corner now.)

JB and I ended up being a bit on the "Halloween Scrooge" side on the actual day of October 31 this year. We were out of toilet paper and eggs, so we couldn't vandalize our neighbors. We did, however, leave a bowl full of candy on the porch for trick-or-treaters—we're not maniacs, after all.

In the meantime, we stayed downstairs to watch a Halloween favorite, the 1985 cult comedy Clue (in case you were wondering). We ended up having a whopping total of four groups of trick-or-treaters come by. We were able to keep track of that number thanks to our new doorbell camera. Presumably, most of our neighbor kids got their trick-or-treating done at the Trunk-or-Treat the previous Friday.

We did dress up the kids, however, and chose a Star Wars theme. Because nerds. Leia became, well ... Princess Leia, while Wynnie (Eowyn) became Chewbacca:

It took a number of puppy treats to get even these few pics.

Trunk-or-Treat 2023

We had a heckuva great Halloween this year. It began for us last week on Friday, October 27, with our ward's annual Trunk-or-Treat activity. I dressed up as Fat Thor, aka Thor as he appears in the fourth Avengers movie, Endgame. JB chipped in by decorating our car's trunk for the occasion.

First, dinner was served in the cultural hall. There were a number of delicious soups and chilis to choose from, as well as homemade root beer and water to drink. The Primary kids also put on a costume parade on the stage.

The actual trunk-or-treating part was a blast, with a number of neighborhood kids (members of our church along with non-members) stopping by to pick up candy.

Among the other costumes worn was our Bishop's "Fishers of Men" ensemble:

I love it when a ward goes all out for things like this, and ours is no exception.

Trunk-or-Treat 2022

On Saturday, our ward held its annual Trunk-or-Treat activity at our meetinghouse. This year, it was combined with a chili (and soup) cookoff, as well as a costume contest for the kids and pumpkin carving/painting contest for everyone.

The chilis were delectable; I faced a hard choice as one of those asked to judge the winners. That meant tasting every chili entry, a task which produced certain, umm ... odors. But that's just the dependable guy I am! The kids' costumes were, likewise, tough to pick winners from. But we made the best decisions we could.

The Trunk-or-Treat portion itself out in the parking lot was a big hit and was very well attended from ward members and neighbors. Once again, I dressed up as Dwight Schrute from the TV show "The Office." JB was good enough to decorate our car with Dunder Mifflin stuff to go along with it. We passed out Snickers, 100 Grand, Milky Way---strictly the good stuff.

Trunk-or-Treat 2021

This year's ward trunk-or-treat for Halloween, our first one in two years, was held Saturday afternoon in the parking lot outside of our meetinghouse. The bishopric cooked up and served hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone while we passed out candy to the kids.

JB decorated our trunk to look like it was a mouth. I dressed up in my Blue Shirt Guy costume, inspired by the movie Free Guy. This was somehow appropriate, as we were in the parking spot next to the White Shirt Guys, aka our missionaries. It was an enjoyable afternoon spent with the good people of the Stone Creek Ward.

Trunk-or-Treat

Earlier tonight, we took part in our ward's Trunk-or-Treat activity. The evening began with catered dinner in the gym, along with a few "Minute to Win It" activities.

After this, we went outside to pass out candy to the kids. (There aren't that many kids in our ward, so this didn't take very long.)

I still need to work out a few kinks with my Tanooki Mario costume (which is obviously missing the tail in the photo here). Consider this a rough draft for now. But I think I'll be good to go by next weekend for the festivities we have planned to attend.

Who knows? I may even convince JB to dress up again this year at some point in the process. (We could get lucky!)

Death, Taxes, and Other Sure Things

I recently gave a talk in church. The occasion, in case you hadn't guessed from my recent posts, was Dad's funeral. Here is what I spoke about:

There is an old saying that the only sureties in life are death and taxes. Well, Dad passed away April 15.

Dad had a great sense of humor. But in all seriousness, and in the few minutes I have today, I'd like to talk about some of the most important things he gave me (besides nearsightedness and the bald spot):

1) Time. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught: "In family relationships, love is really spelled T-I-M-E." Dad gave us his time, and he was thoroughly invested in our lives. Whether it was yelling from the sidelines as a coach or just an anxious parent, he was there at our basketball and soccer games and hardly ever missed one. He supported us in our hobbies and interests. We knew he cared, and his love language was the time he gave.

2) Work. Dad taught us to work. The plowboy who grew up on a farm in Smithfield and learned the value of an honest day's labor taught his children that you don't get something for nothing and you have to work for it. We were given an allowance, but we had to do our chores (weeding, mowing the lawn, etc.) to earn it. For years, we had a paper route, waking up at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. even on school days and holidays, and he worked right alongside us, never taking a cent for himself. Those lessons carried me through part-time jobs in high school and college and into the present.

3) He taught me five simple words that stand out: excuse me, please, and thank you. I vividly remember him teaching me to use these words when I was growing up. Good manners were and are important. Knowing and using these words have helped me open countless doors in my daily interactions with people and my work experience.

Though Dad passed on a Saturday night, as a family we left the hospital when it was already Sunday morning. Easter Sunday! The timing of it all, we think, was not a coincidence. And the most important message in the world is still, as the Prophet Joseph Smith described, that Jesus Christ "died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it."

In a world rife with "fake news," rumors of wars, fads that come and go, the philosophies of men, and other false Christs the prophets saw would be abundant in our day, my knowledge of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is, in addition to death and taxes, the third sure thing in my life; and not only do I believe it, but I also know it through the Holy Spirit.

In the New Testament, Paul said that "this thing (the gospel) was not done in a corner" (Acts 26:26), and Peter spoke of the world's "cunningly devised fables" (2 Peter 1:16). Elder Jeffrey R. Holland recently spoke on "cunningly devised fables" in his Face 2 Face event:

"This is not a cunningly devised fable. This is God's truth. I want all of you here and afar to know that I know that this is the work and kingdom of God on earth. I am more certain of that than anything I know, anything I have seen, anything I have ever heard, and anything I hope to embrace in the future."

Today, I echo what he taught. When we talk of the concepts of resurrection and eternal families, not only are these good or neat ideas; I testify that they are true! And that knowledge carries me at this time and will carry me in future days.

In an all-wise, all-loving Heavenly Father's magnificent plan, there is so much more in store for us than wearing halos and playing harps in heaven! He has so much more in store for us, and it is beautiful and wonderful to think of. Death is a necessary part of that plan. Though we mourn today, we also rejoice.

Paul said: "For now we see through a glass, darkly" (1 Corinthians 13:12). I know that Dad now sees clearly. I take great hope in the knowledge that he is reunited with his parents, my Uncle Dexter, and other loved ones who have gone on before.

Dad was sick for a long time. Some of his thorns in the flesh he carried for all of his life on Earth. He is now free of them. I don't know why Dad had to suffer through those nor the illness that ultimately claimed his mortal life. (How can any of us know for sure why these things happen while "we see through a glass, darkly"?)

Neverthless, like Nephi, though "I do not know the meaning of all things," "I know that he (God) loveth his children." I know that (1) our Heavenly Father loved Dad and (2) Dad loved his children and his grandchildren.

I testify of the importance of the gift of the Holy Ghost. His presence has been so important to me over the past week. When we got the call that Dad had been taken to the hospital, I felt urgency to get there, and yet I also felt peace. I feel at peace today. The Spirit, also known as the Comforter, has comforted when I have been sad, and He has given me also joy in the knowledge of these things, of which I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Tangled Up in the Blinds

"To judge from the covers of countless women's magazines, the two topics most interesting to women are (1) Why men are all disgusting pigs, and (2) How to attract men."
 -Dave Barry

Yesterday was Fathers Day. Perhaps you noticed?

This made for an interesting Sunday block on the Island of Misfit Toys, in which the men (at least in my elders quorum) were treated to handfulls of candy. Which is all we really could want on such a day.

In addition, I really appreciated the closing prayer offered in sacrament meeting, in which the plea was expressed that on Fathers Day (and throughout the year) our Father above might bless the single men of the ward; those who are already fathers (we do have some) to be good fathers to their children, as well as those singles who are seeking to become fathers, that their righteous desires might be granted in His due time.

There is, unfortunately, a stereotype floating around out there that men are clueless, incompetent nincompoops who are obsessed with trivial, inane things and don't really care about the important things in life. I promise you, in case this comes as news, that such a stereotype exists.

I call this the "tangled up in the blinds" idea, in reference to a comedy bit by Brian Regan about the cliché moronic husband often portrayed on national TV in commercials (and elsewhere). The product being promoted is cold cereal or soap or something of that sort, and it begins with a woman talking about said product and how it helps out her family. Meanwhile, her idiotic husband it "tangled up in the blinds" behind her because he's just not smart enough to know any better.

Don't get me wrong; Regan's comedic piece is very funny (he's the best currently in the business IMHO), and I have a pretty darn good sense of humor myself and can take a good deal of ribbing that's done all in fun. But sometimes I feel like it goes beyond a little bit; that what's harmless to one is hurtful to another. And believe me, it does affect many of us in a negative way in some shape or form. We see this stereotype perpetuated, and it is not necessarily a boon to our individual self-confidence.

Getting back to that closing prayer: So very many of us do long to become fathers, just as the women we worship with desire motherhood. The results of those efforts are varied, but for the most part we're doing the best we know how to do in order to obtain that great blessing in the right and proper way. Unfortunately, it's taking us a bit longer than it has for many of our peers.

I feel this is an especially important reminder in a society that increasingly teaches and accepts the false concept that women do not even need a man around (ideally, a husband) to help raise their children and/or that "alternative" families in which fathers are actually an option and not a requirement are a reasonable concept.


I recently read Elder M. Russell Ballard's new book, in which he taught:

"To belittle or ridicule someone who has traits that you view as peculiar or to speak in a demeaning manner of members of the opposite sex is offensive to God."

This goes for us all, single men and women. In addition to this habit being offensive to God, here's the other problem with it: It is not attractive. Complaining about how horrible and stupid men/women are, respectively, is not going to attract a spouse. At least, I've not seen it work once.

And yes, before I get a bunch of angry comments, I realize and say again that it goes both ways; that there are a number of negative stereotypes about women, as well, and men who view women unfavorably, and I denounce this, too.

Anyway, that's about all on Paco's mind tonight. Let's all be a little bit nicer to each other and try to see potential mates through our Heavenly Father's eyes. And maybe not bemoan the fact that all of the men in your dating pool fail to compare to the likes of Channing Tatum (perhaps a post for another day there, too).

And now, I need to get my pant leg free from the extension cord.

Family Dinner/April 2016

I'm a few days late in posting this (heh heh), but anyway at April's family dinner, we celebrated Graham's birth (April 1), Jenna's 13th birthday (April 2), and Jackson's eighth birthday (April 4).

With the family as big as it is these days, the "Pass the Parcel" tradition continues, but now it's only for the grandkids. Because buying all of that candy and chocolate is beginning to break the grandparents' bank. So to speak.