Christmas 2025

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year were both wonderful for the Plowbuckles! We are grateful to have spent time with family members on both sides.

On Christmas Eve, we joined with most of the rest of the Plowmans (and Woods) over at Biz's and Jeff's home in West Bountiful for family dinner. The only ones not present were Dallin, Eliza, and ... ta-da! ... new baby Levi Brent, born on Tuesday, December 23. (Sharing your birthday with Joseph Smith is a pretty great thing!)

Our dinner included ham, mac and cheese, a crackers and cheese plate, salad, fruit, and veggies, and everything was delicious.

Ten-year-old Danny was anxious to show off a newfound skill: solving a Rubik's cube. (I was anxious to see him do it, because it's something I haven't yet learned how to do. And I lived through the 1980s.)

Games played included the Cup Game (not sure what else to call it; it's a bit of "Simon Says" mixed with having good reflexes) and this Tic-Tac-Toe game, also involving cups:

After dinner, the kids dressed up for our annual Christmas pageant, including narration-from-beyond by both Dad and Mom and the singing of various Christmas hymns:

Following that, we proceeded on to the opening of Christmas gifts between siblings and cousins. The way this works is that the Mike and Jana, JB and I, Dave and Jessica, Ben and Adi, Steve and Summer, and Biz and Jeff each give a gift to one of the other couples, while the niblings draw a name and each give each other a present. Jeff and Biz gave us a Megaplex gift card, which we will make sure is put to good use.

The cousin exchange is the highlight of my night. I love to observe these kids giving each other something truly meaningful—often something they have worked and saved for themselves, through allowances or chores—and to see the hugs that follow.

Seventeen-year-old Jackson walked away with this knife:

On Christmas morning, JB and I awoke to find that Santa Claus had visited us and filled our stockings with numerous chocolates and candies. My wife was, once again, incredibly generous with the presents she gave me. I got an electric toothbrush (my dentist recently recommended I get one), a Utah Mammoth t-shirt, a Salt Lake Bees cap, and a few books off my want-to-read list. My good friend Pepe also got me a few more of those books.

After breakfasting, we hopped in JB's car and drove out to Grantsville to spend time with her parents at their home. While we were there, Nicole & Spencer and Danielle & Tyson and kids stopped by, as well. We enjoyed ham, pasta salad, baked potatoes, and rolls, and we also contributed a Peruvian paneton to the meal.

JB's mom gave a thumbs-up on the dessert.

Our Day Out with Danny & Tanner 2025, Part 1

On Thursday, May 1, it was nine-year-old Danny's and seven-year-old Tanner's turn for a birthday outing with their Fun Aunt and Uncle. They chose mini golf at Boondock's in Kaysville. We were more than happy to take them.

Apparently, per their parents, both boys had previously gotten well versed in mini golf on a recent cruise that their family went on. It was obvious from their putting around the course that they had learned a lot about the game. Even so, we didn't keep score and mainly played to have fun.

Following mini golf, we then took Danny and Tanner to Handel's for ice cream. This was a new experience for them, as they'd not previously been to this establishment before; but I think we made them Handel's fans.

On our drive to both places and back, the boys kept us entertained by explaining everything about a fictional world they have created. Whether this is world is meant for a comic book or video game or something else entirely, I wouldn't even know where to start to go into the details of it, because my brain exploded listening to them describe it. 

Weekend at Bear Lake 2024

Last weekend featured the annual family trip up to beautiful Bear Lake, along the Utah/Idaho border. It was good to get away for a few days and to enjoy some 15-to-20-degree cooler temperatures to escape another long, hot summer, to boot.

A house filled with 26 of us running around was sometimes-chaotic, but it was  never boring. We had the Summer Olympic Games from Paris keeping us glued to the TV much of the time. There were card and board games frequently taking place. Some of us also spent some time at the beach ... go figure. (When in Garden City. ...)

Like last year's trip, "Jack Box" games kept us entertained on more than one night. (I'm not sure who drew the cartoon of Donald Trump on this T-shirt during "Tee K-O," but it amazed us all.)

Vacation time always means more time with the nieces and nephews, and Fun Aunt and Uncle were there for it. The nieces especially love JB.

I need to brag a bit more here about JB, because she captured this phenomenal sunset on one of our nights up at the lake:

My siblings and I took turns providing the meals for everyone. JB and I (let's be honest, she does most of the work, like always; my job is standing in front of whichever cabinet or drawer she currently needs access to) provided the ingredients for tacos and taco salads. We also had pizza, sandwiches, pasta, and assorted breakfast items.

This was our first annual trip without Mom. We felt her absence. But we also know she was with us in spirit and would've wanted the family fun times to continue.

Plowman Family Dinner/June 2024

One of the many benefits to moving to our new home in North Salt Lake is that we can now (gasp!) host family dinners, as we now have the room for our ever-growing Plowman clan. (Dallin's and Eliza's wedding is coming up in August, by the way.) Leaving our old HOA behind means we have actual parking space close by outside, too. And it doesn't hurt that there is a city park next door, which is always a big draw for the littles in the group.

Sloppy Joes were on the menu, along with chips, fruit, veggies, pasta salad, and other goodies. The kids participated in "Pass the Parcel" and had a blast, as always. Everyone is a winner!

We also celebrated our June birthdays, including Adi's and McKenna's 21st.

Christmas 2023, Part 2

On Christmas Eve, we gathered for Plowman family dinner at Biz's and Jeff's home in West Bountiful. We had all the fixings for a Christmas dinner, including ham, candied yams, funeral potatoes, charcuterie, meatballs, and other goodies.

Dinner was followed by our annual Christmas story pageant. The niblings enthusiastically dressed up as shepherds, wise men, angels, stable animals, and of course Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. In fact, six-year-old Tanner got a little too into the part of playing the baby, seen here resting (and cooing?) in the lap of his three-year-old sister Sadie, who portrayed Mary:

As always, the kids had a wonderful time taking part. As part of the pageant, we continued the family tradition of listening to Dad's recording of the Christmas story as found in chapter of the gospel of St. Luke.

Perhaps we began a new tradition by also playing a recording of Mom reading The Monster at the End of This Book, a family favorite since my siblings and I were very young, while Biz turned the pages in the story. We collectively felt her loss rather acutely during this holiday season and on this particular night, too, but I think this moment helped many of us to feel she wasn't really that far away from us.

In fact, it gives me a great deal of comfort to think that if she weren't already one of the angels who sang at the birth of the Christ child 2,000+ years ago that she is one of those angels singing His praises now.

Next came the exchanging of gifts. The niblings drew names from a hat to purchase gifts for each other, while my siblings and I did the same for each couple in the family. This way, everybody got to open at least one thing. Sadie was especially grateful for and protective of her Frozen action figure set:

Then followed a few family games, including a new one, "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Cup," that Biz borrowed from the Johnson Files, one of our favorite Instagram accounts. You had to be there to grasp what exactly this involved—but it was fun for all who played.

Christmas Day was, well, a rather lazy day at our house. Santa Claus came and left goodies, and JB and I exchanged gifts, too. My wife is very thoughtful when it comes to this sort of thing. One of my favorite presents was this T-shirt, based on The Lord of the Rings book/film series:

Hopefully, your Christmas was a good one spent with your own loved ones, too. If not, here's hoping for better times ahead and a better year for us all in 2024.

Christmas 2023, Part 1

On Friday night, we hosted a Christmas gathering at our house for JB's side of the family. This night marked the culmination of another week of "Reindeer Games," our third annual series of "Minute to Win It" contests.

The evening's events included the candy cane drop, in which contestants had to try to get as many candy canes to stick on a line of string in 60 seconds' time. Tatum had the best score, with 4.

JB came up with some great prizes for the winners, including blankets, a board game, and a card game.

Christmas 2022, Part 1

So, this was Christmas. And what have we done?

We first traveled out to Grantsville on Christmas Adam (December 23, the day before Christmas Eve ... get it?) to celebrate with JB's side of the family. There was a lot of good food, including sloppy joes, cheese and crackers, holiday goodies, and such. And there were also (wait for it): Reindeer Games!

Last year's Reindeer Games was such a big hit, we decided to do them again. For this year's Second Annual Reindeer Games, we played five "Minute to Win It"-type games back to back. One of these was the candy cane drop, which involved trying to get as many candy canes as possible to remain on the string over the course of a minute. JB and Tatum demonstrate here by:

For another game, one teammate had to wear the reindeer hat while that person's teammate threw rings at the antlers and tried to get as many rings to land on them as possible ... in a minute (go figure).

The mischievous look on Spencer's face here is just ... really something.

And so on. It was a fun night. And the good food and even better company almost made me forget that the Plowbuckles team finished nowhere near first place in the overall point totals.

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.

Adios, Amigo

It's been nearly two months since my friend Jared very unexpectedly passed away. I haven't written anything about this till now because I've been trying to collect my thoughts and use the right words. I still don't know if I have those words. But here goes anyway.

Jared was my friend. (Is there a loftier title for someone not related to you by blood who chooses to be a part of your life? I can't think of one.) I knew him for more than two decades, and with all of life's changes—his first marriage, address and job changes, health challenges, his second marriage, then my  own marriage—he remained my friend. He was interested in me and my life and kept inviting me to do things with him and our mutual friends, many of whom I wouldn't have met if not for him, through those changes.

The older I am, the more I've realized what a rare blessing it is to have friends like this. So many others become either mere acquaintances or strangers; and though you might see them on Facebook or other social media channels once in a while, they otherwise disappear completely from your life. My experience has shown me that it's not that common to count on friends to continue to show up in your life over the years.

He had his quirks. For example, there was the time we were playing ultimate Frisbee, and the disc got thrown into and lost somewhere inside a tall patch of weeds; Jared got in his car and plowed into the middle of the weeds to retrieve the Frisbee. There were also group games we'd play, only with Jared around, like "Spin the Body" (trust me, you had to be there). Or the night of playing Balderdash when every answer turned into made-up trivia about John Denver (sorry, Kirsten).

If you knew him, you knew that Jared sometimes did other odd things and could sometimes rub people the wrong way. (Nobody's perfect.) In spite of that, Jared also possessed the ability to reach out to and include other people—people who often wouldn't be included by others—in his activities, parties, and game nights. It is a trait which I admired greatly and have tried to emulate in my own life.

I don't know if he quite knew just how important video game nights playing Halo, Rock Band, or San Francisco Rush 2049 were to me during a period of my life during which I was severely depressed. Very few people in my life know just how bleak things got for me, and it didn't get better for a long time. Yet one constant was video game night every other Friday night at Jared's house, and it gave me something to do and got me out of the house when little else could.

Jared was also among those who made it out to see me perform improv, a unique accomplishment considering many friends and acquaintances have had other plans on literally every single Friday night for the past 13+ years I’ve performed in Davis County. (No, I’m not calling anyone out. Just sayin’.)

The photo below is from a murder mystery dinner Jared, mutual friends of ours, and I participated in on February 15, 2003. The theme was "Roman Ruins," which is why we're all dressed up in togas and such. I played Caesar, ergo the crown of leaves:

About a year-and-a-half ago, Jared and I had an argument online. Why and about what—that's no longer important. I felt like he was the instigator and had said some things that were uncalled for and also weren't true. After that, we didn't speak for several months.

Then out of the blue, around Christmas time last year, he contacted me to apologize. He was sincere, he frankly admitted he had made what he called an "inexcusable" mistake, and he asked for my forgiveness. How could I not say I forgave him? I felt his request was in earnest, and. freely, I told him I did forgive. Between people who had been friends as long as we'd been, I told him I owed him the to never bring up the matter again.

I'm so glad, so incredibly relieved we had that talk. Had the silence between us gone on much longer, it might've been too late to make amends in the here and now. Regret is a painful emotion. Fortunately, I will have that memorable experience to look back on at future Christmas seasons.

This experience led me to recall the sage counsel of President Howard W. Hunter, which was given at Christmas time but is applicable throughout the calendar year:

"This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love, and then speak it again."

This is wonderful advice. I know from firsthand experience that it matters a lot. If something like this is unresolved in your life, I invite you to do what you can to make amends today, and to do it now. It may be too late tomorrow.

Improvables: Christmas Party 2020

Covid may have postponed or canceled many things throughout 2020, but the annual Improvables Christmas party was not one of them! We met up over a Zoom call last week to play some games online and to open our randomly distributed white elephant gifts—always one of the highlights of the Christmas season for me.

One of my favorite moments was Richard opening JB's contribution, which was a Jane Austen action figure (yes, really):

He then deadpanned (improvisers, amirite?), "I was hoping for one of the Bronte sisters."

I ended up with a brand-new copy of Monopoly: Longest Game Ever (somebody found a way to make Monopoly last even longer, I discovered), while JB obtained this lovely Darth Vader wall ornament:

Altogether, it was a fun evening for everyone involved. I miss seeing and performing with these people, though we are hoping that we will be able to safely return to the stage at some point in 2021.