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:

Plowman Family Dinner/October 2021

October's Plowman family dinner was held on Sunday, October 31. It being Halloween, many of the niblings dressed up so that Grandma could see the costumes they wore for trick-or-treating and other holiday festivities.

Kylee was Batgirl:

Jake was Thor:

... and Jackson was an SCP scientist:

Spaghetti and garlic bread were on the menu for the evening. JB prepared cupcakes and cake, which were served up with ice cream. Everyone had a killer time! Family and Halloween together are always a great combination.

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.

Improvables: Thirteenth Annual Halloween Show

On Friday night, we held our first Improvables Halloween show in two years! (Just consider the twelfth annual Halloween show to have been performed last year in spirit, I guess?)

It was great to have BDAC full again, both on and off stage, for one of our favorite nights of the year. Our players and audience members alike are both quite amazing human beings who once again brought their A-game with wonderfully creative costumes.

For example, Chance and Anne, pictured here, dressed up as Ben and Leslie from the TV show "Parks and Recreation":

Parker was Dr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog:

Tessa and Keenan did a Disney's Tarzan-inspired cosplay:

... and Tyler and Tristian were Nintendo Switch controllers:

Yours truly dressed up as Blue Shirt Guy from the summer blockbuster movie Free Guy.

After the show, all troupe members present posed for this picture:

There were laughs aplenty. There were myriad clever moments. There were brilliant songs created, with the help of Willis on keys, right on the spot. As with any improv show, you just had to be there. (If you haven't been yet, well ... why haven't you?)