Our Dinner with Danny and Tanner

So ... we like to eat dinner. That is convenient, as many of our family members and friends do, too. And even in times of pandemic and social distancing, we are able to get out of the house once in a while to break bread with some of these people.

Steve and Summer recently invited us over to their home in North Salt Lake on a Sunday evening for a delicious dinner consisting of baked salmon and mixed vegetables. My amazing wife made alfajores, one of my favorite pastries from Peru, and in my unbiased opinion, she knocked it out of the park with them. (Summer served her mission in Argentina and was also familiar with this dessert.)

Dinner also came with a show. Five-year-old Danny put in a Living Scriptures videotape (yes, VHS tape; we'll soon be taking it on an episode of "Antiques Roadshow" for appraisal) of the angel Moroni appearing to 17-year-old Joseph Smith and instructing him about the golden plates and where they were buried. Coincidentally, this same event was also partly included in our Gospel Doctrine study of the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history earlier in the day.

Afterward, Danny dressed himself up as the angel Moroni and wanted to re-create Moroni's appearance to Joseph.

We were happy to oblige. His three-year-old brother Tanner wanted to join in the fun, and soon everyone took a turn either dressing up as Moroni or pretending to be Joseph and finding the hidden "golden plates," stashed in various locations around the house.

They're teaching these kids well. We are really grateful to be their uncle and aunt and to also have shared part of our time with our youngest niece, nine-month-old Sadie.

Christmas 2020

In spite of covid's plans (and a hillion jillion other things that could've gone wrong, this being 2020), we still observed Christmas this year.

Our sister-in-law Alice recently took some pics of JB, Leia, and me at Creekside Park. (In case you happen to be in that neck of the woods, it's a beautiful, still very new little park just south of the Bountiful High School campus). This is how our annual family Christmas card turned out:

There was no in-person Christmas gathering with my in-laws in Grantsville, though we did meet up briefly over Zoom on Christmas Day. We did, however, trek out there Wednesday to spend the afternoon with JB's parents.

Leia was grateful for the extra attention:

On my side of the family, we were still able to get together on Christmas Eve, though we had to make sure everyone sat apart, everyone wore masks, and no food was served or eaten to avoid any possible spread of planet Earth's favorite pandemic.

Biz once again put together the Christmas program, which included a number of well-placed scriptures, Christmas hymns, and a recording of Dad narrating Chapter 2 of the Gospel of St. Luke.

This was followed by presents/pandemonium. Many of Mom's youngest grandkids received Spider-Man pajamas. When they put on their PJs, it looked something like this:

This reminded the grown-ups a little bit of the classic meme of multiple versions of Spider-Man pointing at each other. So, we re-created it with the kids:

The kids were perhaps most excited to spend Christmas Eve with their oldest male cousin Dallin for the first time since 2017 (before he left on his mission). A significant portion of the night passed with Dallin good naturedly wrestling with them, which looked a lot like this at certain intervals:

Then on Saturday (Boxing Day), we had another family Zoom meeting, this time with many of our British cousins in England joining in on the call. It was wonderful to reconnect with so many of them, including Brian, Denis, Linda, Lynn, and their spouses/kids/grandkids.

Thus concluded our celebration of my favorite holiday of the year. Currently, it's 362 days till next Christmas. The countdown has already begun.

Great Conjunction, What's Your Function?

This week, I learned that a "great conjunction" is not just something that happens in the movie The Dark Crystal. As it turns out, you can see one here on Earth. On Monday night, we were able to see the "Star of Bethlehem" in the nighttime sky in the form of an alignment of the planets Jupiter and Saturn.

In my neck of the woods, it looked something like this (first zoomed in, then normal view):

And what a pretty sight it was. Apparently, this is the first time in eight centuries that such a sight has been seen on Earth.

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.

Lighting the World 2020

In spite of covid being the all-too-real Grinch for everyone and everything this holiday season, the Light the World campaign is happening again this month. We've had numerous opportunities to serve others ... and a few to be served by others, to boot. This past week, these messages and wishes of goodwill were left on our front door by some of Santa's very best helpers:

This was a wonderful surprise to come home to. I'm grateful for these simple but powerful expressions of kindness and love.

Christmas Lights

Even in a world battling covid, we have found that we are still able to venture out and do a few things safely. Like go outside and look at things, which you can do only so much of indoors.

With Temple Square under construction right now (and for the foreseeable future), we still have a few good local options for seeing Christmas lights. Centerville's Founders Park is a good example of one, and it's just a stone's throw from us.

Leia, in particular, enjoyed seeing other people and, of course, their dogs.

Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving this year, like pretty much everything else in 2020, looked a lot different than it has in years past. But still JB and I made the best of things and had a most enjoyable meal between the two us. The menu included turkey breast cooked on our new pellet grill (easily the best turkey I've ever eaten on Thanksgiving), candied yams, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberries, and JB's award-winning stuffing.

I have many blessings to be grateful for, and it was good to take time out to remember them over the holiday.