Merry Christmas

Just for fun

I think this one was right before the bed collapsed. Or was that a different summer?

Baby, It's Cold Outside

This is one of the cute songs of the season--obviously not strictly Christmas music, but when the temperatures drop, it seems appropriate. With our single digit temperatures last week, this song got lots of radio time.

There are so many versions of this, now, but I remembered what I think is the first time this song was done. It was by Red Skelton and an actress I don't know in a movie I've never seen called "Neptune's Daughter." And actually, this version is a reprise of an earlier scene when it's done by Ricardo Montalban and Esther Williams (she was a famous swimmer/actress who must be the title character). But apparently, the Red Skelton scene stole the show. You are too young to know about him, maybe, but he was a comedian who had his own show for a long time. He was known for being so clean in his humor. He publicly discussed his belief that humor should be clean and wholesome. Maureen Tedesco, one of our Vegas neighbors, worked ticket sales for some of the big name acts that came through one of the hotels and I asked her once what celebrities she had met and how they seemed. She said the kindest, nicest of them all was probably Red Skelton.

Anyway, enjoy.

In case anybody is looking for new Christmas music...

these guys are fun:

Great Experience

Ok, so I have never shared anything before on this blog. I've thought of things that I might be able to say from time to time, but nothing ever struck me as that important before until I received great news last night around 11 p.m.

I was working on a homework assignment that Caitlin had been helping me on for a while before (thanks a million Caitlin.) I was just going down the home stretch with the project when I got a call all of a sudden from a number I knew was from Mexico. I answered having in my mind who it might be, and it was her. Juanita. Juanita was a lady I found with my companion in Playa del Carmen our first week in that area. We were knocking doors and she came out rather immodestly dressed. We stayed outside of her house and did a quick five minute run down of the restoration pamphlet while we were still standing. We set up a return appointment for later that week. As we were leaving I told my companion that if she didn't read it when we returned, we weren't going to even bother trying to get her to read it more. She was a 24 year old single mother with an 8 year old son. We had learned from other stories that situations as such are usually not worth it.

Well, we returned on the appointment date and set up some chairs outside of her house (even in the 115 degree heat) and talked to her about the pamphlet. She had read it. We were surprised, we didn't think she would read it, let alone understand what it was saying. She shared with us her favorite parts and told us that it made sense to her. We asked her if she prayed about it and she said no, and that she was embarrassed to pray. It took some convincing but we had her pray to end our lesson that day. We invited her to pray about it as well by the next time we came by to see if she received an answer that it was true.

When we returned the next time she had prayed about it, and received an answer that it was true. We wanted her to come to church with us the following sunday, she said she would. We came by sunday to remind her of church later that day, and she said she would be there, but was very short with us because her sister was there. Apparently her sister doesn't want anything to do with the church, and was pretty anti-us at the time.

She didn't end up going to church that day, but we continued to visit her the next week. She continued to understand the doctrine we taught her, and was more and more interested. She was able to come the next sunday, and the following sunday after that, and the next. The rule for baptizing people was that they had to be in church at least three times before they got baptized. One of those times was April General Conference 2008, which was all the way in Cancun, and not expected that any investigators come. But she did, and she loved it.

We baptized her the following saturday after General conference, and we received permission to do it in the ocean, which was a great experience. One that I will always remember.

Juanita and her son Pedro Pablo. Tania and Maria. Maria wasn't baptized until a couple months after.

The reason I wanted to share that story was because she called me last night very late wanting to tell me that she had gone through the temple and taken out her endowments. She was so excited talking about it, and cried a lot of the time while telling me about how she felt. She said how she felt complete, and that she had finally accomplished a huge milestone in the church. She was debating or not whether to call me because of the time, but she said she couldn't help it and wanted to call me anyway. It was the best news i've received since i've been back from the mission. It was a sobering experience as far as remembering the importance of the temple. It was sort of a reversal of teacher and student between she and I. I was really glad she called, and help me realize how important it is to be worthy to be able to attend the temple, and attend it regularly.

Juanita, and two other ladies (mother and daughter) I baptized, Tania, and Maria, also went through the temple yesterday and all took out their endowments. It's been such a blessing to be able to feel the joy and love from God by hearing of these stories. I am so grateful for the experience I had on the mission, and I will never regret anything about it. I feel so blessed, and so loved by my Heavenly Father, and my family for the life that I have.

I have all of you to thank for that.

My Favorites

I thought about this, then forgot to do it (sorry, Bethany). I did mention it at dinner (I know, doesn't cover it) . . . one of my favorite memories is kind of a random one . . . and was my most atypical Thanksgiving. It was right after I moved to Delaware. I couldn't go back for Thanksgiving, so I went to Virginia to hang out with Sarah Jaggi. But my favorite thing about it WAS family related . . .

Remember the radio show that Dad & Mom did? I loved how we all spent that time listening to the radio show while chatting on Skype. Everyone was so far away (and I felt it), but I really enjoyed that group conversation. If it hadn't been for that, we probably wouldn't have all communicated that day. So, I was very grateful for that as I remember feeling alone in a whole new way living across the country on my own.

I also thought of Willow, but probably not in a good way. I've never been able to watch that movie since.

Another fond memory I have is of family football games on Thanksgiving. I remember when Dad would take us out and play with us (even though I never had a clue what I was really doing).

Thanksgiving Memories?

The MST3K marathon is certainly something I remember. I also remember what seemed like our own "Willow" marathon, one year. And I remember the days when I made 6 pies for several years--2 pumpkin, 2 apple, and 2 pecan. And I remember having to give that up in grad school and moving and building, etc. Then, for Thanksgiving 2001, just a month after I had defended my dissertation, I baked pies and Harper said, "I didn't know you could make pies." I thought that was so sad that he didn't even remember when I had made them before. Well, Harper, I promise to bake apple pies for Dad's birthday coming right up.

Q:

Who does this remind you of?

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone

We had a great time last year with everybody (minus the Cotterells) for Thanksgiving, and wish we'd been invited back this year (along with the Cotterells), but at least know that we'll be thinking of you all while having a great time with the Mesa Andersons (my kids have been counting down for weeks and the emails between cousins have definitely picked up).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share one of my favorite Thanksgiving memories with you all, then ask for you all to do the same.

Remember that year we did the MST3K marathon? Well, that is still one of my most fond Thanksgiving memories. Especially Trumpy.

Okay, your turn.

Some more from Gardner Village

Before Halloween in Gardener Village

Halloween in Park City

This is where I spent most of my week with my laptop. The pool and hot tubs were below and the snow machines did a pretty good job of covering the slope during the week we were there.

This is just a small sampling of the many fun things we saw in the Park City Main Street "Strut your Mutt" parade.

Mrs. Potts and the dog is Chip.

This guy was here last year, too, with these two huge Newfoundlands.

Dear Spanky,

It looks like you've become successful already. I never would have thought you'd choose this, but in some ways it's probably a wise decision. You know, there is never a shortage of certain things. Death, taxes...

However, I do encourage you to stay in school. Get your education.

Love,
Bethany

our turn

i simplified this year. benny's a repeat of last year, andy's wearing pajamas with sweatpants underneath, and i made lilia's costume for benny's first halloween.

two very caring older brothers.

each checking out his own stash.

lilia made her debut this year in the monkey suit. i'm planning on her fitting into it next year as well. i pinned a ribbon on so people could tell she was a girl.

and max, the king of all wild things!
i'm going to brag for just a second and let you know this is a prize-winning costume two years running! last year and this year benny won the costume contest at the med school family function. he looks just like max - and actually requests that we call him max whenever he's in his wolf suit.
he didn't wear the crown trick-or-treating.

Our Halloween

Yesterday we went to Park City, joining Dad and Mom up there for the afternoon. It was cut a little short because Rob wasn't feeling great (I really missed those hot tubs I'd been excited for all week), but as it turned out, by the middle of the night we had 2 sickos. Rob and I both had time with Guy up in the middle of the night (about 4 hours total). Today we're still all pretty drowsy.
a

For Guy's first Halloween I borrowed a costume from a friend. I bought a pattern but the mane seemed too labor intensive without promising results. Yesterday I got lots of good ideas for future Halloweens while walking around. I don't know that we'll ever dress up as a family, but my favorite family themed one was dad and mom as a king and queen and a little girl as a princess with a little boy as a frog. I thought it was adorable. I think mom got the best photo of our family--same pose, but Guy smiling, too.

When we got home, we did make a quick stop at Penni's, where they had scones, chili, and cider - and Rob tried scones for the first time ever. Yum!

a

Here's one of Eden and Guy the other night - we went to Gardener Village with some of the fam. Dominic, Jen, Eden and the kids all went through a whimsical house of some sort . . . Eden had Guy and he fell asleep in her arms. He doesn't do that often anymore, but when he does, I love it.

Callister Halloween Pics

Okay, so we had:

Amanda the cowgirl,

Napoleon Dynamite (thought of it too late to get a "Vote for Pedro" shirt -- next year, perhaps),

Naomi the cowgirl,

Police officer Chris,

and Gracie the cowgirl.


And here are some from our trip to the pumpkin patch yesterday:









And because so many photos of Gracie turned out so darn cute, here's a little Gracie bonus:





(She was holding Mandy's hand - Jeremy's wife - in the photo of her holding somebody's hand. More often than not she'd look for Mandy's hand to hold.)