Hurrah for snow! The more the better, except when you're traveling. (My bus ride from Salt Lake to Idaho Falls took 7 hours -- longer than it took me to fly from Detroit to Salt Lake!) Still, it was a winter wonderland like the good ole' days, pre-global warming and all that.
Hurrah for family and friends! This goes without saying. I treasured happy times with my mom, various cousins, aunts & uncles, and sister-like friends.
Hurrah for food! This also goes without saying, but Christmas time is especially good for eating. This year, I took the anti-weight-watchers approach and happily gobbled anything within reach. I also discovered turkey pumpkin chili -- a delightful concoction that came from our new ward cookbook. In fact, I spent most of Christmas Day making it. Since it turned out that my Mom didn't actually have pumpkin or turkey or canned beans, we had to improvise ('cuz once you have your heart set on a recipe, there's no turning back). I used frozen squash, cooked decades-old beans from scratch, and ground up the flesh from a package of chicken legs in my Grandma's decades-old hand-grinder. Voila! We also had a fun Asian soup cooking party at the Baileys, another dinner party (starring soup) with a group of my Mom's friends, and a lunch get-together (with soup, of course) with my dear friend, Fe' and her seven children.
Hurrah for campfires in the canyon! For New Year's Eve, we (the Blairs, Williams, Cherice and I) tromped up Rock Canyon in the snow and moonlight. It took some serious effort, but eventually the fire evolved from smoldering to flaming. We sang songs and roasted little smokies and marshmallows till we were full and freezing. Then the girls slid down the canyon on sleds while the rest of us cautiously inched along (by this time, it was completely dark and icy). Back at home, we ate a delicious Mexican meal, played games, and consumed many, many brownies (which we lovingly dubbed "chocolate omelette" due to the large number of eggs in the recipe).
Hurrah for technology! In my first ever video conference, I got to watch my nieces and nephew perform their ready-for-Broadway New Year's Eve dances. It was almost as good as being there.
Hurrah for the VAPPP! Some of you may not know about this very exclusive organization, The Veritable Association of Pigs, Poets, and Politics. We had our annual meeting at the Wilkinson Center -- Pig Pen Bowling. A big SNORT was required when someone got a gutter ball and in the case of a strike, you put on a pig snout and posed for a victory photo. Kristen provided us with VAPPP T-shirts for Christmas -- you can't see from the picture, but the back of the shirts say "OINK."
And now that the holidays are over and real-life responsibilities have once again descended, hip-hip-hurray for writing a dissertation! (I am trying to be cheerful about it.)
1 comment:
That was a fun time! I love the picture with the Blairs. Does snorting make it more fun? I should try that next time I actually go "non-Wii" blowling!
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