CHRISTMAS AND THE NEW YEAR IN CALIFORNIA

We were very excited for Christmas this year. Perhaps part of this was due to the fact that a really warm day in Orem got up to about 37 degrees, which were the low temperatures of the day in the San Joaquin Valley. I've been back and forth between Modesto and Orem so many times that I've got the trip down pat. If we go 80 mph through Nevada, and as fast as we can everywhere else, and only gas up in Elko and Reno, we can make the trip in 10.5 hours. The pretty scenery, listening to long playlists on our Ipods, eating tasty snacks and playing 20 Questions makes the first eight hours go by pretty quickly. Those last two hours or so are almost always horrible but we're that much happier when we reach our destination.

This year we didn't leave until the 23rd to be able to celebrate our third year anniversary by ourselves in Utah and because I had to stay and sing in the church choir. I had made romantic plans which fell through and we just ended up going to dinner and eating at our favorite sushi bar. Even though it was simple we ended up having a really good time.

Christmas Eve was spent in Atwater at my dad's parents house. Garit and Grant played what was to be the first of at least four games of Risk during the holidays. Several days later they finally talked me into playing with them. Garit is far too good at that game and I think that it will take more than two opponents to beat him. Maybe he and my brother-in-law Rick can play sometime since I've heard that Rick is supposed to be pretty good.
The food and company were wonderful but the best part to me was the singing. For several years of my high school experience I sang millions of Christmas songs in many places and many, many times over the holidays; I sang so much that I eventually lost all desire to ever sing or listen to Christmas music. These past few years I've found myself looking forward to it.
Christmas morning was spent at my mother's home. This year she asked us to write five love notes to each other and put them in our stockings. With Garit, Garit's girlfriend Raquel, Mom, Becca and me, we all had to write twenty love notes a piece! The task was a bit daunting but I think that it was a very good idea on Mom's part. It's a shame that we those closest to us don't always know how much we admire them so the notes were a very positive change.

After we ate a hearty breakfast and picked up my Grandma Barbara, we headed down south to Fresno to spend the rest of the day with our cousins the Lee's. Other than several dogs and cats, the Lees have three little pigs that they keep penned up. My cousin Hunter said that they're good little soccer players. Eric and Gina were excellent hosts, providing wonderful food and entertainment for us all, and it was especially nice to see aunt Gina's folks again after so many years. The only bad thing about having so many wonderful relatives is that we don't get to see all of them for as much time as we'd like. Speaking of which, I really missed seeing Laurey and Murray, the Pattersons, Brittain and Jarit, the Texas Boothes and Tristine and Breanna, even though I did run into the girls at the book store. Maybe we can all make sure that we get together for the Holidays in 2009.

The followingThursday we headed back down to Fresno to do some temple work with my aunts which he puts in when he goes out and about.and grandparents. Grandpa had a root canal recently and has been given a temporary tooth.
Unfortunately, he remembered that he needed to put it in when he was already on his way to the temple. I love to go to the temple and it's even better to go with family. Afterwards, Aunt Debbie treated us to a nice lunch at Macaroni Grill.

The following Sunday was pretty busy. Becca and I went back down to Atwater to attend church at 9:00am so I could sing in a trio with Aunt Merrilyn and Aunt Lorraine. I don't know how the trio sounded but I really enjoyed the talk my grandma gave about faithfulness to God and paying tithing. We also got to say hi to my dad's cousin Jeff who is a really great guy.

After Sacrament Meeting in Atwater we jetted up to to Modesto to attend another Sacrament Meeting in the Spanish Branch. The Mormon Spanish speaking congregation has become so mixed and bilingual, and with so many visitors that may or may not understand Spanish, there are a team of bilingual members who sit on the side and interpret everything into a microphone that people in the audience can hear through individual head-phone sets. Garit was a busy man giving a fine talk in church and then later conducting a baptismal service for a nice married couple that was joining the church.
New Year's Eve was spent at my Grandma Barbara's house with Grant, Aunt Carrie and my cousin Molly. Molly is doing great things in stage make-up and we're all proud of her for that and her other achievements. Grandma prepared a scrumptious roast that I enjoyed a lot. I'm not one for red meat but the next day we came over to her house to help take down her Christmas lights and I couldn't help but make myself a sandwich with the leftovers. We stayed up for the new year playing games. Becca taught everyone how to play Five Crowns and then beat us all at the game.
We ended our trip spending time with our friends the Jiménez' and the Bertinettis and then having dinner at Dad and Penny's house. We drank Mexican hot chocolate and played the Mexican version of Family Feud with my team winning. Dad made us a delicious sea food dish and we enjoyed ourselves chatting afterwards.

The day after we returned home it snowed a TON up in the mountains in between California and Nevada. We were very happy to miss the bad weather and cruise on through with no problems at all. We miss our family and we miss California's warm weather. It snowed most of yesterday and Utah feels like an icebox right now. That said, I'm hoping that Christmas of 2008 in Michigan will be a white one. We love you all and hope that this year brings you much happiness!