News from Chistmastown

We just got back from 10 days (or so) of Disneyland. I took some time off for a gaming convention in Anaheim and B'Andra took the opportunity to go down early with her sister and start the marathon early. She and Gidian bought annual passes and proceded to go every day from that Saturday until the following Saturday. I drove down that Wednesday and geeked out for a few days and spent evenings with them in the Park. It was pretty fun and very, unseasonable warm. I believe records were broken.

I then spent 3 days doing audit work for 2 clients in Southern California, which allowed for 3 more days of Disneyland for B' and G. I ended up not having work on Wednesday and instead spent the day with Gidain in the park running around Tom Sawyer Island and Pirates of the Carribean and a few other rides, while B'Andra spent some quite, prayful moments in Mecca er Main Street USA.

We decided to make Thanksgiving at Gordon's house, instead of eating a buffet at Las Vegas with Cousin Eddie. This required leaving at 6 or 7pm and with the entirety of So Cal having the same idea, we were in stop and go traffic for 3 hours, traveling about 50 miles. It finally opened up and I filled my tank with energy sodas and drove as long as I could. B'Andra then took over and somehow managed to make it to St. George by 3:30am. It was ugly, but we were able to break bread with Gordon before he went to work at 1:30pm.

It also allowed us to drive home that night and get to B's sister, DeLys, and spend some time eating pie and stuffing there. Finally it allowed us extra time to hang with CJ, Lisa, Ty and Slone and Boo. We had a good time hanging out. We ended up going swiming at the Zermott where CJ was staying. They have a cool pool with a sky-blue ceiling with lights that slowly switch between blue and red, so the sun rises and sets every 5 minutes. There is also a little channel where you can go outside and swim in the cold. There is a little hot tub out there and one inside, complete with massaging waterfall.

It was nice. B'Andra and I intended to take dad up on the offer and stay up there this week or next. It isn't free, but cheap for how nice it is.

Gidian is getting excited about Christmas. He is enjoying the speacials on tv and on DVD that we have. He likes the decorations and baby Jesus, but really doesn't 'get it'. For all cognitive and practical purposes, this is his first Christmas and should be fun to wake up with him.

B'Andra has outdone herself with the decorations. We have a little magical kingdom of Christmasland here. It makes it fun and festive. It is really beautiful. We even have lights and garland on our headboard. We have the house lights on both a sun-activated lighting system (so it will be one when we get home) and a remote (to turn them off without having to go outside). It is pretty slick.

I'm of the mind that an annual pass and 10 days of Disneyland is as much of a Christmas that anyone needs and therefore have no plans to do any shopping whatsoever. I'm sure this plan will not go over well and will be vetoed shortly.

We watched Glenn Beck do his Christmas show yesterday at Kingsberry Hall. It was nice. He told Christmas stories and used some gospel music to build up to his main point, which was that Christmas was not about TV Specials, Food, or even family, but is about the redemption provided by the Savior. His mother had killed herself when he was 13 after a divorce and battle with alcohol and poverty and felt the world was better without her. Glenn, was on a similar track and after a lot of success in radio, lost his job, wife and kids and finally ended up joining the Mormon church and though he felt equally worthless, he discovered that he was able to be relieved of that burdon by following God.

Ultimately he shared his conversion story and the fact that he really feared the storm that was coming and thought we all ought to listen to prophets, living and dead, and gets things in order: financially, food storagely and spiritually so we can weather out that chaos that will be coming whether it be WWIII or terrorists attacks or more naturaly calamaties and the effects on the economy. I have been felling similarly worried lately (probably from listening to his radio show).

I'm still teaching the high priests once a month. I'm excited about the new year, which will be on Spencer W. Kimball. Someone, I actually remember. Pres. Woodruff was cool, but a little harsh. It will interesting to see the difference between someone who crossed the plans and someone of our own generation and what kind of lessons they extract from his talks.

With home prices in the valley, we have felt pressure to upgrade and move into a bigger or newer home. We have decided, for at least another few years, that we will stay here. I really like our little house (not a good time for more debt, I'm thinking). Not much for parties, but who has time anyway. This area is recovering rapidly and the houses are selling for a lot. There are not a lot of cities with nice neighborhoods this close to downtown.

I was recently in Seattle for training and told them how close I lived to where the Jazz play their games. They said, you can live that close to the Seattle NBA games, but you will pay $400,000 for an 800 sq. ft house. Crazy. (not that anyone in their right mind would ever want to live in Seattle).