Its the mark of a great celebration if you can walk away with zero pictures or maybe it just shows how spoiled I was from my trip to the East Coast where my friend Jon supplied all my pictures.
I swear people came!
My party ended up going on without any problems and unlike last year where I was stuck making waffles all night I was able to walk around and converse with everyone and even play some games. Both soups were a big hit, Mirielle was kind enough to provide the bread, and other treats were brought to share among my thirty something guests. At one point it was suggested that one could eat blueberries by picking them up with your nostril and letting them drop into your mouth. This was a joke but upon mentioning it my coworker immediately did it.
For those who were asking, this post contains a loose recipe of the soup I made.
My birthday continued to be its rightful celebration for the next several days including a family party on Sunday, a date with Sarah on my actual birthday, and my birthday dinner made by my mother on Tuesday. I would outline more detail but I without pictures even I wouldn't read it.
I'm twenty-eight now!
Would you like to read more about my holiday back East? Check out my friends' blog for pictures of their kids and sometimes even me.
This last weekend I returned from a two-and-a-half week long trip to the East coast to visit my good friends Jon and Tallia (and Co). During the course of the trip we spent Christmas in Brooklyn, explored DC, and rung in the New Year at their apartment in the heart of Pittsburgh. I even drove through Delaware proving that it actually does exist despite my long standing doubts. The trip was long and I probably should have made it into two posts but I didn't so I'm cutting out a bunch instead.
The first couple of days was in Pittsburgh and I was shown around the neighborhood and we went to the Carnagie Science museum. Besides taking a great thermal selfie, I did a great deal of flips. The woman running the stand noted that it was doubtful anyone would flip as much as I did that day. The price was a minor headache and nausea for the next several hours but it was worth it.
We left for New York after a couple days and on our way we stopped by Hershey, Pennsylvania. I honestly expected the city to smell like a Hershey's bar but it just smelled like a town. They had a ride where they explained the process of making chocolate. It was a free ride and at the end you got some chocolate so we went on it a couple times--quickly learning the cow song about Hershey's and then quickly forgetting it I suppose.
We arrived into Brooklyn late after some traffic but we found our apartment and got some great parking. The apartment was a fairly large two bedroom so I took my place on the couch. Our first day we explored Manhatten and within an hour of getting off the Subway we walked back Amanda Seyfried talking on her phone saying "thank you" to someone. It was rainy and cold but we still had fun.
I choose you pikachu!
If I look intense it's because that was the best hamburger I've had.
The following day we decided on a more kid friendly activity and went to the Brooklyn Children's Museum (which I'm told is one of the very first ones) where I got to drive a Vespa around with the kids.
I guess we had fun since following the museum I went back to the apartment and immediately fell asleep and took a three hour nap. It was still Christmas Eve though so Jon and I went on a mission to find a treat. We looked around a nearby Hasidic community for a bakery but had no luck, I was going to ask someone where they get their treats but apparently that's how you get murdered. Instead we found a small doughnut shop open so no one died.
Suddenly, it was Christmas.
Jon and Tallia were nice enough to fill my stocking. After a traditional breakfast we opened presents and I received some gloves from my parents, a Nintendo 64 game from my sister (retro!), a portrait of myself from Mirielle, and fancy salt from J&T. I can not dwell on any of these gifts as to avoid showing preference.
Christmas jaunt. The kids definitely were not crying.
The day was spent idly until we headed off to a friends' house to start preparing for Christmas dinner. The theme was "What Would Jesus Eat" and we pulled all the recipes from The Jerusalem Cookbook and it included rack of lamb, couscous, and a hazelnut-pomegranate-cauliflower salad. It was a delicious meal and it was a pleasure meeting the Knudesons.
As an act of providence, my sister happened to arrive in New York the same day we were leaving so we met briefly for brunch. I got to meet her suitor and it gave me an excuse to go on the Subway on my own and try my best to look like a local. My trick was to look uninterested and stare at the floor.
We added D.C. on to our agenda after Jon realized his Brother would be out of town so we could stay in his apartment. This drive was the moment I realized Delaware was a real place but also realized that this would be the only time I would ever have a reason to be excited about Delaware.
Playing ball at the Mall.
We headed back to Pittsburgh for my last few days and hit a few more places including a conservatory (with dinosaurs), REI (life changing), a dinosaur museum (with dinosaurs), and an art museum. The art museum and dinosaur museum were actually the same place but that doesn't make any sense. I finally saw a real Van Gough which made me happy.
ART
We had plans on going into the downtown area for New Years but it was entirely too cold and instead we stayed in and went to bed early because its not worth it to stay up. The weather got bad enough that my flight home was actually cancelled with 24-hour notice which meant we got to go sledding where it was so cold my mustache had ice on it LIKE A REAL MAN.
It seems the rule for family
Christmas letters is about a paragraph per person. I’m not sure how that
translates for me as an individual so I will try to be brief.
For the past year I have been
working for Mocavo, a new family history website. Up until recently my primary
task has been content creation but I have just been promoted to run the sales
and customer service aspects of the company. It’s all still new and a little
intimidating but it’s a fun company and I look forward to the challenge.
Naturally with my family so
close I have chosen to spend my first Christmas and New Year’s not in their
company. Instead my friends have invited me to visit them in Pittsburgh and New
York City which promises to be a memorable trip that I thankfully took the time
off for before I was promoted.
I am still serving my
congregation as a secretary and it seems I will continue to do so. To occupy
the rest of my time I have picked up sewing my own bowties and have been dating
a lovely young lady for the past several months.
I hope
this letter finds you in good health and please know that you remain in my
heart.
Its a tough season to post anything here, partially since I'm so busy getting ready for my vacation to the East Coast next week but also because most of the cool stuff I have done recently revolves around making gifts for people who read this blog so instead I will tell you about my work Christmas Party.
A little over a month ago I volunteered to be on the party planning committee at work and I did this for two reasons: I am pretty snobby when it comes to food and decor, and it was a good excuse to not do work. Unfortunately for my time but my desire to throw a good party won over those and I ended up spending much more time getting ready for the party and stressed about it way more then anyone should about a similar event.
One of the big things we wanted was for people to walk into the room and instead of thinking "office party in an office building" they would instead react with a sense of wonder similar to waking up Christmas morning. To aid this we gathers many iconic gifts such as a BB gun, sled, toy truck, etc to fill out the tree along with the office Secret Santa gifts. HR also provided a great set of full Christmas stockings which really pushed the theme.
The most fun aspect of the whole deal though was that we collected family photos--mostly childhood era--from all the employees and displayed them unlabeled as centerpieces for the tables with the bonus of each employee then having a framed photo of their family to take home. Here's the one I picked:
The joke is that Allison has no soul and I have anime eyes.
Major credit to my Mother who provided a bulk of the ideas for the party, as well as Mirielle who did the food almost entirely by herself and frankly did just as much as I did. The party was a huge success and even our visiting COO remarked about how great it was.
As one might expect, Thanksgiving came and went here in Provo much as it did through the rest of the nation. It was a pleasant change having it right at home instead of traveling a state over and using foreign kitchens.
Thanks to my father for the table pictures.
As is traditional I was in charge of the family scalloped corn. It's basically just creamed corn with butter and an egg binder--it sounds like it should be disgusting but I grew up with it so leave me alone.
My mathernal grandmother flew over for the week and my brother Seth came out for the holiday. Following dinner we trimmed the living room tree as well as the blue spruce in front of my parents' home. It looks spectacular with all the snow we got recently but did I take pictures? No.
Cuddling with Grandma. She is so uncomfortable.
The new window at my parents' by Allison and my mother.
In other news the family dog, Evee, has been declining pretty quickly the past week. My mother determined that perhaps it was time to consider euthanization and so made an appointment with the veterinarian. I arrived early to the house to spend my last few hours with Evee. She paced around the house, not anxiously, but as if she was looking to soak in the last bit of life and home she would feel.
Our last picture together; I'm making a funny face.
We arrived at the vet and she determined that Evee had a pretty bad heart mumor, arthritis, and severe periodontitis and that if we wanted to end her life it was an option but in her opinion Evee was still is good shape.
Needless to say:
I'm hoping to get my Christmas Card out soon, Mirielle will be taking my portrait hopefully sometime this week or early next. I should probably find my envelopes, but in the mean time...
So I did something big, I finally got my Utah license. I've lived here continuously for over five years and the address on my Florida license was invalid due to my parents moving so I figured it was time. I suppose it was a bit abnormal but I wasn't actually concered about the time, or money it would take but rather the quality of my picture.
My last license was taken when I was 17 and while it wasn't horrible I had a bit of an acne problem (which luckily was solved by scratching my picture in convenient places) and for some reason they decided to zoom in so far that my chin is missing. The point is I wasn't a big fan and I didn't want to be stuck with another horrible picture for the next five years.
So I did what any rational person would do, I put on my suit and my favorite bow-tie and practiced my serious half-smile that would project confidence yet communicate that I take governmental IDs seriously. A couple days of practice seemed to be enough so I headed to the DMV and took care of business.
...and I look like a priest.
Here's some other pictures of things I did:
Sarah and I went and saw Provo High's production of Suessical starring our dear friend June.
We stopped by my parent's house to eat some pie and discovered my father fast asleep in front of a roaring fire.
I finished the lights on my parents' house!
Is it strange that even after all these years I still find it offensive when people call me Utahan? I will self identify Utah as home but I still irrationally do not want to take on the demonym.
