You're Invited!

If you don't have a snack, come anyway.

Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, & D.C.

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.

To close, here is Jon being a robot.

Christmas Card 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

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.

When the weather was warm I took a few trips including hiking in Zion with my uncle and cousin (I think we all suffered from hypothermia), exploring Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons with some good friends (my first stay at a hostel), and the big one—driving across the country from Florida to Utah in a thirty-foot truck as my parents decided to buy a house in Provo.

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.

Warm regards and a Merry Christmas,

Christian

Photo by Mirielle

Work Christmas Party

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.

I beamed with pride.

Oh yeah, and I got promoted.

Thanksgiving and Company

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...

Happy December!

A Full Utahan

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.

120 Stars!

It still bums me out that you don't get to ride Yoshi at the end.

My main motivation in writing this post is to brag that I beat Mario 64 for the first time with all 120 stars. Even the first time I played through it in 1996 my brother Seth and I traded off on the same save--each getting different ones.

Thankfully games today have better cameras and controls. Allison can attest to the fact that I threw the controller more than once. I can't count how many times the camera decided do an up close zoom of a wall instead of my jump or how many times Mario decided to run off the edge for whatever reason.

Luckily more has happened in my life besides twenty-year-old games.

I don't have any pictures from Halloween but it was the same costume. I fulfilled my usual role of handing out candy while the kids are out with their parents. I always try to play up some character for the task and this year was no different. I spooked up my outfit a little by closing my cloak, and popping up the hood. Furthermore I started walking with a limp and used my best psychotic villain voice. As the kids walked up I would either be standing at the open door with my back turned or I would jump out at them just as they were about to knock on the glass storm door.

There were several times I had to break character as small children's eyes went wide with fear but for the most part the kids played along. The best time by far was when a young teenager came to the door and as I came out at him he visibly jumped. This caused even the stoic father of my cousin to laugh.

Some other things:

Old Bones had a fantastic makeup job by Ariel Stardust.

My family, Sarah, and I attended the Salt Lake showing of Deep Love. It was a fantastic folk/rock opera written by some of Allison's friends in Rexburg. It was full of passion, betrayal, and superb singing; if you're in the area next Halloween I highly recommend you go see it.

Sarah gifted me several swatches of fabric of which I was able to make a few more bow-ties. The picture above only has them partially finished but I have since completed all of them (making more than one sewing mistakes in the process). Sewing is a lot of fun and hopefully I'll be able to branch out into other patterns soon.

At the planetarium. Space is so cool!