Christmas Eve we had Tom’s famous breakfast of whole wheat pancakes, sausage, omelet and fresh fruit. Shannon and Grandma went shopping and Papa helped the kids build a fort in the backyard. We stopped by a party at Mike’s and then went to the Varley’s. Shannon knew Lisa and Keith before we were married. I met Keith through Shannon, but we had crossed paths many times over the years: both worked at Jackson Lake Lodge in ’88, both worked at Deer Valley out of Silver Lake Lodge in ’84, both went to the “U” at the same time, etc. We have since gone backpacking in the Wind Rivers 2x (two bear encounters), climbed the Grand Teton and Mt Wister, three trips to Moab and family trips to Sun Valley and Jackson Hole. One of our traditions is fondue on Christmas Eve, so we had cheese fondue, a new, delicious carmel fondue and a chocolate fountain. Good times.

Merry Christmas!! Santa got the memo to drop the kids presents off in UT. For the last several years Shannon has made matching Christmas PJs for the kids. We opened presents, had BREAKFAST, then went to church. Shannon met Tracey’s new wife Amy. They came over for lunch, along with Mike and Chris.

Monday after Christmas Grace stayed with Grandma and Papa while the rest of us went skiing at Brighton with the Varley’s. Dylan took a 1/2 day boarding lesson and Gavin took an all day lesson for his first day on skiis. Gavin started at level one, but by the end of the day he was at level 4. The last run of the day was the best we all went down Mary’s Trail together, through some trees, off jumps. It snowed most of the day, so by the time we left they had 9″ of new snow. Brighton has easily doubled in in the last 15 years.

Tuesday we went to the Church History Museum. They have a special Joseph Smith exhibit to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth (12/23/1805). We had lunch at the Lion House, walked through the now deserted ZCMI Center and Crossroads Mall. Everything has moved to Gateway down on 3rd West around the old Union Pacific building. It’s the new style outdoor mall like Horton Plaza in SD that seems to be popping up everywhere. We went there to see Narnia, but it was sold out. I bought me and the boys “U” hats. We surprised Shannon by walking up to her all sporting our new hats. She got me back Thursday when all Dylan, Gavin and Grace showed up wearing new BYU shirts.

Wednesday we had a photographer come over to the house for family photos. We missed Janene, but it was nice to get an updated picture. These are some blurry, unprofessional examples. I’ll put the professional one’s here when we get them.

With a foot of new snow on the mountain, I had to go up again. It was a great day. The sun even came out for a while. Unlike California and Oregon, there was fresh untracked powder available ALL DAY. Shannon and the children went down to Margo’s for the day. That night I watched UTAH stick it to Georgia Tech in the Emerald Bowl with Mike on his big screen TV. Great game. The new QB did great. The Ducks didn’t fair as well in the Holiday Bowl against OK. Both games were upsets.

Drove home Friday. It started snowing just north of Ogden. By the passes around Snowville it was sticking. There were dozens of cars off the road and several fresh roll overs (wipers still going, upside down). I-84 was snowpacked across most of ID. The worst part was the Blue Mountains in OR: icy, snowpacked. It only ended up adding an hour to the drive. We made it from Boise to The Dalles (~400 miles) without stopping. The kids watched “Little Giants”, “Sky High”, “Harry Potter 1″, “March of the Penguins”, “Spy Kids 2″ and “Dudley DoRight”. Great trip, great to be home again.

We had 10 couples over for New Year’s Eve. Another tradition. Everyone brings appetizers and we have Thai food take out. We played “Rate Your Mate”, which is like the Newlywed Game and a “game” Margo does at their New Years party: name one thing you regret doing this past, one thing you are proud of doing and one thing you want to do next year. Fireworks at midnight. It was fun.

Yesterday we drove to Bountiful from Portland. It was 12 hours in the car, but the kids did great. The roads were clear and the drive uneventful. Saw two bald eagles up close. It’s warm here ~50 and dry. Great to see mom and dad. Mom has had a bad case of the shingles and claims to be on the mend.

Tonight we are going to the Varleys.

Merry Christmas to all!!

U2′s show Monday night was great, but wasn’t as amazing as their show in Seattle back in April. Don’t know if it was the crowd or the band, probably a combination of the two. In Seattle, everyone stood for the whole show and SCREAMED the whole time. In Portland, between songs it actually got pretty quiet and whole sections sat during slower songs. Our seats were just OK. We were one row from the very top, about even with the front of the stage on their right. Good view of the band and the crowd, but the sound could have been better. Highlights for me were: I Will Follow (just ROCKED), Sunday Bloody Sunday (very emotional), Miss Sarajevo (Bono sang Pavoratti’s part, too) and the Beattles song: Help (great crowd participation). It was the last date of their worldwide tour, which was the top grossing tour of 2005. Their crew came out after the encore wearing single letter t-shirts that spelled out THE U2 CREW WOULD LIKE TO THANK EDGE BONO LARRY ADAM FOR A GREAT 2005.

It was a weekend of wacky weather in Portland. It has been cold and clear for the last week and a half. Saturday we started getting big wind gusts ~50 MPH. Saturday night we had my work Christmas party at our house. Right as the first people were driving up our street they saw a nearby transformer explode. Our power flickered then went out. We had dinner by candlelight. Everyone brought food, so it worked out great. Right as we were finishing dinner the power came back on for the gift exchange and dessert.

Yesterday afternoon it snowed. The kids were very excited. They put on their snow gear and went out in it for hours. The hill in our backyard is great for sledding. The snow turned to freezing rain later in the evening. Chains were required on big rigs on the Portland Metro highways. Just down from our house there were at least 20 cars that couldn’t make it up the hill, including a truck that was wrapped around at lightpost.

The boys had a piano recital Saturday. Dylan played “Rudolph” and Gavin played “Silent Night.”

Bono (and Bill & Melinda Gates) was named the Time magazine person of the year yesterday. The show starts in 3 hours!!

See Mother. See Mother laugh. Mother is Happy.
Mother is happy about Christmas.
Mother has many plans. Mother has many plans for Christmas.
Mother is organized. Mother smiles all the time.
Funny, funny Mother.

It is finally Christmas morning. See the happy family.
See Father smile. Father is happy. Smile Father smile.
Father loves fruitcake. Father loves Christmas pudding.
Father loves his new neckties. Look. Look.
See the happy children.
The children will remember this Christmas.
See Mother. Mother is slumped in a chair.
Mother is crying uncontrollably. Mother does not look well.
Mother has dark circles under her bloodshot eyes.
Everyone helps Mother to bed.
Mother sleeps quietly under heavy sedation.
See Mother smile.
Funny, funny Mother.

My friend gave this out as a Christmas letter. Can you relate?

We made our annual trip to SantaLand at the downtown Meier & Frank. It’s a 10 story, ancient department store. The whole 10th floor is SantaLand with elaborate model train sets, a great Santa and a monorail train kids can ride that hangs from the ceiling. They have been doing this for 50 years. Meier & Frank has been around since 1857. Federated Department Stores bought Meier & Frank this fall, so they will be changing all the Meier & Franks to Macy’s next year. They will be moving Santa down to the main floor, getting rid of the annual, day after Thanksgiving M & F Christmas Parade and likely getting rid of the monorail and most of the SantaLand displays.

Four more days to U2!!

Just got back from taking Grace to the Nutcracker. Oregon Ballet Theater does a nice job with it. One of the kid’s good friends was a soldier, so it was fun to see her. This was our 2nd annual trip. Last year they switched over to the George Balanchine production and made it much, much better. Shannon and I went when we first moved here and it was pretty weak compared to San Fran. The sets looked tired and the dancing was mediocre. Now it is right up there with SF. Decided matinees are still best for Grace. By the end of Act I it was 8:30 and she was falling asleep.

Gavin had an assignment to write about a time he felt content. It’s like a young Hemmingway (minus the alcohol and shotgun):

“I felt content at that time because I was in Hawaii. I was with my grandparents. I was having fun boogie-boarding. My heart was beating fast. All I could see was water. I could taste salt water in my mouth. All I could hear was water crashing really close.”

I had to surrender my passport. As part of the renewal process you have to send in your old one. That stinks because I had cool stamps and temporary visas from around the world:
’95 Cancun: My first passport from my mission to Switzerland had just expired.
’97 France, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Switzerland: Great trip with the Osorios back when the $ was relatively strong, mom watched Dylan.
’99 Indonesia (Bali) and Hong Kong: with Shannon’s parents and the boys (3 and 1 at the time) wonderful adventure. Bali is gorgeous and the people are wonderful. They all fawned over our little toddlers. The boys watch videos of the trip and want to go back “when the war is over”.
’03 Cancun X 2: first with Shannon’s sister and husband then a Rennie family reunion over Thanksgiving (with kids).
’04 Ecuador: Finally made it to visit Aunt Jenele and Uncle Hugo. They treated us like royalty. Best shrimp in the world. Galapagos Islands are amazing. Shannon’s parents watched the kids for the 2 weeks we were gone. Got to go back to chill at the Tobar beach house in Puerto Cayo and check out the Andes.

The next 10 years likely won’t be as exotic, but the adventures will undoubtedly continue…

Saturday was “Scouting for Food” day. I went door-to-door with Dylan and some of his fellow cubs collecting food for the Oregon Food Bank. We lucked out and got a mostly retired neighborhood on a golf course. Everyone was very generous with their canned goods and complimentary to the boys for “being out here early on a Saturday morning”.

It has been dumping snow up in the mountains, so Dylan and I headed up snowboarding after lunch. The snow was amazing, especially for Oregon. Usually we get “Cascade Concrete”…really wet, heavy snow. This stuff was almost Utah light and dry. You couldn’t even make a snowball with it. On Friday and Saturday you can ski for $17 from 3-11 PM with a Safeway Club card. It snowed the whole time, but it wasn’t super cold or windy. All the fresh snow made great conditions for Dylan to learn. This was his 3rd time and he is moving right up the learning curve. His first ride on a high speed quad freaked him out a bit. I explained that it slowed down when you get on and off. As the chair was barreling toward the off load ramp at 25 miles an hour he got a bit nervous, but calmed down when, at the last minute, it slowed way down. I was itching to do some runs by myself down the black diamonds, but Dylan wasn’t comfortable waiting for me in the lodge, even with the walkie-talkie. Probably because of that time last year when I lost Gavin for 45 minutes at the same ski resort.