Equinox

Here we go. Alison did the Christmas thing, although she left her blog post as a draft for a month. I went ahead and published it for her, so I'll probably be scolded at some point for that.

I didn't have hardly any pictures of John's birthday celebration at Jump 'n' Jammin, because I was on Tommy duty most of the time.

It was a success, and exhausting, of course. Fortunately, we have a lot of friends that pitched in that made it all work. John lost his balloon in the ductwork, and the staff offered to bring it down. They improvised with a long pole with a loop of tape. They snagged his red balloon and brought it all the way back down, much to John's delight. Then, as the young man was removing the balloon from the tape, it popped. John's face was a sight to behold, a mixture of confusion and horror. The Jump 'n' Jammin employee was horrified. And my reaction was to laugh. I'm a great dad.

Debby visited and offered to take us to some run-down Italian joint called Maggiano's, by the Price is Right studios. If you don't know me well, the restaurant is not actually in poor condition. Well, not entirely...they ended up having some flooding issues that closed the restaurant right around the time that we had finished, but in the meantime a fun time was had by all. John almost died for lack of entertainment, but that's another issue.

I went and lost my credit card at a pub by the Pantages theatre in Hollywood. I got it back a week later. Alison and I saw Wicked, finally.

Tommy has no problem with stairs.

John bedazzled his superhero mask at his school's "Daddy and Me" day. Dang, some kids had some legit costumes there. Fortunately, I managed to ease his jealousy of his friend Logan, who had a pretty spot-on Flash outfit.

Alison and I are always up for fabulous getaways, being season ticket holders and platinum level contributors to the council of the arts in...yeah, not really. We do like attending plays and performances when we can, though that doesn't stop the organizing committees from hitting us up for cash as if we were. We caught an excellent rendition of Ragtime in the Pasadena Playhouse.

And we also got heavily subsidized donuts from a new bakery.

I love selfies

Just a Sunday afternoon...

My last living grandparent passed away in March. I was grateful I visited Grandma Reese back in August for her 90th birthday, as that ended up being the last time I spoke to her. I traveled to Utah for the funeral, alone, as Alison had work obligations that she couldn't escape.

The Reese sombrero, kept in storage until Dad rediscovered it

The Grant residence, where the family gathered to sort through belongings

 We had some extra time in Salt Lake City on Sunday, so I got to attend my first Music and the Spoken Word.

Afterward, in the rain transitioning to snow, I suggested we go to the Salt Lake City Cemetery to visit some of our ancestors. Dad's folks are all buried elsewhere, but almost all of Mom's were buried here. I made sure to visit the James, Romneys, Birkinshaws, Showells, my mom's grandparents. Turns out that my James-Romney great grandparents were the hardest to locate. Their headstones were not where the cemetery records would indicate, but we did find them at last.

Grandma's service was held on the following Monday in Brigham City. Her children all participated with either prayers or speeches, with Dad giving the main remembrance and my cousin Angela retelling her biography. I was tasked with dedicating the gravesite, a first for me. I hope I did an OK job. We couldn't have asked for better weather, after the rainy and snowy stuff we had Sunday.

We had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. Since we even got Eric to come out for the occasion, we did some tooling about downtown Salt Lake.

We located a CupBop joint, together with a ramen place. That was awesome...would definitely go again. Although maybe my stomach wasn't super ready for the unique flavors a few hours later...still, worth it.

Since I couldn't convince my parents to watch Us, I found a showing of the Apollo 11 documentary at the Salt Lake Film Society. I think Alison would have loved the place...very arthouse styling. It reminded me of the cinephile aspects of the Alamo Drafthouse, but without the pop (serious business). The documentary is excellent, and I recommend that any fan of history or of the space program see it. I happen to be both.

So, it's back to the grindstone with me. Fortunately, our long test campaign at work has ended for now. Haley comes in about a week and a half, so John and I are going to ride the rails again to see her--more adventure awaits!

Happy Birthday, Gordon, John, and Me! Also, Christmas 2019!

So, it's been a little while.

December - February is a very eventful time for our family!

So, Gordon turned 34 in December, and we did some fun things. :)

We had a good time at home, ate some yummy food, and watch Gordon show off his new birthday duds. Of special interest were his first real California Hawaiian Shirt and the new Amazon Show! Happy 34th, stud! <3

Also, here are some fried randoms from December:

John did a pretty decent job with his QUITE lengthy role as Shepherd #3 in the Foothill Christian Preschool Christmas Program. (Seriously, he had like 12 lines, and they were not all short.) He was pretty solid on stage, which was a happy surprise after he bailed on the church primary program only a couple of months before.  Way to go, buddy!

 Shout out to the crowd after he remembered all his lines! Also, here's a picture of John with his teacher, Ms. Ann, who does her best to keep him and the 9 other crazy boys in his class in line without killing each other. We are grateful (and constantly sorry) for her!

 Grandma Debby came through town briefly and helped us spruce up the house in Christmasy fashion. It was lots of fun! We also finally "decorated" our tree. It consited of much silliness and a lot of Tommy restraining.

 Brother's Hug!

Gordon and I were also put "on point" for the Ward Christmas Party's food committee (because apparently the committee chairs who were asked were not going to be in town the night of the party). Anywho, our friends the Thornhills actually did a pretty great job of purchasing/ organizing items for a dinner to please the whole ward, and we just had to execute the final product. It was a team of a bunch of young couples/ families, and we had a good time with it. Most importantly, the pot roast, potato bar, and spinach salad were all a big hit, and we didn't run out of food!  Hooray!

John also ended up being a shepherd in the ward Christmas Party Nativity Program (courtesy of being friends with the McCleaves and Pews who largely populated the show this year). 

No speaking parts this time - phew!

Also, John loves when Santa comes to visit at the Christmas Party. Tommy, not so much. 

 After all the grand adventuring in California, if was Off to Grandma Debby's for a HOUSTON FAMILY CHRISTMAS!

Ok, so it was really just us and her for Christmas in Texas this year, but as always, it was magical, AND we did end up having just a "small" version of the Christmas Eve Party, earlier than usual, that made for a pretty perfect Christmas Eve and a super laid back Christmas Day.  Thanks for a great holiday, mom! We love you!

Special Bonus - Hilary and Ian's crew rolled in a couple of days after Christmas, and we got to overlap by about a week. It was really a fun trip, though we did miss our CA Gibbs fam. #nextsummerinbanff