New Years Eve

For new years eve this year we went to Nathan and Sharlyn's house. We had some great food and played games. The thing that I had the most fun with was the Rock Band game that we brought. Cambria and I were playing it at our house earlier that day and she had the idea that we take it all over to their house with us when we went that night. So, I packed it all up. The guitars, drums, drum throne, PlayStation, and microphone all went into the car. It was very worth having taken as everyone had a blast with it including Monty and Linda. Linda enjoyed watching mostly, but I loved seeing her have so much fun. Monty tried the guitar a bit, had fun, but quickly decided not to change professions and enter the music scene. Even Rya and Aiden enjoyed sitting and banging away at the drums, while missing almost every note on the screen.

Most people don't like to do the drums, and after trial and error, usually default to the guitars or the microphone. So, I often get to spend my time on the drums which is what I enjoy most. Linda said it was neat to see me drum a bit, even on a fake drum set since she has never seen me on a drum set before. I miss my real drums and hope to be able to find a way to set them up again soon. They are under my parents basement stairs where they will be safe from my nieces and nephews running around and possibly breaking them. I think our neighbors would kill me if I brought them into our apartment style condos.

We watched the ball drop in New York in television and tried a game Claudia wanted us to do. For each of the last 12 seconds of the year we would put a grape in our mouth and see if we could fit them all. At the end we would yell, "Happy New Year!" with a mouth full of grapes. It was quite hilarious. We spent the next few hours playing board games then went home. We were tired but looking forward to the new year in which we would add our little girl to our family.

Snowboarding at Brighton

Well I went snowboarding again with the Ellison side of the family. Cambria still didn't go since she is pregnant and she is respecting my wishes that she not go even though the doctor said it should be fine. We went to Brighton Ski Resort where Cambria and I always go with her dad, Monty. I wasn't the only one snowboarding this time, in fact, everyone was snowboarding. Nathan taught Claudia how to snowboard while Tyler taught Mindy. Monty and I spent most of the time going down the hill together since we had nobody to teach. It was fun, however, to stop on our way down and see the learners progress and watch them fall from time to time. They did really well but didn't escape the day without getting a few bumps and bruises from some good falls. I ended up hitting a patch of ice near the bottom of the hill and I landed right on my hip. It hurt pretty bad so I went in to the lodge with Mindy and Claudia for the last half hour while Monty, Nathan, and Tyler went to the other half of the mountain and got one last run in. I guess they got really stuck in a gully with a lot of powder and struggled to get out. All in all it was a really fun day and it was great to spend time with the family.

Christmas Time

This Christmas season brought with it a lot of family activies. I am looking over my calendar to try and remember them all. One thing is must include is our Christmas tree this year. There was a really bad storm all along the Wasatch front. It caused widespread damage to homes, due to both the wind and falling trees. The condos behind us had two blue spruce fall over, one of which completely blocked the road that passes our condos and goes into their parking lot. Well I got out my Saws-All and chopped off the top of the tree. Then, not wanting the other tree to go to waste, sawed off its top and carried it inside to use as our Christmas tree. It was beautiful and smelled great. It's not often you ever get a blue spruce as a Christmas tree. Well, Monty had brought advent calendars back from Europe. They are made by Kinder, a german company and behind each door is a large sized chocolate egg with a toy inside. You open it up and assemble the toy. We ended up using the tree as our kinder egg tree and placed the toys all over the tree. It was the best tree ever, aside from my train tree I have every year. Anyway, the week before Christmas I had just gotten done with my fall semester classes. I spent that whole week painting my parents basement. They had bought me new tires a while back and in return I painted their basement. I totaled my hours just to make sure I paid them back. After 73 hours of prep work and painting I more than paid them back. They must have felt the same since when I ordered another pair of surround speakers from my dad's work to put in my home theater, they paid for them. I got all the paint stuff cleaned up, tore up all the tape along the carpet, uncovered all the furniture, moved it all back to its rightful place, then vacuumed. They then did the job of hanging up pictures again and putting all their decorations back. It ended up looking really good and they are very happy with it.

We had a fun time with our nieces and nephews at my parents house that Friday night. I was getting stuff finished up in the basement that night so Cambria baby sat them while my parents went to a Christmas party at a doctor's house who my mom works with. The next morning we were at my parents house again. We had German pancakes for breakfast, a tradition I have always loved. I felt really tired afterward, so I took a nap while the kids put together gingerbread houses. Cambria had fun helping them and even made a nice little one of her own. She thinks it's too plain but I like it. Afterward we all went downstairs into the basement and had our family gift exchange, then did our yearly piñata. This year it was a penguin. My mom said she usually tries to get inanimate objects like a star or a tree, so this year she thought it a bit strange to be promoting the abuse and eventual beheading of a penguin, albeit a fake penguin. We gave all our nieces and nephews their gifts we got for them in Ecuador. Payton, Braden, Paige, and Brooke each got a little hand-carved marble turtle with their name engraved in the bottom. The girls got little indigenous hand-woven purses and Braden got a hand-carved skull. Braxton and Khloe got little stuffed turtles with the word Galapagos stitched in it. One had a top hat on for Braxton, and the other had a bow on its head for Khloe. We also gave the adults their presents since we wouldn't be with them the following week for Christmas. My mom and all my sisters got beautiful hand-made finely woven scarves and purses. My dad got a large marble carved turtle and my mom got a beautiful hand-made nativity scene. It was really fun to give them the presents and great that we were able to get them at such a great price in Ecuador.

The next day was a Sunday. The Worthen family Christmas dinner was to be at my parents house this year. It is the first year that we have moved the dinner so that it wasn't on Christmas day. It was very nice. We had such a fun time seeing all the family. I hadn't seen many of them for some time due to my time constraints with the school semester. We ate, and played our traditional bingo/white elephant game. My grandpa was there and he played an extra bingo card for my grandmother. He misses her a lot especially this first Christmas without her, but he keeps a smile on his face. It was funny when my grandma's card was the first to win. Needless to say we had a blast playing, talking and catching up with each other.

That next Tuesday we had an activity with the Ellison side of our family and made gingerbread houses. It was nice that both sides of the family did it because I slept through making houses at my parents, and Cambria left her parents activity to say goodbye to her young women since she just got released from her calling as their leader. I ended up having Claudia, Nathan and Sharlyn's Spanish foreign exchange student, help me build my house. She was a little unsure of herself at first. She kept asking what she should do next to which I would respond, "what do you want to do?" She eventually was coming up with her own ideas and had a great time. I think everyone's goal was to pile on as much wrapped candy as possible so it would stay fresh for later consumption. In our case it worked very well. It was funny to watch our nephew, Aiden, sneak around the table and pop up at different places to steal unused candy.

The next night they got a baby sitter for all the kids and all us adults went out for dinner and a concert. We drove down to Salt Lake and went out eat at Thaiphoon. Cambria's cousin Kristy Hunt joined us there. It was wonderful food and a great time with family. We then walked to the Abravanel Hall and saw Voice Male, a six man A Capella group. They were quite funny and had amazing voices. It was a great and memorable evening.

The Friday before Christmas we went snowboarding. Cambria didn't come since she is pregnant. He doctor said it would be fine but neither I nor her family would let her. It was a lot of fun but still somehow not the same without my sweetheart. Those who went were Me, Monty, Tyler and Nathan's families and Claudia. I had decided that I would play camera man for the day. I got some great photos of the kids skiing. I was the only one snowboarding that day. Tyler taught Jocelyn to ski while Mindy taught Riley. Nathan taught Rya while Monty taught Sharlyn. Jocelyn, being the oldest of the kids, picked it up really fast. The younger ones didn't do as well but still had a great time. After taking pictures for a while I noticed Claudia was just out on her own so I had her come with me up the larger lift then lead her down a black diamond run. She said she wanted a challenge so that is where we went. She was not too happy with me. She did alright but mostly fell and side stepped her way down. She also hadn't skied for about three years and had never felt powder snow. We found only a little powder and she immediately decided she didn't like it. I said she would like it if she weren't on such a steep run. I gave her my camera and she took some pictures of me, which are nice to have since I am usually the one behind the camera.

Well I spent the rest of the time either seeing how fast I could get down the mountain, hitting little jumps, and just enjoying being on my own for a bit. When the day was over we packed up and headed home. That night Linda had a magnificent Turkey dinner prepared which was welcome after a day of snowboarding.

Christmas Eve was a great day. It was Saturday and we went to my grandparents house in Brigham City. My parents were there and the six of us shared a big breakfast. My grandma keeps saying she will stop doing her cute little gifts for each family but she never fails to have them each year. They are cute and all placed in a large brown paper bag. We all sat down and pulled then out one at a time. One of the most memorable things was a folder with all my mission emails printed out. When we left there we swung by our house and gathered our stuff to stay the night at Cambria's parents house. When we got there we helped set up for the family party the next day. We then had a really good prime rib dinner cooked by none other than Linda. She did a lot of great cooking this holiday and I did a lot of great eating. Later Monty read the story of Christ's birth from Luke 2 which I really appreciated hearing. It really puts in perspective what this time of year is all about. Afterward I read The Night Before Christmas which was really fun and had the most intricate and beautiful pictures. The kids headed off to bed while we played Settlers of Catan. We later went to my parents house to see them. We saw my sister Kari and her kids there too. We were informed that Mrs. Santa would begin bringing 'Mrs. Santa Jammies' to our house starting next Christmas since our daughter will be born before then.

We left my parents and went back to the Ellisons. I read The Littlest Angel to Cambria. She has never heard it. I grew up hearing my mom read it every year to us. She grew up with her father reading it to them. As I read, instead of my own voice, I distinctly heard my mom's soft voice reading and tears came to my eyes. She always did such a wonderful job and brought the spirit of Christ into our home. I hope I always express my gratitude for the things she and my dad have taught me. My mom was the leader of Christmas eve but my dad has always been the one directing Christmas morning. I always loved it as he said who's turn it was to open presents and we would scramble around under the tree finding each other's presents. The year I will never forget was when my dad was out of a job and Christmas was a little bit different. There were a few presents bought for us but the main thing we received were belongings of our parents that meant a lot to both them and us; A beautiful ocean scene painted by my mom, or a scrap booking bag that a sister always loved. My dad gave me his go kart, the machine of his life's dreams. He built it all by hand, and although still not quite finished, means the whole world to me.

We slept in the guest bedroom that night and woke up early the next morning. When we got up we got breakfast ready, baked french toast that Cambria had prepared. It has quickly become one of my favorites. We watched as Jocelyn and Riley opened their stockings. With each item they removed from the stocking they jumped with joy at times not even knowing what it was they were holding. Christmas day fell on a Sunday this year and church was to consist of only Sacrament meeting. We all got ready and walked over. It was a great meeting and a great compliment to our Christmas morning. We then went to work getting things ready for all of Linda's siblings and their families to come over. We had a great meal as we all sat around in the basement and talked. We then did a bingo/white elephant game. Linda loved the idea when we told her we did it at my parents house so we borrowed the bingo game. Between Linda and us, we just bought a bunch of little gifts instead of having people bring them. I was the one calling the numbers while Cambria directed people in what to do during the game. We all had a great time and good memories. We cleaned up and things died down as people slowly left to their homes. We then stopped by my parents house. It's really nice that they live so close. We opened their presents to us. My mom had got us a bunch of things off our our baby registry. It was quite cute how excited she was about it all and I deeply appreciate my parents generosity. Both mine and Cambria's parents have always been so giving and helpful.

Well we finally got back to our house that evening and it was time to open our presents. It was a funny year since a lot of the things we got were purchased when we were both there. The big present for us both was our video camera. We got it for our baby girl since we want more than just pictures of her. We started by Cambria opening up our unborn daughter's tiny little stocking that had among other things a clementine at the bottom of it. Cambria then opened her own stocking then I opened mine. In my family it has always gone youngest to oldest with both stockings and presents, so that is how we decided to do it too. We got movies, new bed sheets, a neat picture frame to put all our families photos in, and a Forgotten Carols book. Cambria got some new boots, a spring form pan, and a bundt pan. I got three pairs of jeans, a subway card to use during school, some wristbands that are supposed to help you feel better which we can return if they don't seem to work, and best of all I got a wonderful Christmas evening opening presents with my wife. I would have to say, as I have said with most, this has been one of the best Christmas' yet.