The Night Before Christmas

Our Christmas Tree 2008 version

It was the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring but dad missing his kids in Hawaii.

I know its not very poetic but I just wanted to let all of you in Hawaii that I wish we were all together at this Christmas season (preferably over there - because of the -25 weather here).  That means you Angie, Mike, Brylie, Tyken and Erika.  But it also includes Jacqui, Brent, Craig, Blair and Troy.

With Sharon and Darren back at home I'm glad that you all have each other for Christmas.  I calculate that there will be 12 of you for Christmas dinner tomorrow in Hawaii.   That will beat us and we will be going to the Kays with Grandma Anderson for dinner tomorrow.   There will only be 11 of us there.   Enjoy your time together.

I'm grateful that we were able to all be together for American Thanksgiving.

This has to be one of the best posed pictures we've ever taken as a family.  This is of course based on the Norman Rockwell painting below.   (that's Mike who only has hair showing)

  

And to tie it back to Christmas take a look at Tony Bennett's new Christmas Album cover.

(isn't that too funny?)

   

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

(These were taken in the Laie Temple Visitor's Center.)

Baby Its Cold Outside

I believe that if it hurts to go outside its too cold.  I took this picture of the thermometer outside our nook window.  It may not be obvious  because there is no "-" sign, but this show about -27 or -28 C or -18 F.  Add a little wind to this and the its a wind chill factor of -35 to -40.  Baby Its Cold Outside.

I've had to bundle up and go out and shovel the walk and driveway.   Can someone explain to me why we have a driveway that is 3 cars wide?  It can literally take over an hour to clear shovel the show off the driveway.   Fortunately we have an angel that lives in our neighborhood.   This angel has a snow blower and has come by and visited our driveway a couple times.   It takes him less than 5 minutes to do what takes me over an hour.

I wish I was in Hawaii again.   I've been meaning to post blogs about our trip.  Some of the girls a have posts about the trip.  Check out Angie, Alana, Erika and Nicole's (on Wilma's blog) blogs to see some of the things we did.

Alana says that I need to update my blog and add my perspective.  So I'll do a series of updates with some highlights of my trip (in random order).

Highlight - Music video from Hawaii.

I don't know how the girls did this but Judy and I went to bed and they hadn't started and when we woke up the next morning they had this fun video.

This made me laugh.  I've played around with doing some videos in the past and I kind of know what is involved.    I'm amazed at what they were able to accomplish in a short time.  Good work girls.  Now you can tell people about the time you went to Hawaii to film a music video.  This video is on Angie, Alana and Erika's blogs as well.

Christmas Music

  
I love Christmas music.   When we were in Hawaii there was a radio station that was playing only Christmas music.   It was great.   Finally last week one of the stations here went to straight Christmas music.  Some years there will be a new Christmas song or Album that will catch my attention.  

     

Its like when I heard Amy Grant's Home for Christmas Album for the first time.  I loved it and its still a favorite.


I think I've come across a new favorite.   Yesterday I was driving Jenelle to school and we heard this version of the 12 days of Christmas on the radio.   They said its their #1 request this Christmas.   This song became popular because 1 of the members of the group posted this 10 year old video of them on YouTube.


Enjoy!



They are called Straight No Chaser.   They reunited after 10 years to record a new Christmas Album this year.

 

I like their sound.  Listening to them brings back fond memories of my days as a Keith Wood Singer.  

(Click here for a link to an MP3 Recording featuring vocals by The Keith Wood Singers) 


I know the recording is not a Christmas song.  We had some great Christmas tune but I don't think they are recorded.  The Keith Wood Singers did record a CD but we should have done a Christmas CD - then we could sell it every year.   Straight No Chaser's first album was a Christmas Album.  THat was smart - Now no matter what else happens they will sell albums every holiday season - Just ask Johnny Mathis.


... and who knows...maybe a lost video of the Keith Wood Singers singing Christmas Carols will appear on YouTube and we will reunite to record a Christmas Album...Wake up Doug...You're dreaming...

Jamie the Jet Setter

      
On November 26 we headed to the airport early in the morning to catch our flight to Vancouver to catch our flight to Honolulu.

Here we are waiting in Vancouver for our flight to Hawaii.

   

On the plane ready for takeoff

   

on the flight to Hawaii

    

I also have pictures of the girls on the flight home but they aren't very flattering.  

(I didn't know they could open their mouths so wide while sleeping).

      

  So last Sunday we flew home.   Today is Thursday.  Early this morning I drove Jamie to the airport to catch a flight to Victoria.  She's off with the girls high school basketball teams for a tournament.   They will fly home on Sunday.   She's become quite the jetsetter.  

   

Checking in

   

There was a WestJet guy doing card tricks for the teams.

    

The Mormons

Jamie (right) and her friends Jessica (left) and Jessica (centre).  

(or is it Jessica (centre) and Jessica (left)?)

  

          

 We actually timed our trip so Jamie could be there for the basketball tryouts.   The tryouts ended the day before we left for Hawaii. Jamie made the Jr. Team.   She missed the first tournament because we were away.   Jamie's first game was on Tuesday night.  She only had 1 practice with the team so she was pretty nervous about things.   (She took a basketball to Hawaii intending to practice every morning.   That never happened.)  But she seemed to get over her nerves quickly and ended up scoring 19 points.   (I wonder what she would have done with some practice)

     

Unbelievable Coincidence

  
On Alana's trip home she reported that fitness guru, Tony Horton, was on her flight.  You can read about it here .



Here's her picture of Tony on her flight.

       
I couldn't believe it when I "saw" Tony Horton on our flight home.   What are the chances of that?   He was right in front of me.

I took some pictures but the lighting wasn't very good so the pictures aren't very clear.

Here's my pictures of Tony.

 

Ok.  So the real Tony wasn't "on" our flight.  But I did "see" him on our flight.  It was the infomercial for his workout on the individual TV screens we had on the plane.

     

   

Well - at least I thought it was funny.

     

    

I'm Back

      
We are back from our Hawaiian vacation and I am back from my break from blogging.   I have lots of excuses for not blogging.  I didn't have a computer... well we did have multiple laptops but the connection was slow.   Plus Angie  and Alana and even Nicole did some posts that covered lots of what we did so I didn't have to.  (Plus there were lots of other things I would rather do in Hawaii than blog - like hanging out with Tyken and Brylie on the beach).

So we left this . . .

And returned to this . . .

My first morning back I had to bundle up to go out and shovel the sidewalk, start the car to warm it up and clear off the 6 inches of snow that had accumulated and scrape the ice off the windows.  And then risk my life slipping and sliding while attempting to drive the girls to school on the icy roads.   On Tuesday I put the snow tires on the van.


At least its not that cold (by Canadian winter standards).  Its been around freezing.   But in the next week they are expecting the -20 to -30 temperatures.


So when Jamie and Jenelle asked me why we live here I had no good answer.

I loved Hawaii!

Happy Birthday Angie!

Happy Birthday Angie!

Hope you had a good one. 

First Alana flew over so she could spend your birthday with you.

   

In a couple days all my girls will be together again.

I'm getting excited.

  

I wanted to get this posted earlier but Sunday can be a busy day for me.  I wanted to do some other things as well but just no time.

Angie had a wonderful post about Grandpa Anderson.   We sure miss him.   You can read it by clicking here.

Here's some pictures that I thought you all might like.  No reading glasses or newspaper but it should bring back some memories of Grandpa Rex in his chair against the wall.

These pictures were taken in 2003

My best trip to Costco ever!

    

I've been meaning to do a part 2 update on my trip to Utah but Wilma already did a great job.   Check it out at her site.

There is one other story I have to tell.  Its about a very memorable trip to Costco.

But first I have to set the stage.   First we go back to the Summer of 2003.   We took a family vacation to Utah.  We went to Park City and Moab.

We stayed at the Marriot Mountainside.  This is a picture in the winter.  Its right by the ski hill.  But in the summer this place was dirt cheap.  We had a 3 room suite that slept 8.

I cooked breakfast one morning.

   

We did several hikes in Moab.

   

This picture needs some explanation.   I was setting the time on the camera and was going to run up to join the family.   But the incline was a bit too steep and when I tried to run up I didn't make it and my momentum threw me back down by the camera.   I ended up face planted in the sand - only a few feet from a small cliff.   It was a very precarious situation.   You can see the concern on the faces of each of my loving family members.

  

We found a deal in Moab on a 3 bedroom condo.  In the closet were some games and puzzles.  As a family we like to do puzzles during the Christmas holidays and other family occasions.   In the evenings we worked on one of these puzzles.

   

It was a puzzle of the old city of Nauvoo.  I really liked the artist's style.   His name was Eric Dowdle.

      

Now fast forward to November 11, 2008

     

I was in Salt Lake City but drove down to Provo to get Alana to bring her back to visit at Wilma and Daves.

I left early in the morning and went to the Provo Temple.

    

After I picked up Alana we stopped at Costco in Orem to grab some lunch.  We decided to look around. There was an artist there who was doing a book signing.  It turned out to be none other than Eric Dowdle.   Since I liked his work  I went up to talk to him.  We chatted for quite a while.   He has quite the sense of humor and Alana figures that he is the funniest person she has ever met. 

    

We ended up buying some puzzles to do if we have free time in Hawaii during the evenings.  He even signed them for us.  

    

Here I am with Eric.   You can find out more about Eric and check out his work at his site .

    

He said these puzzles should take about an hour and a half.  We did one in about 35 minutes but as you can see we had lots of help.   Both Chay and Blade miraculously found the last 2 pieces that seemed to be missing.   I think they found them in their hands.

   

At Costco I also got some shorts for my trip at a very discounted price.  

    

Best trip to Costco ever.

Oh Deer

Background to set the stage - Grandma and grandpa have been planning to go to Utah for months.   I think the original plan for for them to be there for Conference (first weekend in October).   But they had a little accident in there car in September.  Someone ran into them when they were stopped a red light in Lethbridge.  It took six weeks for them to get their car fixed.   They got it back a week ago Tuesday  and it looked great.  We left for SLC Thursday last week.
         

We started driving home on Thursday this week.   On the road between Butte and Helena we encountered blowing snow with whiteout conditions.   We followed a semi going about 30 - 35 miles an hour.   Then the snow stopped but we had snow covered roads but the sanding trucks had been through so it wasn't that bad.   On one pass however, there was shear ice.  No sanding trucks had been there yet.   It was on the downhill for us.   It was probably one of the worst roads I've driven on - ice on a hill.  But the driver in the truck in front of me was smart (or he just did what the truck in front of him did).   He drove so the tires on one side of the vehicle were on the rumble strip (the ones that wake you up if you drive over them).   I did the same and it gave us enough traction to keep us from sliding all over.    In the inside lane there were vehicles that weren't so lucky.  They had stopped because they were sliding into the guardrail on the left side.   The folks in Hawaii may not remember this but sometimes the road is so slippery that when you try to drive you slide downhill even if its sideways.   That is what was happening to them.   On the uphill side of the road even the sanding truck was not moving and there was as about a mile of vehicles just sitting there because they couldn't make it up the hill.  But we safely made it to Helena.
     

All of that just to set the stage - and to let you know that we did have some scary driving.
    

Yesterday the weather was clear and warmer.   No snow or rain.   Excellent driving conditions.  We came through the border as it was getting dark.    I was driving by Warner and a deer jumped out in front on me from the median.   I slammed on the brakes and swerved to the left to miss it.   I thought we were going to miss it but it just caught the outside corner of the car.   So 10 days after they get it back from the body shop this happens.

We called 911 and it took about an hour for the RCMP to arrive.   He said it was because they got another 911 call about the same time we called from some else who hit a deer about 2 or 3 miles from where we were.   The RCMP responded to that call first.  Plus we didn't know where we were.   We were further down the road than we thought so he had to drive further down the highway to find us.   Ironically grandpa was looking at getting a GPS when we stopped at Costco in Helena but concluded he didn't need one because he would only be going place he knew how to get to.   As we waited for the RCMP to show up we realized that the GPS would have told us exactly where we were.


Another irony is that I accompanied them on the trip so they wouldn't have to drive.  (See Wilma's blog  - scroll down to see a picture of "Mom and Dad with their faithful and loving chauffeur.")  Family members worried about them driving that far by themselves.   Family members will now have to make sure someone accompanies me when I go places so they won't have to worry about me driving.
    
The good news was that while it looks bad, it appears to be only body damage and the car was drivable. The signal lights didn't work but the RCMP officer told us just to just give lots of notice before turning.  (Hmmm.  How do you do that at night if you don't have signal lights?)   He was actually a funny guy and could have done the report in half the time but he liked to chat.   He asked all about the Prius.  He told me that he took one for a test drive and thought he was on a space shuttle.   He also showed me the new on board camera in the police car that they have to record everything except it doesn't work because they haven't turned it on yet - they won't let them until they are trained.   That all came up because the moved the dome light to install the camera but the camera is in the way so that where he has to write is in a shadow.   This could also explain why it took him so long to get to us.  He visited with the other folks too -  I know that because he told me all about that accident.
    
We made it back to PB okay.
  
Trivia:  Did you know know that there are only 2 places you need a signal light between Warner and Picture Butte?

My first on the road blog update

 

So I'm sitting in the car at JC Penny's in Helena, Montana and I'm doing my first "On the road blog update"

    

Grandpa and I are waiting in the car for grandma.  She went into JC Penny's to check out a few things.  I pulled out the computer and lo and behold - there is wireless internet access.  

I used Photobooth and the laptop to take this picture of us in the car.

  

Just to prove we are at JC Penny's

    

and we are in the parking lot

    

I love Google.  They now have video chat.  It came out this week.   I tried it while waiting and Alana was online.  I can do the Jetson video phone thing while sitting in a car in a parking lot.

I love technology - when it works.

Road Trip

Here I am in at the Holiday Inn Express in Helena, Montana.   I drove my mom and dad down to Utah to visit Wilma and her family and Alana.   We're now on our way home.

In one of Angie's recent blogs she commented that I should probably explain more about losing my job and moving in with my parents.   Yes I really did lose my job and I have spent the last week with my parents.   More on the job situation later but I'll start with some pictures from our trip.

We arrived Thursday evening.  On Friday morning, first thing we did our mandatory trip to NPS.  Its a discount store that can have some crazy deals.   Auntie Wilma is addicted to this place.   For example I bought a pair of these Docker pants  for $3.60 (Yes that's $3.60 - not $36.00).  They were on clearance  because it looked like they fell on the floor and someone walked on them.   Wilma washed them and they came out fine.    I also got a pair of these Rockport shoes for $20.

From there we headed  down to Provo to get Alana, but on the way we stopped in at Cabela's  - a superstore for fishing, camping and hunting.  Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed their visit.

There were animals everywhere.

  

The moose recognized a fellow Canadian.

   

Zoom in and look at this camper (the one in the back - not grandma). 

(Does anyone else think it looks like Pres. Bush?)

    

We brought Alana back to SLC to spend the spend the weekend with everyone.

  

She had a craving for cinnamon buns so Grandma showed her how she makes them.

I was busy with my new best friend.  We watch Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D.

   

Alana joined us while the buns were in the oven.

   

The next day was haircut day.  We kept Alana busy.  

She cut my hair and also grandpa and Blades.

  

Blade found it either really boring or really relaxing.

   

Grandpa and Blade after haircuts.

Alana and me before haircut

After haircut
   

More to come - have to back up and drive back to Canada.