See If Your New Year's Celebration Is More Exciting Than Ours

This was Glen yesterday.

He had taken the day off work so he could relax and savor every moment of enjoying BYU's bowl game from the comfort of his easy chair.

Instead, he spent hours at the hospital getting his gall bladder tested.

Test came back showing his gall bladder was functioning at zero percent. The technician told him they don't usually send people home when that happens. They get admitted for surgery.

Glen came home and decided to eat hot wings--knowing full well he got very sick the last time he ate that meal. He did it anyway (eating significantly less than he normally would), watched the BYU bowl game, cheered for their victory, stayed up super duper late watching other ball games, slept very little, and then got up super duper early to report to the hospital for surgery.

Here he is back home--with his gall bladder removed--all settled back in his easy chair eating crackers so he can take his drugs.

At least one of us will be flying high as he brings in the New Year. In the meantime, anybody lonely out there and want to party?

Christmas Eve Party

It appears we started a tradition last year on Christmas Eve because we did it again this year as well. We had another bridal shower. Last year it was for Kaelyn and Dennis. This year it was for Kenna and Seth. Everyone was wondering who it might be next year.

The family assembled to watch the opening of the gifts.

Amanda was using the cooler to prop up her legs. She'd just recently had surgery to slice open her leg muscles (or something nasty like that). I just wish I had gotten the camera and taken a picture of her bruised and battered legs when she unwrapped the bandages later in the evening.

The bridal couple received some silly and some sound advice from the gift givers.

After all the gifts were opened, Clint helped Nani mix up her delicious frozen slush drink that is such a favorite with everyone--especially the little kids. It's like having dessert first. And the adults love it as well.

We had a lot of good food that everyone had brought to share. Thanks to Cache Valley Electric for supplying another honey-baked ham for our dinner.

Following dinner, we had our Christmas Eve program where anything goes.

We had some special bell ringers helping during the Jingle Bells song.

Nani got some volunteers (and one eager observer) to participate in another minute-to-win-it game. This year she chose the Vaseline/cotton ball game that she was the winner of on our cruise. The four willing family members joined her at the table where they received their instructions.

First, stick nose in the Vaseline glob. Then, without using hands, work as quickly as possible to get all the cotton balls moved from one plate onto the other plate.

The girls went first.

It was close, but Rachel beat Maggie by a nose. Ha ha ha!!

The boys were up next, waiting anxiously while Nani got the plates switched out.

They were listening for the signal to start the race.

It was another close game, but yet again the youngest contestant had a slight edge on the older one.

Congratulations Preston! It looks like Ben is eager to get all the cotton strands and Vaseline cleaned off his nose.

Another fun activity during the evening was making Spencer laugh. That little boy really loves to giggle.

Dad and Mom opened a few gifts.

A final photo shot of Andy and Amanda's kids on the stairs.

And a cute shot of Brooke kneeling by the Christmas tree looking at an ornament--the little green Grinch.

It was time for everyone to go home because Santa Claus was coming to town. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

A Pre-Christmas Getaway

Glen planned a little getaway for us to use two free night stays with Marriott before they expire at the end of the month. He was mad that we lost a couple of free nights a few months ago because we just didn't use them. He said that was not going to happen again and he was determined to take advantage of these free nights at some point before they expired.

It has been so bitterly cold around here lately and I started envisioning spending two days and nights in a little warmer destination--like St. George, for instance.

The calendar was consulted, work days were considered, Christmas was coming, and everything added up to...

a pre-Christmas getaway in...

Provo!!!

Is everyone thinking the same thing I was thinking??? Exciting destination--right??!!??

Well maybe it would be exciting if we didn't spend so much of our time there already. Glen was determined to use up the nights and I was determined to support him, so off we went on our mini-vacation.

When we called to see what the Golden family was doing for dinner, Rebecca assured us she and the kids were free to join us for dinner while Dallas was dealing with a flat tire issue. The girls were kept busy trying to get the peanuts out of the shells.

Perhaps someone might have guessed by now that Glen had an ulterior motive for picking Provo as our trip destination. Since he is the proud owner of not only football season tickets, but now he has BYU basketball season tickets as well, that means there are a lot of games going on--like twice a week.

And I thought football was bad...

There just happened to be a basketball game that night.

Actually, I like basketball 100% more than football, so it's not all that unbearable. And when I'm with my favorite guy, it couldn't get any better.

But then it did get better!

I scanned the crowd of fans in the student section and found our son. The two Benjamins were sitting between the two Dall sisters. Ginger and Jess's parents were there sitting next to Ginger. Their brother, Taylor, is sitting behind Ben and their youngest brother, Nathan, was wearing the bright red bird cap.

Ben and Ginger looked over at us

and then Benjamin Pingel found us and waved back. Now THAT whole interaction was probably the highlight of the game that night for me.

Two other precious moments were

1. when I spied a roll of toilet paper sitting on a seat a few rows in front of us. Anyone want to explain that one to me???

2. when Cosmo appeared in his Christmas suit...which was blue instead of red. Come on, Cosmo! Where's your true Christmas spirit??!!??

Not only did Marriott treat us to a free room for two nights, but Marriott also treated Glen to several bags of freshly popped popcorn upon our arrival back at the end of the ball game. My guy was in heaven eating his favorite treat!

How awesome for the man to wake up and look out our balcony window to see the big "Y" on the mountain. Glen was wishing he lived in Provo all the time.

Glen was a super good sport and let me choose where we would go for breakfast. His #1 choice would have been McDonald's, which would be rock bottom on my list. We have heard many times from Abe and Klarissa how awesome the all-you-can-eat French toast at Kneaders is and I decided it was time to give it a try.

My conclusion is the same as theirs--YUMMY!!

Glen was such a good sport that he let me pick Kneaders for our breakfast location the next morning as well, only that time he chose the breakfast sandwich instead of French toast. I stuck with the tried and true.

We were excited to see the movie Glen had been wanting to see--Moneyball--had come to the cheaper theater.

After the movie, we went to cash in on our free yogurt. For any game BYU scores more than 80 points, Yogurtland gives out 5 ounces of free yogurt. We presented our tickets and got our free treat, but still had to pay because we both loaded up our cups with way more than 5 ounces.

Glen did his token Christmas shopping that day with me. Each year he'll go one time out Christmas shopping with me and I appreciated his good mood while we walked through the mall and went to a couple of other stores. We were successful in finding exactly what we needed, so that made me super happy.

I tried to talk him into buying himself a gift at the BYU Bookstore, because I could tell he wanted it, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Since our Christmas shopping was complete, we went back to the same theater and treated ourselves to a second movie--Dolphin Tale.

We decided to try out a restaurant we've never been to before--Chef's Table. It was beautifully lit up on the outside and elegantly decorated for Christmas on the inside.

As I looked into the restaurant, I was excited to see a man in a tuxedo playing the piano. I always love live music while dining. Turns out when we got up close, the piano player was a 12-year-old boy who played exquisitely beautiful music all through our dining experience.

It was a pretty swanky restaurant. Each table was decorated with a candle and a red rose. Our table overlooked the night lights of Provo with a great view of the Provo Temple. We both chose soup to begin our dinner and it arrived at our table in individual soup tureens. So fancy!

I ordered chicken and Glen ordered the special--steak and lobster.

It was a fun and special dining experience for us on the last evening of our pre-Christmas getaway.

Thanks to Marriott for nudging us off for a fun couple of days away from home. We discovered it doesn't really matter where the location is as long as we're spending time together.