My Christmas Break "Top 20"

20. Thirty-four College "FootBowl" games on TV.

19. Playing Card games.



18. 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" on TBS. (Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra...)

17. Christmas cards and newsletters.

16. Clam Dip!

15. iFrogz - having a great job, the desire, will and ability to work, and having time off!

14. Christmas Eve in Perry with extended family.

13. Delivering Christmas newspapers at 9:30 PM Christmas Eve (complete with Jingle Bells)

12. "No Assembly Required" on Christmas Eve.

11. Sleeping in 'til 7:30 AM Christmas morning.

10. two words... Monkey Bread.



9. Warm Christmas hats!

8. Christmas electronics and gadgets.

7. Teaching Josh how to change the oil on the Ford.



6. Christmas Dinner surrounded by family, having our health, Great friends, and all of our many other blessings.

5. Nap time.

4. Leftovers.

3. Phone call from Washington.



2. Hot air balloon launch.

1. The spirit of Christmas - and the hope of a New Year.


and...

Bottom Ten:

10. Eating too many treats.

9. Delivering papers in -5 degree temps.

8. "Some Assembly Required"

7. Getting farther and farther behind at work every minute (WooHoo - MyFrogz!)

6. "Batteries Not Included"

5. "I'm Bored"



4. Winter inversions.

3. Curmudgeons.



2. Frozen tongues ("You'll shoot your eye out!")



1. No Hang Gliding! (yet!)

Conference Center Concert

Sunday morning's wake-up alarm came at O-four-thirty, so that I could have the big Sunday newspapers delivered in time for our family to be on the snowy roads by 6 am. Keri got some last minute tickets to the Sunday morning "Music and the Spoken Word", narrated by Lloyd Newell, combined with a Christmas Concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra, conducted by Mack Wilberg, at the LDS Conference Center on Temple Square.

Special guests included Grammy Award winning performing artist Natalie Cole and Pulitzer Prize winning author and narrator David McCullough. We made decent time on the treacherous roads, Escalade-pooled with Grandpa Dave, found a parking place,

braved the snow storm,

and made it into our great floor-level seats by 8:30 am. First we witnessed the "Music and the Spoken Word" live broadcast performance/production. The audience of over 20,000 people were asked to avoid any clapping, coughing or extra noise, due to the nature of the live TV and radio broadcast, which was also recorded for future broadcast. After each musical number, it was very difficult to remain silent and delay any appreciative applause. Although I do not listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on a regular basis, witnessing their performance in person is an awesome, moving experience. When we finally went "off-air" a half hour later, the audience erupted in applause and cheers.

*The above embedded You Tube video was disabled, but you can click on the following link to get to the same video on a different page: http://www.deseretnews.com/video/1584/Mormon-Tabernacle-Choir-Christmas-concert.html

The Christmas concert portion of the morning performance then began a few minutes later. It was an incredible hour of classic and contemporary Christmas songs and hymns, including a bell choir, a children's choir,

and a number of dancers in costumes representing Christmas from around the world.

Guest artist Natalie Cole wowed the audience with her smooth vocals, including a soulful version of "The Holly and the Ivy". David McCullough provided narration focusing on the role of music in Christmas and American history. Senior Organist Richard Elliot amazed the audience with his multiple-carol-arrangement, seamlessly weaving together Good King Wenceslas, The Nutcracker and Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy . He seemed to be doing four different things simultaneously, as both hands and both feet worked independently in the stirring rendition.

The Conference Center stage was beautifully decorated with stained glass windows, stone walls and holiday decorations. This annual performance required months of planning throughout the year focused on this Christmas concert series.

LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson was in attendance, along with a number of other General Authorities. Following the concert, Pres. Monson presented the guest artists with special gifts, following which the choir sang "God be with you" to them. Natalie and David were obviously moved by the kind gestures.

This concert culminated four days of performances at the conference center, a Christmas "gift to the community". Highlights from each of the four concerts were recorded, and will be edited together into a PBS special program to be broadcast in 2010. http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/natalie-cole-david-mccullough-and-the-mormon-tabernacle-choir-bring-in-the-christmas-spirit

Bienvenidos!

Well, you may have noticed a new title picture on my 'blog and wondered what that was all about.


That was the view from the Carnival Cruise ship Paradise as we were leaving the Long Beach Port on Monday, November 23rd!


Our vacation actually started the day before when we drove from Utah to Las Vegas and stayed with Bryon and Joni's family, and celebrated Landon's 14th Birthday!


Then we drove to Long Beach and boarded the big boat!


Built in 1998, the ship is 285 yards long, sits about 118 feet tall (above the water level), has a top speed of just over 20 mph,has 1,020 passenger cabins, 523 crew cabins, a spa, a casino, 3 or 4 restaurants, numerous bars or lounges, a pool, a number of hot tubs,


numerous elevators,


a running track, a mini-golf course, and numerous other ameneties. There were over 2,600 passengers (1,100 of which were kids) and over 900 crew members!


The cabins were small but accomodating. We had a nice view out our window.

As soon as you walk on the boat, waiters are everywhere, constantly shoving drinks in your face to get you to imbibe, and drain your wallets! There is also very good food everywhere! Breakfast and lunch are buffet style, and then then dinner is a more formal sit-down meal. Josh realized how much he enjoys the Tiger Shrimp, and the "Chocolate Melt Cake" is decadent!

Keri brought some motion sickness pills for her and the boys, but I actually quite liked the rolling motion of the boat - especially when sleeping at night.


On Tuesday we dropped anchor just off of the port city of Avalon on Catalina Island. Passengers were ferried to the island on small "tender boats" for the day.


We went on a glass-bottomed boat tour and were able to observe a wide variety of colorful native fish.


Then we rented some sea kayaks and explored the coastline.


The housekeeping staff was well-trained in the art of towel-folding, surprising us with a different "animal" each day.


On Wednesday we docked at the port of Ensanada, Mexico.


As we exited the ship and saw the armed guards in the streets, the boys soon realized that we were NOT in "Los Estados Unidos" anymore!


We explored the streets


as all of the locals swarmed the influx of tourists, trying to sell us all kinds of trinkets and "junk".

We later stopped to watch a Mexican street band, although I'm not certain just how "authentic" they really were! Then we wandered through a fish market, and ended up down by the docks,

where local boat owners tried to coax us into a boat ride.

It was certainly interesting to visit Ensanada and hablar or haggle with the locals, but it was good to get back on the ship that evening.

The weather for the whole week was perfect - sunny and in the mid-70's. Thursday (Thanksgiving) we spent "at sea" somewhere off the coast of So-Cal. Thanksgiving dinner was nice, but we missed the "traditional" feel. Friday morning we "de-barked" back at Long Beach, and "sailed" right through customs.

Then we drove to Six Flags Magic Mountain where we spent the day riding as many of the most extreme rides as possible, including the Screamer, Batman, Riddler's Revenge, Superman, X2, Viper, Deja-vu and Tatsu. Lagoon rides paled in comparison - those were some serious G's! After 2 or 3 rides, Keri was a bit queasy, so she decided to keep her feet on the ground most of the day.

Saturday we stopped at Primm, NV to ride the Desperado Roller Coaster (not bad!). Then we drove to St George where we stayed for the night.

The next day we drove by our old apartment in Washington, UT where Josh pushed Tanner down the stairs (when they were just toddlers) and Tanner broke his nose :-)

Overall it was a fun vacation - The cruise was warm and fun, but a bit too commercialized. If I do another cruise I would want it to actually go farther than just down the coast. The rides at Six Flags were great! It was good to be home too.

Here is a slideshow of some pic's from the trip. There may be some people you don't recognize - that's because we were part of a multi-family "photo-scavenger-hunt", trying to get pictures of complete strangers on our "list" - such as "bad hair", "bad bling", newlyweds, etc.. It was humorous and entertaining, but I guess you had to be there!