For Spring Break we went camping at Petit Jean State Park, a region famous for its bacon and cliffs. To say I don’t like camping wouldn’t
describe my feelings accurately. It’s not that I dislike it. As a suburban Boston boy (and recovering Boy Scout), I just don’t understand the
concept of it. So much work and money goes into an attempt to recreate society out in the woods, even though we have society back at our
home. Creating a fire and a place to cook our soggy igloo food, setting up a table and the little chairs to sit on, and pitching a tent in which to embark on a greasy night of not sleeping. Thankfully, the girls seemed to enjoy it all, even after I “woke up” the first morning and had a
brittle plastic pitcher with freezing orange juice disintegrate and fill up my shoes. Throughout the few days, I made the best of going to the
“bathroom” and even was treated to cleaning bacon greased dishes in cold bin water. At a few points, I had imagined myself suffering the
same fate as poor Petit Jean herself and being buried nearby, but the hiking, Adriane’s great cooking and Richard’s gift of the tent trailer made
up for the freezing temperatures we really did have a wonderful time as a family.
Adriane is our excellent school music teacher. She does great, even with her triangular head and square body, as described by our young
Olivia recently after Adriane complained about being out of shape. Parties are planned, people come over, lives intertwine and all is well with
the world. She loves to see the good in everyone and never passes up the opportunity to make someone feel good about themselves. She is in
our regional youth ministry, as we call it around here, which keeps her busy visiting the other congregations in the area on Sundays. She’s like
my personal TV show that I just enjoy watching as we go through life.
We’ve had our athletic club membership installed as metal brackets and wires into Amelia’s mouth. I’m still disappointed by the demise of
my morning tennis matches with the Southern society ladies due to this American obsession with straight teeth. I also have since started
to wonder what happens if you stop making payments on the braces. Do they have repo men who pull up to your house with tiny, pointy
instruments and a lot of small talk questions? Whatever they would do to her, it can’t be worse than my orthodontist lady in Germany who
was almost certainly a descendant of Josef Mengele.
We’ve discovered the threshold to insanity to be the fifth snow day in a row. Snow days one through four are magical, where we float several
inches off the floor, hot chocolate just seeps from the electrical outlets and heavenly beings come and go at will. That changes around day five.
By then, the walls are dripping with moan, we’ve started to actually take on physical characteristics of oatmeal pancakes, and tropical fruit
TUMS start to actually taste OK.
I’m involved in the men’s group leadership at church (Elders Quorum) and I have very much enjoyed getting to know the guys. I recently had
our group of about 15 men engage in the first ever Elders Quorum Group Hug centered around one of our guys who had just lost a baby. It
was as awkward as it sounds, and it’ll take a lot of disaster for it to happen again, but my goal has been to follow the example of the women’s
group at church and see what happens.
Amelia is thirt-screen years old now and loves her dance classes, reading, drawing and writing. Life is exciting. I’m starting to call her iMelia,
due to our strange decision to buy her an iPhone a few years ago. Like all the screenagers, she loves to communicate with non-present friends
on the little glowing box. It fascinates me, this obsession that we have with the people who aren’t physically with us until they are physically
with us and then they’re not as important as the other people who are not physically present. #whatshappening? But she does love being with
friends out here in meatspace and is in the leadership of her small cell group at church (presidency of her young women’s class).
If Eliza, 11, were to get a bad cut, I think refried beans might start pouring out. Not only that, she has started to grow stripes and a large
mouth and ears, or so she appeared on October 31. Her dream is to live in and rule a sock monkey world. I’m getting nervous that she’s the
Caesar in the impending Rise of the Planet of the Sock Monkeys and it’s going to be me in a loincloth pounding my fist in the sand looking
up at the remnants of the Statue of Liberty. But I guess that means Adriane would play the part of Nova, and that’s good. Eliza is the only one
in the entire school not thrilled to have Adriane as the school music teacher. She attempts to pry up the tiles in the cafeteria and ooze herself
down into the sub floor every time Adriane dances around on the stage. She reminds me of a certain someone. She is a happy and talented
girl.
Julia, 8, just about has to be held back from going up on stage and dancing with Adriane during school assemblies. Every day she comes
home and announces who her new best friend is. She reminds me of a certain other someone. She somehow discovered those foppish One
Direction guys and thankfully doesn’t seem to be following the impending Götterdämmerung of the Biebs. She was baptized into the church
in September and we’re so proud of her for choosing to do so. Her ansisters and anbrothers, as she said recently, are also surely proud of her.
Olivia, 6, never wears her glasses, and it’s not for a lack of having several pairs. She’s a tiny, blonde bully, and just removes them, mostly when
we’re not watching. Wherever Julia is, there Olivia is also, and they’re best friends. The two sides of their room are equally disastrous and they
share and jockey for many friends. She loved showing off her princess dress to the fake real Belle after the national Beauty and the Beast tour
company a few months ago. Lately, she walks around the house singing “Do you want to build a snowman?” and prepares to play with the
Anna and Elsa dolls she thinks she’s about to receive.
I love this time of year and am grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. In 125 B.C. a Book of Mormon prophet said, “O have mercy, and apply the
atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men.” And we read in the Bible that He did
come. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” We love you all and have a Merry Christmas!
