Christmas in Salt Lake City

We somehow didn’t fit many Christmas outings into our schedules while we were still in Seattle, but here are some photographs from our trip to Utah for Christmas.

Here is Susanna as the donkey in the Hale family nativity:

On the right is Susanna on Scott’s shoulders seeing the lights at temple square with some of the Hales:

Sledding at Bonneville golf course:

Anderson family annual karaoke (and new pajamas) night:  

Getting ready to open a gift on Christmas morning (look! Susanna and her gift match):

At the temple with the Andersons when Sarah received her endowment (in preparation for her mission):

Frosty the Snowman

Yesterday all the meteorologists predicted two large snowstorms in Seattle—one of which would dump a minimum of two inches.  The Seattle and Seattle area schools therefore all closed for the day.  It was a good idea, I suppose, because any snow in Seattle is a big deal, but the problem is that it never actually snowed yesterday.  But the storm finally came early this morning (maybe even starting late last night) and has been snowing basically the whole day.

Susanna has talked about Frosty the Snowman a lot this year and she was therefore very excited to go make one of her own.  Here are a few photos.

Annual Cookies and Scrooge Night

Last year I made Christmas cookies for the first time (here's a link to that post, in case you’re interested).  It was so much fun, I’ve decided that we should do it every year!  I’m sorry to say that, for this year at least, I’m not continuing the “guess the cookie shape” part of the tradition.  I couldn’t think of what else to do besides another nativity (I did think about doing Washington Crossing the Delaware, but after hand cutting a lot of gingerbread men I started to wane in creativity and focused on getting the cookies done).  I did do a few non-traditional gingerbread men, including the yoga cookie, pictured above, and a reclining Venus.

Susanna was much more involved this year than last, which was fun.  This involvement included licking about 1/4 to 1/3 of the cookies I intended to give to our neighbors.  Some of our plates look pretty skimpy because of the resulting shortage of cookies, but we both had fun and she had a lot of chocolate chips, so in the end things went really well.  And we probably have more plates of cookies than we’ll get to delivering anyway (sorry neighbor, if you don’t get one, it’s probably getting stale on my kitchen counter).

Is it bad that, when my daughter was sucking on a knife, instead of taking the knife away, I ran for the camera?

O, Tannebaum

Here’s a photograph of our annual cut-down-the-Christmas-tree-event.  We found a beautiful Norway Spruce for a pretty good price, but I think it’s because our tree is part cactus (are all Norway Spruce trees like that?).  Susanna wasn’t sure about the drive to the farm, and she was too cold to have fun at first, but she certainly warmed up to the idea after a couple of minutes.  On the way home she suddenly shouted “Yeah Dad!  Yeah for cutting down the Christmas tree!”

Susanna braved the “spikey branches” as you can see below, to help decorate the tree.  She also mentions it in every prayer, and if either of us say the word “Christmas” in a prayer, she’ll discreetly point to it and whisper “Christmas tree, right there.”

Milton L. Weilenmann

My grandfather, Milt Weilenmann, passed away November 21, 2008.  He slipped peacefully away after living a long full life so his death was not a terrible tragedy.  But his absence from our lives is still sad, and his death represents the end of an era for my mom (he is her father).  My parents made is possible for us to fly to Salt Lake City for the services.  I am so glad we were able to do that, it was a nice time to remember what a wonderful man he is, and it was a spiritual experience for me as well.  As they made the final preparations before closing the casket I was suddenly stuck by the realization that what they were preparing him for was that great reunion with his Savior and Heavenly Father.

Here is something George Bernard Shaw wrote that he loved to quote:

“This is the joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one.  Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.  I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.  I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love.  I rejoice in life for its own sake.  Life is no brief candle to me; it is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got a hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

And here is his obituary as well as an article from Salt Lake Tribune and an article from Deseret News about his life and passing.

Because of the timing of his passing (his funeral was the day before Thanksgiving), Scott, Susanna, and I were able to spend the holiday with family, a rare treat we had not indulged since we moved to Seattle four and a half years ago.