Isn’t it About…Time?

Today was our now traditional after Christmas temple trip. Everyone was home for a few days, and we all wanted to take advantage of that and spend some time together in meaningful ways. That means that today was also a game day featuring Dominion, the new card game that Daniel got from Matthew, a quick stop at a park for a family picture before the snow started, and dinner at Tsunami. 

Lunch or dinner at Tsunami has also become a bit of a tradition for us and I know it is because Matthew loves to be able to enjoy the same restaurant meal that the rest of us are having. For most of his life he has brought his own food when we eat out. We don’t eat out a ton and that is one of the reasons why, but when we do, he has always been good about it. He never complains and in the past several years he has just started to make comments about what he wants to smell as accompaniment to his meal. So, we fully support his desire to enjoy a restaurant meal with us and the fact that we all love the food at Tsunami doesn’t hurt. 😉

It has been a bit of a busy day with all those things on the schedule, but honestly, I feel like we need to squeeze in as much quality time as possible while we can still get everyone home at the same time. I know that in years to come it may not always be that way. Scheduling time for all of us to be together is just going to get harder and harder. Even now, Daniel and Nathan are home for a few days rather than a few weeks. Their home and their lives are no longer centered here. That is why I feel like we need to take advantage of the time we have. And luckily for me, all the members of my little crew agree and want that quality time as well.

Joyous Laughter

 Christmas no longer means waking up while it’s still dark in order to be dressed by the time the kidlets start bouncing off the walls. Now it means convincing our thirteen-year-old that 8:oo is a perfectly reasonable time to be dressed and ready to go. Ah, how times change! Another change to our Christmas celebration is the fact that we have a shared document where all of us can list gift suggestions to ease that whole dilemma of “What in the world do I get for [insert name here]?” That leads to lots of collaborative conversations to make sure we don’t all choose the same gifts. When gifts are not selected from the list, the whole gift giving bit has kind of turned into a competition to see who can make the recipient laugh the hardest. 

We had some good contenders for the biggest laughs this year. Malia gave Kevin a blanket that looks just like a giant tortilla since tortillas are one of his basic food groups. When I saw it on Amazon, I laughed out loud. And when I showed it to Daniel and Nathan and asked for their opinions, they laughed out loud too. Basically, Kevin was the only one who didn’t know about the big burrito blanket. Another laughable gift was a Lego camera. It wasn’t laughable in and of itself, but it was laughable because Kevin picked it out for Matthew and Matthew picked it out for Kevin. All unbeknownst to everyone.

These giggles aside, this year Malia was definitely the winner. Several months ago, she saw a T-shirt that reminded her of Daniel. She asked me to order it and when I saw it, I broke into hysterical laughter. We kept the whole thing under wraps for the entertainment value on Christmas morning, and it was totally worth the secret keeping.

In order to understand the hilarious nature of this gift, I have to tell you a story. It is one of those stories that has become deeply embedded in our family lore as evidenced by the fact that it happened long before Malia was ever born. Daniel has always been a scientifically minded child. When he graduated from preschool, part of the program was each child telling everyone what he or she wanted to be when they grew up. Daniel wanted to be a paleontologist. The folks sitting behind us quietly commented that he was clearly coached in order to give such a response as most kids wanted to be firefighters, or policemen, or moms, but honestly, it was all him. He has always been fascinated by the many wonders of the world, wanted to know how everything works, etc. As such, at a very young age, he would sit and watch documentaries with me. I’ve been fascinated by archaeology since my childhood, probably due to my parents’ subscription to the National Geographic Magazine when I was young, so I have a tendency to enjoy documentaries that focus on archeology related topics. 

Now let’s shift gears for a minute. When Daniel was tiny, he had horrible nightmares. I had terrible nightmares as a child as well and I’ve read that it is something that can be inherited, so it was not all that surprising. When he was super tiny, I would hear him crying and go to him, but as he got a little older, he would just get up and come wake me. One of the things I always did was ask him what he dreamed about. That way, I could help talk him through it and try to help his extremely logical little mind make sense of it all. 

Now back to the documentaries. When Daniel was five or six, I happened across a documentary about Pompeii. It was very fascinating and Daniel, who of course watched it with me, was also fascinated. Are you beginning to see a problem here? Now, with the hindsight of a more experienced mother, I can see that I was just setting myself up for issues. But at the time, it never occurred to me that my extremely intelligent and logical child was gleaning anything more than knowledge. But, of course, the magnitude of my ineptitude as a mother became clear to me later that night. I didn’t hear the bedroom door open, and I didn’t hear Daniel creep in. But at some point, I became conscious enough to realize that someone was breathing next to me and I woke up. It was clearly a nightmare scenario, something I had become accustomed to. But when I asked Daniel what he dreamt about, his thready, terrified whisper was one word only: “Vesuuviuusssss!!” 

Jumping back to this Christmas, the T-shirt Malia selected for Daniel said the following:

“The floor is lava.”

-Everyone

Pompeii, 79 A.D.

Daniel laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. None of the other of my menfolk had any idea what was happening until he calmed down enough to flip the shirt around for general viewing. And then there were more guffaws. Malia was most definitely the winner of this year’s Christmas laughter award!

Other gifts given were funny T-shirts (although none were as funny as the Pompei shirt) and a variety of books, games, socks, and rubber ducks. This year’s ducks light up, which was fun. Daniel received a beautiful edition of one of his favorite books from Tawni, his girlfriend. Nathan, who was in need, got a new wallet, Scooby Do themed, of course. Malia has spent the past several months drawing superheroes and gifted each of her brothers with a framed pencil sketch of their favorite superhero. She got an earring organizer and while it is cute, I’m actually not at all certain she will use it. She is kind of a drop things on the floor or dresser as she walks in her bedroom door kind of a girl, but we’ll see. I got a small sculpture of the empty tomb to add to my collection of reminders of the Savior that sit on my piano. And Matthew gave me a butane torch, which has been on my wish list ever since Malia made crème brulee at a young women activity months ago. But since he is not a legal adult, the folks at Home Depot wouldn’t sell him the butane to go with it. 😂

Christmas morning may not hold all the magic and wonder that it did when my kids were small, but I can honestly say that we have just as much fun. I always love how much thought goes into their gift giving, even if the main motivation is to create laughter, which it usually does. But laughter and jokes and games and time together equals joy for us. And there was much joy today.

Pancake Flakes

It wouldn’t be Christmas around here without some themed pancakes. And today all my kids are home, so it seemed like a perfect morning to feed everyone a hearty breakfast. This year I made an experimental creation that was a hodge podge of several different recipes. We ended up with a bit of an indulgent pancake, a cinnamon swirl added to our favorite sour cream pancakes and topped with a cream cheese syrup snowflake. It was a little bit like dessert for breakfast. We don’t do that very often around here, but an occasional splurge meal is fun!

Daniel’s pancakes were the prettiest. Probably because he took his time. Nathan was more concerned with getting some pancakes in his belly, so he only took the time to draw about ¾ a snowflake before he gave up and just tossed the syrup on in a big swirling mass. But aesthetics aside, all the pancakes were absolutely delicious!

Boy, Did I Mess Up My Kids

It was gingerbread day at our house and apparently my dabbling in gingerdead men a few years back has totally messed up my kids. I take full responsibility there. I had no idea it would become such a tradition around here. And to be honest, I will probably bear the blame for messing up generations of young ones yet to come. Nevertheless, we always have a jolly time on gingerbread day. 😉

So here they are in order of least to most disturbing:

Nathan created a benign hobbit hole from middle earth, round green door and everything. You can almost see Bilbo coming up the path.

Daniel's sleigh is running down some Christmas trees. It started off as more of a traditional scene, but when the tree refused to stand up, Daniel shifted gears and Santa’s sleigh, sans driver, went off road.

Malia made a giant holding a ginger boy who just had his head ripped off, loads of blood and everything. She also created a monster house that while happy to see her, was a bit on the creepy side. And then she took her exhausted teenager body to the couch and took a nap rather than making her house stand up. 

My abominable snow monster chasing some innocent gingerfolk was modeled after the monster in the classic stop motion version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I even had Rudolph and a snowman but including them would have resulted in a very cramped front yard, so they were cut prior to the final version. 

And last but not least, Matthew's Vlad the Impaler replica. His was another scene that morphed into something just a little bit creepier than where he started. Originally the half man was hanging out of the mouth of a giant, but the giant refused to stand up, so Matthew ate him. I guess that is an example of life imitating art! 

I’m a good mom, I swear. Just don’t judge us based on our gingerbread. 😂🤪🤣

Apparently, Some Things Never Change

Nathan, Matthew and I made candy cane cookies today. While the majority of them were traditional candy cane shapes, there were still a number of unique, nontraditional shapes. When the kids were younger, we usually had more oddball shapes than actual candy canes. I don’t have photographic proof, which seems weird to me now, but it makes sense when you consider the fact that none of us was walking around with a fancy camera in our pockets all the time like we do now and sometimes hauling out the big camera took more time than the kids had focus. So, you will have to take my word for it. Trust me that the cookies were always creative. Perfectly shaped or not, they were always delicious, and today’s cookies were also a perfect match in the taste category. Yum!

O Christmas Meal, O Christmas Meal!

After the success of our experimental stromboli at Halloween, I decided to feature the recipe in one of our Christmas themed meals as well. With a little inspiration from Pinterest, this night’s dinner featured a festive holiday wreath stuffed with chicken, bacon, tomatoes, and cheese. Except for Matthew’s baby wreath, of course. His was cheese free. 😉 There were some improvements in the dish on this second attempt. I felt like the bread to filling ratio was better this time as well as the distribution of the fillings within the roll. And it only leaked a little bit! 

So, here’s another tasty ode to the holidays. A happy holiday in meat and cheese, if you will. Bon appetite! And Merry Christmas!

A Floral Focaccia

As Christmas approaches, it’s time for some fun food! While October is mostly about fun sweets, in December I like to toss in some healthier fare. We all have our favorite Christmas cookies and goodies galore always show up on our doorstep, so I’ve chosen to make my creative edibles meal worthy. Tonight’s creation was a delicious focaccia all dressed up for the holiday. So simple, so festive, so delicious. And other than Malia, who pulled all the peppers of her portion, we felt like the roasting peppers were a lovely addition flavor wise. Decorating focaccia is so easy and so versatile that I suspect it may be a medium I use again.  

Choral Encore

This evening was the high school choir Christmas concert. Matthew is only in the jazz choir and after the wonderful performance we attended last week, tonight’s event was kind of a lackluster performance for the vocal jazz group. It’s not that they performed poorly or anything like that, because they performed well. It is just that they only did a few of their group numbers, most of which we heard the other night, and didn’t perform any of the wonderful solos we got to experience at their earlier performance. We did get to hear a number of the other choirs perform though, and that was nice. Especially for Malia who will be heading into the high school choir program in a couple of years. So, while Matthew wasn’t a participant in most of what we heard, it was still fun. And besides, it doesn’t feel like Christmas without all the music!

Man of the Hour

 This evening was Matthew’s Christmas band concert. In his introduction, his band director actually said it was “the Matt Estes show.” And he was only exaggerating a tiny bit. 😉 Matthew had both trumpet and flugel horn solos, covered the vocals for the Michael Buble version of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” conducted the jazz band for that same number, and acted as narrator for some of the other bands. Seriously, he was the man of the hour!

And it was fantastic. Matthew’s skill level reflects the many hours that he has put into his practice. And he puts his emotions into the music, so that takes it up even another notch. The band director actually chatted with us for a few minutes after the concert and told us that when you have a student who can play like Matthew does and consistently hits all those incredibly difficult high trumpet notes like he can, you choose the hard music while you have someone who can play it! And play it he did. Matthew did an amazing job. I am so incredibly proud of him! It was a super fun concert. 

A Jazzy Holiday

Matthew is in the jazz choir at the high school this year. The jazz choir is one of the two top level audition choirs and honestly, it has become the highlight of Matthew’s school days. Band has been different this year. With all his close friends gone and with some new, negative vibes associated with the ever changing dynamic common in high school performing groups due to the continually rotating membership, band is no longer a refuge. It is a huge stressor. And so, the choir room has become his safe place and the friends he has made in choir have become his preferred company.

The jazz choir is different from the other choirs in several ways. First of all, and most obviously, they exclusively sing jazz music in many different styles. Second, group singing is the focus only part of the time. Each term every student selects and prepares a jazz solo of some type to be performance ready. They didn’t have a performance for first term, which is a shame, but this term’s performance was this evening.

All the selections for this term were Christmas tunes. The performance was held in the choir room rather than the auditorium which lent the entire affair the intimacy of a jazz club setting rather than standard large choir feel. The group numbers were interspersed with the solos which ranged from lovely ballads to upbeat Christmas standards to downright silly holiday tunes. The kids had the opportunity to be accompanied by a standard jazz combo (piano, string bass, drums) and for some of them, I think this was their first experience singing with a combo. Matthew got to play his trumpet for one number as well and since he is a band kid as well as a choir kid, he was deeply involved in the coordination of the combo which included the band teacher on drums, one of the jazz band bass players, and one of the jazz band pianists, who is also in the jazz choir. Nearly all the selections were songs I am familiar with, and it was an absolutely delightful way to spend an evening. 

This school year has been a tough one for Matthew so far, but this evening he was filled with joy and light. And it was obvious when he sang. The choir teacher will never know just how much Matthew needed to be in this group this year. And it’s not about the music. It’s about the kids. And the safe place to be himself. And it’s about the joy that he hasn’t found anywhere else this year.

A Joyful Chorus

Going to choir has become the highlight of Malia’s school days. While she was a bit apprehensive at the beginning of the year as she is an 8th grader and the bulk of concert choir is composed of 9th graders, that apprehension has evaporated, and she just loves choir! This evening was her Christmas choir concert, and it was fun to see the joy choir brings her. Plus, I’ve been super slow kicking off our Christmas festivities this year and a dose of holiday music was just what I needed! 

Proof

I told you we were slacking off on the seasonal décor. At least all the boxes are upstairs now…

How Am I Related to You?

My dad’s older brother, Pat, passed away last year, but his wife Betty is still alive and kicking. Their youngest daughter, Shirlene, is the cousin of mine who lives in Logan and feeds my college boys, lets them use her washer and dryer when the apartment ones are just too gross to get the job done (like when washing temple clothes), and generally takes them in as needed. Shirlene invites the college cousins to Sunday dinners, which means my older boys have had quite a few opportunities to get to know my Aunt Betty. Both of them have enjoyed the chance to get to know some of their extended family a bit better. However, they didn’t know exactly how they were related to any of these people, so Shirlene drew Nathan a diagram once, so he could visualize the relationship.  

The whole family relationships thing on my dad’s side gets a bit confusing because my dad is the youngest of his siblings by quite a long way. There was a twenty-one-year age difference between my dad and his oldest brother. My dad was the same age as many of his nieces and nephews and was basically raised by his older sister Shirley and her husband. As a kid I had no idea how I was related to any of these people. We just called everyone cousin. But as a college student I took the time to figure it all out. But trying to explain all of that via text or phone was not all that helpful for Nathan. Thank goodness for Shirlene’s diagram. I think he has it mostly figured out now. LAUGHING WITH TEARS SMILEY 

Today Shirlene hosted a 98th birthday party for my Aunt Betty. Kevin, Matthew, Malia and I drove up for the festivities. Daniel and Nathan were also there, along with Jacob, Rachael’s college student, and my parents. There were a lot of other extended family in attendance as well, so it was a fun gathering. While I may not know all of my extended family well, at least I can say that I know where most of the attendees fit into the family tree. And I was able to point people out so that Nathan could place them on the appropriate branches as well. 

We don’t see this degree of extended family all that often, but honestly, it was nice to see people at a birthday party rather than a funeral. Over the past ten years or so, most of our family reunions have been more solemn affairs. This time pink was the theme, and we got cake and ice cream! So happy birthday to my Aunt Betty! I hope that I age as well as she has!

Slacking Off on the Seasonal Spangles

Daniel and Nathan beat us to the punch this year. Usually, we put up the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving, but this weekend was so crazy that we just didn’t get that far. But they hauled out the holly as soon as they got back to Logan. I guess I’d better get my act together…

Cherish the Music Time

For our Christmas present this year, Kevin’s mom got everyone tickets for the Messiah Sing In at Abravanel Hall. We attended as extended family once before, in 2012. At that point, only Daniel and Nathan attended with us. Matthew and Malia were still little things, so they spent the evening with a babysitter. But this year, all our kids were old enough to go, which was nice. We purchased a few new copies of the Messiah score, and I think all of us were excited. Malia got frustrated during the first act since she has had less than a year of choir, is not as familiar with the music as some, and struggled to keep up with the singing, but once I told her that it was ok to just sit and listen, it was better. 

It is always fun for my kids to be able to visit with their cousins, so that was a plus as well. Over the past few years, Matthew has spent more time with Cory’s girls, and they have become good friends. My other kids also enjoy time with their cousins as life gets busy and we just don’t see them that often. 

This is something I would like to do again in future. I don’t feel like it needs to be a yearly thing, but I do enjoy it and having my family around me as we sing was great. Whether it is an extended family event or one with my own children and their future families, I don’t know yet. That is a question for the future.

Cherish the Temple Time

Going to the temple the day after Thanksgiving and the day after Christmas has kind of become one of our holiday traditions. It is one I think we all look forward to. Today we drove to the Taylorsville temple so that everyone could have a chance to serve in this temple that has such close ties to our family. I think Kevin and Daniel were the only ones who have not been since the open house, but we were all glad to be there. I know this is a tradition that may not include all of our family members in future depending on where our adult children end up, but for now it is one that I cherish.

Cherish the Pie Time

At Thanksgiving around here, the turkey is not the focus of the entire event like it is for most people. Thanks to my mother’s obsession with creating pies in absolutely obscene numbers (something we are trying to cure her of), the focus on pie is something I grew up with. And it has carried over into my own family just a little bit. It’s not that we don’t love the turkey, it’s just that we really, really love the pie! But while we really, really love the pie, we definitely like it in smaller amounts than those created at my mother’s house. 

As the years have gone by, there are favorite flavors of pie that have become staples at our Thanksgiving feast. Pumpkin, of course, is always on the menu. Nathan’s favorite is cranberry orange custard, of which I’m also a huge fan. Cherry is Malia’s pie of choice and while she has helped make the cherry pie the past few years, she was disinclined this year, so Nathan took over and learned how to make a lattice top pie. It turned out beautiful and he was very proud of his accomplishment.

The only other pie we made this year was what we all refer to as bean juice pie. In reality it is a Matthew friendly lemon meringue pie, but calling it bean juice is more fun. 😁 Of all our allergen free pies, it is the one that gets talked about the most. Because let’s face it, making meringue without eggs is pretty interesting. And the name of the pie is an attention grabber as well. This year’s bean juice ended up being less voluminous than usual and I’m not sure why. But I have been doing some research on the aquafaba meringue and picked up several tips that kept the meringue fluffy for days rather than turning sticky as it is prone to do. It is always a work in progress, I guess. 

When it was time to eat all the delicious pie, there was much frivolity like normal. When my kids all get together, they just can’t help themselves and jokes, puns, wise cracks, and laughter are plentiful. The three boys kind of ganged up on Malia in terms of jokes. It seems like their whole goal was to get her laughing and keep her laughing. And they succeeded. Honestly, with all of them working together, she didn’t stand a chance! And like usual, there were no pictures where all four of them looked normal. 😉

Now that covered all the aspects of our pies, let’s return to the turkey. My new skill for the year was trussing a turkey. It really isn’t all that hard, but it is something that I just never bothered to learn. But YouTube was a big help, and the bird ended up looking as good as it tasted. Unfortunately, the back of the bird was not cooked all the way through. The exact same thing has happened for about three years now, ever since I got my nice roasting pan. I have done a bunch of reading, have tweaked bake times and temperatures, lowered the rack in the oven, even started roasting the turkey back side up and then flipping it part way through the bake time. But still, the back is not cooking. I never had issues when I used one of those $2 disposable foil pans from the Walmart, so next year I’m going to go back to the cheap pan and see if it solves the problem. But I’m kind of bugged because I spent $60 on a roasting pan that was highly rated and raved about and now I can’t get my turkey roasted correctly. It is highly annoying. 😠

Turkey roasting woes aside, it was good to be together. I love these times. And the pie. And the kids eating the pie. And the laughter that happens as the kids eat the pie. I guess what I’m saying is that I cherish these moments with my kids.

Attending a Recital for Two

This evening was Nathan’s organ recital for this semester. They divide the organ students into two separate recitals so that each only lasts about an hour. That is nice for us as we don’t have to sit through an extra long recital featuring loads of students we don’t know. Nathan requested the 6:00 p.m. recital as he knows that late nights are hard for me headache wise. Tawni, Daniel’s girlfriend, is also taking organ lessons this year and Nathan told us that when asked, she didn’t care which recital time she was assigned to as long as it was the same as Nathan’s. All my menfolk have met Tawni, but this evening’s event meant that Malia and I finally got to meet her. She seems very nice in the few minutes we got to chat with her. And I suspect that there will be more opportunities to get to know her as time goes by. 

Nathan’s recital piece this semester was composed by his organ teacher. It was a Book of Mormon Stories variations. It was so fun! It is not a song we generally hear played on the organ but is so familiar that it was engaging. The different variations showcased a bunch of the different sounds an organ can make which was great. One of my favorites was the variation played completely with the foot pedals, featuring glissandos played only by Nathan’s toes. The whole piece was a crowd pleaser. 

Although it was a short visit, it is always nice to see my college boys. Even if Daniel opted to sit with Tawni and her family instead of us. 😂 But seriously, I’m not at all offended by that. She has brought out the best in Daniel and he is so, so happy. And he has been told by her grandparents, who live in Logan, that he is not to knock at their house but just walk right in. I’m guessing that means they like him! 

The Final Trip to Finals

This weekend was our typical marching band St. George weekend. As always, Matthew traveled with the band while Kevin, Malia and I made our way southward separately. The Red Rocks state finals were held on Friday night so that was our activity for the evening. The marching band has not done super well this season, for reasons that Matthew will gladly rant about, so he wasn’t overly optimistic about their chances of doing well in the state finals. As expected, they did not walk away with any awards. The Bands of America competition was yesterday and although they didn’t win any awards there either, Matthew felt like it was a good performance, and a good way to end the season.

As for our non-band related activities, Kevin, Malia and I visited a dinosaur tracks museum yesterday morning. About twenty years ago, a local businessman was doing some work on a property he owned and uncovered a layer of fossilized dinosaur footprints. He was smart enough and conscientious enough to know that his discovery had value to the scientific community, so he worked with a variety of different organizations that helped gather enough funds to build a museum over the site. It is still actively being excavated, which is cool, and it was far more interesting than it may sound. Due to the many different footprints, tail marks, and even butt prints left by dinosaurs, they have been able to learn quite a bit about dinosaur behavior. I found it fascinating!

We also stopped by the Red Cliffs Temple. We didn’t have time to go in, but we took some time to wander the grounds and take some pictures. It was a pleasant way to while away an hour before hitting the road.

This was our last marching band related trip to St. George. In some ways, it is kind of sad that we are done with that part of our lives. It has been nice to get away for a few days and we have discovered and seen some fun things trying to fill the time between marching band events. But maybe that just means that we will explore some new places in future. Because these short getaways have been fun.

Last Night on the Field

Tonight was the marching band friends and family night, the final performance of this year’s show before the kids head to St. George for the state finals. It was also senior night, a chance to highlight the kids who are marching for the last time before they graduate. Each senior, accompanied by their parents, was celebrated with a brief paragraph highlighting them and given a fun ribbon lei in the school colors. Kevin and I were both in attendance and were so pleased to be able to support Matthew. 

Once all the seniors were presented and cheered, one parent of every student was invited to shadow their student for one movement of the show. Since Kevin and I had already been down to the field, we sent Malia. She might not be his parent, but the two of them have been the only kids living at home for years now and despite their occasional clashes, they are actually pretty good friends. She is fully aware that Matthew will be leaving home in less than a year, so I felt like giving her a chance to be a part of his world for a bit would be good. And it was.

We were all bundled up because it was soooooo cold! Honestly, even with thermals, boots, sweater, coat, gloves, and hood, I was still cold! Once we headed back to the stands, I was able to shelter with Malia in our stadium blanket and that helped a bit, but seriously, I was frigid. That is why the state finals are held down south. It is usually warmer there. Not always, but usually. Hopefully this year will be on the warm side because I might still need time to thaw out by the time we get there later this week. 😂

Matthew had the realization that tonight was the very last time he will march on his home field. It was one of those reality moments, I think. For all of us.