Christmas and New Year's found me home

Well, another Christmas and New Year have come and gone. (I didn't write about Christmas last week because I was doing my year in review.) It was a really nice break. I think I have the nicest boss in the world, and he was out of town, so he let me decide what I wanted to do. I decided to only work some of the days and only work partial days. It means I won't get paid as well for the last two weeks, but I'm fine with that.

On December 22, since I was only working a partial day, I went into work late, because it just so happened that my ward was having its Christmas party downtown. Thus, if I was at work, I would already be downtown and wouldn't have to go far. They had a bell choir, which was definitely better than the bagpipes my home ward did for their Christmas party back in 2009.

I worked on December 23, but I didn't work on Christmas Eve. Instead, it was a day of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. I made wassail by putting apple juice, orange juice, a cinnamon stick, some whole cloves, and a sprinkling of nutmeg in a slow cooker. I used a horrible gingerbread recipe. It said to use half a cup of water, but it didn't say what to do with it. Well, I added the water, and it made it entirely runny. When I baked it for the designated time, it completely burned it. I then added lots and lots of flour to get the consistency right again--and then the gingerbread turned out quite nicely. But it was no thanks to that deplorable recipe! I put frosting in a bag to decorate the cookies. The first one started out decent...

...but due to problems with the bag, they got progressively uglier.

(Go ahead, laugh. I won't be offended. That's why I put them here.)

Christmas Day was a snowy day--the first really snowy day of the season, although we had had some snow in November. It was safe enough for relatives to come over. We got to Skype with my cousin Quin who is on a mission. Because I have always liked polar regions, I got some polar animal-themed gifts. I got an oven mitt and hot pad with walrus pictures on them, a walrus ice cream scoop, and a narwhal screwdriver. (I'm just happy that such a thing exists!) I also got a Nightmare before Christmas Monopoly game, in which some of the properties include the towns of Thanksgiving, Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and Valentine's Day. (They left out Fourth of July Town, but you only see that door very briefly in the movie.)

I didn't work the day after Christmas, even though I could have. Relatives came over again on December 27, and we played the Pictionary/Telephone game. It was fun, but it's funner with college-age people.

On December 28, President Eyring was visiting my ward again, and since there was extra time, he spoke to us again. He told us about his marriage, and if he was a "menace to society," it makes me feel better. (BTW, I don't know why we talk about the "menace" thing, because I don't think that was ever really said. An apocryphal story indeed.)

On December 29, it seemed snowy, and fortunately I had saved my work in Dropbox, so I was able to work from home rather than drive downtown. On December 30, the news talked about how windy it was and how that was causing a lot of accidents. The Davis County sheriff was on the news saying, "If you can stay home, do." If the sheriff tells me to stay home, I won't argue with him--although I probably could have safely left, since the wind problems were further north. While I was sitting in the living room doing my work, I was startled when an enormous group of birds began flying around the house. You remember in Mary Poppins when she shakes the snow globe and lots of birds fly around? That's what it felt like. It literally looked like a snowstorm of birds. The birds came around a second time, and I was able to get some footage on my phone.

On the last day of 2014, I went into the office for work, after stopping in at the Salt Lake Temple across the street. It was the first time I ever worked on New Year's Eve in my life. I had a rather uneventful New Year's Eve.

Then on New Year's Day, I was able to get an invigorating start to 2015 by going running on Bountiful Boulevard, the first full run I had had since before Thanksgiving.

Then January 2, I was back to a full work day. And the holidays were all over.

I guess it's good that the year starts in January, because then it can only get better. January has exceedingly cold temperatures, smog, ice, and after New Year's, no real holidays. What a horrible month.