Two thousand eighteen

Well, it's the end of another year. Often I find myself sad at the New Year, but for some reason I don't feel that sad this time around.

Twenty eighteen was a very unusual year for me. So. Here are memories of all the strange happenings of 2018.

January. I started the month unemployed, actively searching for jobs. I had an interview at BYU, but I didn't get it. I went to the Midway Ice Castles and downtown to a devotional with the Uchtdorfs. In the middle of the month, I flew to California to spend nearly two weeks with my nephews, including the birthdays of Nathaniel (who turned 8) and Franklin (who turned 10). Franklin had a lot of migraines and needed someone at school with him, so I spent a few days in his class. While I was there, I began growing a beard, which I have had ever since. After I returned home, I had a job interview out in Dugway. I didn't want that job, but on the way back, I stopped in Iosepa, a Hawaiian ghost town in Tooele County. I went snowshoeing up North Canyon and ended up with sore heels.

I arrived in California on Nathaniel's birthday, and we ate at In-N-Out. Apparently I became narcissistic this year, since so many of these pictures are of myself.

February. I started counting calories for Lent. I drove down to Cedar City and St. George in my quest to check off counties and county seats. I had a few random drives up north, including one through Morgan and up to East Canyon State Park.

I couldn't do anything in East Canyon State Park in February, so I didn't feel too bad that I couldn't pay the whole fee.

March. I observed St. David's Day, the national holiday of Wales on March 1, by wearing a red sweater and cooking Welsh cakes. In one week, I saw Phillip Phillips in concert and the Utah Opera. That was also the same week I headed to Manti for a job interview (I didn't want that job, either) and attended a snowy St. Patrick's Day parade in Salt Lake. I attended the Tabernacle Choir's Messiah concert. I went to March for Our Lives at the Capitol to protest politicians' refusal to do anything about gun violence.

If you can pass a background check, why would you object to one?

 April. On Easter Sunday, which was also general conference and April Fools' Day, I made a layered carrot cake. I ran (most of the way) to the top of Frary Peak on Antelope Island. I pulled out my dad's old record player and got a couple of records for it. I observed Earth Day by picking up litter and Arbor Day by pulling up myrtle spurge. Most significantly, I accepted a job at This Is the Place Heritage Park. The pay wasn't great, but it was better than doing nothing all year.

This is the longest my beard got before I started keeping it trimmed.

 May. I observed Cinco de Mayo on my own with my ward and then Train Day at This Is the Place. I participated in a triathlon, which consisted of a 350-yard swim, a 12-mile bike ride, and a 3-mile run. It was fun, even though it was cold and wet. I drove up to see Spiral Jetty, which was on my bucket list, and had dinner in Brigham City. I was awestruck at all the beautiful wildflowers on trails and aww-struck by the adorable feral kittens at work.

I was glad to finally see Spiral Jetty. It was almost completely dry.

 June. This was a big month. I went to Panguitch's Quilt Festival, and on the same journey I also visited the county seats of Fillmore, Beaver, Kanab, Junction, and Richfield. Then my family took a vacation to the East. We spent a few days in New York City before driving out to Mystic Seaport, Connecticut; Rhode Island; Plymouth, Boston, and Salem, Massachusetts; Maine; Mount Washington, New Hampshire; Sharon, Vermont; Québec; and Lake George, New York. It was a wonderful trip, and I especially enjoyed Plymouth. After we got back, I made a day trip up to Ogden, Logan, and Randolph.

My sister and me by Plymouth Rock.

July. I wore a flag-print suit to church on July 1, the same day that my nephews came in from California. On the Fourth of July, they came and visited me at This Is the Place. After a job interview in Provo, I stopped in Price, Castle Dale, and the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. I had to work Pioneer Day, but I got to be in the park's mini parades, and I even got the men to carry the Declaration of Independence, consistent with the first decade of July 24 parades. My friend Susan invited a group of us to her family home in Jerome, Idaho, so that was a fun road trip.

Here are my niece and nephews in the print shop at This Is the Place with me.

 August. My stake had a massive camp up at Cinnamon Creek in Cache County. It was fun, but I felt out of place as one of the older YSAs. On one of my days off, I wanted to go down to the Wayne County Fair in Loa. I was a day or two too early, but I decided to go the extra way to visit Capitol Reef, where I had a fun, spontaneous trail run among the red rocks, against my better judgment. Later in the month, I checked off more of my bucket list by going to Timpanogos Cave and swimming in the Great Salt Lake.

The signs on the trail were a little confusing, so I worried I was going to be lost in Capitol Reef in a thunderstorm.

 September. My family went down to Fillmore Canyon on September 1, our traditional Labor Day excursion, though it had been many years since we'd been. The next weekend, my old friend David accompanied me to visit Moab and Monticello, and then I finished my goal of visiting all twenty-nine county seats while I was twenty-nine! We also hiked Mount Peale, the county high point of San Juan County, though I didn't make it all the way to the summit. I went to Antelope Island for the third time in 2018 to see the National Parks band in concert. My parents bought a new trailer, and they first used it at the end of the month at Wasatch Mountain State Park. I spent the evenings there with them, and their last day there was the day I turned thirty. I heard people say that twenty-nine was worse than thirty, but for me it's mostly the opposite, I think for a few reasons.

Mount Peale was beautiful, but I felt a little uneasy without a trail.

 October. This Is the Place held an event called Little Haunts. To prepare, I bought books on the history of Halloween and then typeset my own paragraph to use as a park decoration. I also got to don orange tights to play Alice the Dragon, which was physically difficult but fun. The season ended there, but on Halloween, I had my first day of work at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

I mostly made this because I wanted to use the Halloween dingbat.

 November. For a few weeks at Sundance, I had little to do, so I was able to proofread the PDF of the book I have coming out in the spring. I spent my breaks running on the nearby trails. On Thanksgiving, I ran a 10k and made stuffing with Cap'n Crunch because I had a dream about it. Once Thanksgiving was over, work became busy, and I had lots of overtime, which was a little sad to have during Christmastime.

I only got a week or so of good trail running in Park City. Oh well.

December. I discovered that I can go hiking in the snow; in the past, I've always been too afraid of it. I attended the Lower Lights Christmas concert and then the Tabernacle Choir concert with Kristin Chenoweth after a stranger gave us tickets. My nephews came to visit for Christmas. It was good to spend time with them, even though I had to work a lot.

My breaks at work became more interesting again when I started wearing boots so I could hike in the snow.

It was a fun year, but a weird one.

So what does 2019 have in store for me?

Well, in three weeks my job at Sundance ends, just in time for me to use the free Festival tickets they gave me. I will once again be on the job hunt, but I can go back to This Is the Place if all else fails. In May, my book The Saints Abroad: Missionaries Who Answered Brigham Young's 1852 Call to the Nations of the World will be for sale. At the end of 2019, I will age out of the YSA ward. And then it will be time to reflect not only on the end of a year but the end of a decade. (Don't give me that nonsense about "the decade ends in 2020 because numbers start at one." We talk about the 80s and 90s, not "that decade that began in 1981 and ended in 1990.")

But other than that--I have no idea.

Why is it all for Christmas?

I just love Christmas. Even though it's only my second favorite, it's still a wonderful time.

My nephews (and their parents) have arrived in time for the holiday, and I have enjoyed spending time with them (when I'm not working overtime 🙁), going sledding, and playing my official Christmas playlist. I made gingerbread pancakes, and Nathaniel (8) made his into "Rudolph the White-Nosed Reindeer."

While I was writing this, Franklin (10) was saying we keep our fireplaces on for Christmas, and then Santa comes and gets burned. My sister said, "Good thing he's magic," and Nathaniel said, "He's not magic, he's just a fat man who's died 120 times."

Here is a visual representation of the nine holidays I celebrate and where they rank:
🦃🎄🎃 . . 🇺🇸 . 🐣 . 🐝 . . 🕛☘ . . 💘

(Did you know there are at least eighteen heart emojis? Why do we need so many?)

There are many self-proclaimed Christmas lovers, and I probably like Easter even more than most of those people like Christmas, and you can see how far down Easter is.

I give you all this introduction to convince you that I'm not a Scrooge. (I think it's unfair to call people "Scrooge" or "Grinch" because it ignores their redemption in the stories, but you know what I mean.)

But even with as great as Christmas is, I think it's excessive.

For example: there are lots of Christmas parties. Workplace Christmas parties, ward Christmas parties, school Christmas parties, family Christmas parties, friend Christmas parties, public Christmas parties, and more. It's a very busy time of year.

But why is it so concentrated into one season? Why isn't it spread out more evenly? Your work could make Halloween the big party, your ward could have a major Easter party, schools could have big St. Patrick's Day parties, your family party could be on the Fourth of July, your friends could have a big New Year's party, the city could have a big Valentine's Day party. And then you'd have more time for Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, caroling, etc.

(Six years ago, I worked for BYU Studies, and rather than a Christmas party, they had an Epiphany party, and it was held after Epiphany. It was the middle of January, which was brilliant. But it still had a strong Christmas theme, which was super weird. Why not just have a winter party?)

It applies to other things as well: concerts, festivals, decorations, candy, symbols, and so on.

I own more than 1,350 Christmas songs. My next biggest playlist is Easter, at only 174 songs. Why is there such a discrepancy?

You say, "Well, there aren't many songs for other holidays." That's no excuse. There are lots of new Christmas songs made each year, but few for the others.

(Speaking of, let me make a plug here. There were many big-name artists who released Christmas albums this year: Ingrid Michaelson, John Legend, Jessie J, the Monkees, and more. But my favorite Christmas album of 2018 is one I never heard of: JD McPherson's Socks. It's a great album of ten original songs, all with a 50s vibe but still fresh and new. I highly recommend it.)

Over the years, Christmas has assimilated various symbols and traditions: trees, snowflakes, snowmen, bells, poinsettias, wreaths, holly, mistletoe, candles, lights, candy canes, gingerbread men, stars, stockings, nativities, ornaments, polar bears, Santa, elves, reindeer, sleighs, garlands, bows, presents, nutcrackers, angels, and more.

I realize all of this is part of what makes Christmas so great. But maybe we should spread the love out a little bit. Why is it all for Christmas?

Cold winter's nights

I was actually pretty busy with work this week, and on Tuesday I even suggested that we work from home so we would have two extra hours where we weren't commuting. I think that was a wise decision, because it really is a waste of time being in a car two hours every day, but I do get a little restless working from home. In the office, I have regularly scheduled breaks where I go walk on the trails or roads. When I'm at home, I do other things on my breaks, like putting my laundry away. It drives me crazy when I'm sitting all day.

Wednesday was all snowy, but inexplicably we still had to go into the office, even though it was snowier than the snow day we had a few weeks ago. Whoever has the job to declare snow days wasn't doing their job.

But I wore my boots and was able to create the first footprints on the trails. (I didn't really try to run in the snow this week; just walked.)

 On Thursday evening, I had an idea that it would be fun to go on a nighttime hike on the Wild Rose Trail in order to look at all the Christmas lights on the houses below me. I'm glad I did it, because now I know that it's not really that cool. Mostly I was just freaked out, there in the dark in the snow by myself. I whistled Christmas songs the whole time to ease my apprehension.

This was Park City on Friday. I'm ho-ho-hoping we get more snow before Christmas so it doesn't all melt away.

 This week I wanted to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. I didn't go last year, but I went in 2016, 2015, and the overflow in the Tabernacle in 2014. My mom was sick, and my dad doesn't really like leaving the house, so I went with my sister and my niece, my concert buddies for Katy Perry and Lady Gaga last year. We were content just to watch the broadcast in the Tabernacle, instead of being in the Conference Center itself, so we didn't care that we were so far back in the queue for standby tickets.

Well, we were sitting there, the three of us, when a woman came up and asked if we wanted to go into the Conference Center--she had three extra tickets, and she just gave them to us! If my mom had come, I doubt she would have given us tickets (because then there would have been four of us), so thanks for being sick, Mom! The exchange was a little awkward, and my brain keeps replaying my inappropriate reaction. But I was just so surprised--of all the people in the Tabernacle, that woman decided to offer her tickets to us!

But our awkward interaction was not as awkward as the woman who gave the opening prayer. I thought she went on too long. But at the end, she said, "In the name of Thy Son, our Brother, Amen. Jesus." But after she said "Amen," everyone said "Amen" and opened their eyes, so her "Jesus" was too late.

This year's guest, Kristin Chenoweth, was the most down-to-earth of the guests they have had. No wonder she was Glinda in Wicked! I know some of that is a PR persona, but there were some apparently unscripted moments that illustrated it. For example, at one point she said, "As I have gotten older, Christmas become more about Santa Claus and getting presents. I mean, it's become less about Santa Claus and getting presents. Oops! Did they get that on film?"

From our seats, it was a little hard to see what was going on, because we were on the sides. But we were close enough to actually see the people. The décor all had a gift theme, and there were giant presents with screens that would change according to the song. (There was an unfortunate abundance of eight-point snowflakes, which are even worse than North Pole penguins. NVM, I take that back, but they're still pretty bad.)

They sang "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and had the audience sing along with "five gold rings" and "a partridge in a pear tree." That arrangement was the one they used with the King's Singers back in 2007. Ten years ago, I listened to the King's Singers/MoTab collaboration all the time while driving around Davenport, WA, so it was fun to feel connected to that familiar arrangement.

The choir sang "Somewhere in My Memory," which evoked memories of singing that song in my second grade Christmas program. I find it strange that such a sentimental, beautiful song comes from a cheesy slapstick movie that I haven't even seen since elementary school. Artificial snow fell from the ceiling during the song.

Normally they have the guest artist read verses from Luke 2. This time, they just showed videos of kids reading it. I don't mean to sound like a curmudgeon, but it was awful. Kids stumbling over Christmas scriptures at home is cute. Kids you don't know stumbling over scriptures on a prerecorded video in front of twenty thousand people is just dumb. I sure hope they don't do that again. It just went on and on and on. I was glad when that part was over!

Overall, I thought it was a relatively mid-quality performance. I say "relatively" because all their Christmas concerts are very well done and spectacular. Kristin Chenoweth is definitely more enjoyable than the opera singers they've had. But I thought the show relied more on her persona than on any show-stopping musical number. Richard Elliott's organ solo wasn't as epic as it was in other concerts.

Now, here's hoping next year's guest is Stefani Germanotta. 😉

A marshmallow world

For work, we have to sign up to ride a vanpool to Park City. Well, I didn't sign up in time, so I didn't get on the van. So on Monday, I drove myself to Park City, on the day of a light snowstorm.

It turns out that many people sign up to ride the van and then don't show up. How rude! So the rest of the week I showed up at the van and was able to ride up, even though there wasn't room on the sign-up sheet.

(I am feeling pretty cynical about my job at the moment, with the way it eats at my time by making me commute two hours every day, and then there's working overtime. Sundance prides itself on being green, which is great, but someone pointed out--if they want to be green, why don't they open an office in Salt Lake? That's where most people commute from! And it's not like there's one big Sundance headquarters--they just fill in random small buildings throughout Park City, so they could easily buy or rent an office space in the Salt Lake Valley. Furthermore, most of what I do for work could easily be done from home.)

Anyway, back to my story. There had been a little bit of snow Monday morning, so driving up to Park City was challenging. But not for the slipperiness. Since the road was wet, my windshield kept getting dirty. And worst of all, the road was wet but the sky was clear, so the glare on the road was horrendous. At one point, I didn't realize that the lane next to me was ending, and a semi was getting over, and I just thought its emergency flashers were on, since they always are in Parleys Canyon. I had to slam on my brakes.

Then, once I got to Park City, I had to park a mile away, because parking is really problematic there, even though "Park" is literally the city's name. (My coworkers later told me I could park in the office parking lot, even though technically I'm supposed to have a parking permit.) But I was prepared to walk over, and even though it was like 12 degrees, I was nice and toasty, because I had come prepared.

(Another thing that bugs me about Park City is that they encourage people to be green by not driving, but there's a shocking dearth of sidewalks. Only the main roads have them. How can you expect people to walk when all you give them is icy gutters?)

All this is really to tell you that I was prepared for snow, and I was wearing the boots I got ten years ago in Airway Heights, WA. I felt confident walking through snow.

And then. I realized that since I could walk in snow, I could walk on the trails right by the office. I ran on those trails a month ago, but I've stayed away since the first snows arrived. But here I was on them again! I didn't even need snowshoes, and they weren't icy yet (ice is my archnemesis). It was lovely to be out in nature in another season.

And then, since I was confident walking in snow, I was even confident enough to run in the snow! It is a lot harder than running on a dry trail, and the right conditions have to be met, and I can't do it too much or I'll get blisters on my heel. But this is a total game changer for me. I'm not a big fan of winter, but this could save the season for me, now that I know I can still go on the trails. It's still not ideal, but it's better than staying inside all January. 

(Once someone told me she preferred winter to summer because she liked staying inside and reading and watching movies. Um, you can still do those things in the summer, so that doesn't make winter better!)

We'll see if I'm still feeling so optimistic in January, because Christmas really makes winter seem delightful, when it's not. But I couldn't help whistling "A Marshmallow World."

Since I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, I took a floating holiday on Friday. It was nice to have the day off, but it meant I had to work all day Saturday, and what's the fun in that? I was able to walk (not run) on my beloved Wild Rose Trail. It was a little more slippery than Park City because it was more packed down, but I'll definitely have to keep this trail in mind again in winter, and not just pine for March.

After my snowy "hike," I was able to do some Christmas shopping and then made carrot celery soup.

Then came my favorite new Christmas tradition. This was our fifth year attending the Lower Lights Christmas concert!

They are seriously so fun. Better than Tabernacle Choir concerts. Better than the Katy Perry concert last year. It's a group of local artists (some more successful than others) getting together to sing folksy versions of Christmas and gospel songs. Not all of them are Mormon. It's a rollicking evening; I highly recommend the concerts. Oh, and I saw Ben McAdams outside the theater (though I'm not sure if he was attending)!

Back on my mission, I discovered the singer Cherie Call, and she is my favorite. I think that's how I heard of the Lower Lights, and now this is a beloved tradition. Last year I thought they would have a new Christmas album out by now, but nope. I even thought they were recording one secretly when they were in town in August. I guess not.

Anyway, I'm always looking for ways to make winter less depressing. And I might have found it this week.

The decline

Over the last month or so, I have seen my weekly page views decrease dramatically.

I think this is because Facebook has once again changed its algorithms. There are things that keep showing up in my feed where I'm like, "I don't care to see it. That's not even funny!" But then somehow I will find a post that I haven't seen, and then I'm like, "Why didn't you show that to me? That was a better post."

(As an aside that's only tangentially related, I was waiting to check out at Walmart this week when I saw this conversation:

Woman (motions to her purchases): I want all of it.

Cashier: (silence)

Woman: I don't think you got my joke. I said I want all of it.

Cashier: (chuckles politely)

That was, like, the worst "joke" I have ever heard. No wonder the cashier didn't laugh!)

It was nine years ago today that I first joined Facebook. Then around 2011 and 2012, I loved Facebook and would go on it all the time. Well, I didn't necessarily love it, but I was addicted to it.

Then over the years, it got worse and worse. They invented the "share" button, and Facebook became a place for old ladies to share fake news and recipes.

They had an "unsubscribe from comments and likes" feature, but then they nonsensically got rid of it. They still have an "unsubscribe" feature, but it's pointless, because I still see posts from people and pages I know I unsubscribed from. Even from pages or people I don't know or like.

Now, with their algorithm shift, this blog might be the only reason I still use Facebook. It's where I get my blog traffic. But Facebook isn't fun anymore. Whereas I used to look forward to it, now I don't necessarily find excuses to get on it. I'm just tired of getting on the computer and getting sucked into pointless stuff. Part of this is because of my own life choices and priorities, but some of it is because of how terrible Facebook has gotten.

At one point, I remember thinking Facebook was much too big and popular to join MySpace in a virtual graveyard. It's still a long way from death, but it's on its way there.

And I don't feel bad for Facebook, because it's their own changes that made it worse. They're digging their own grave.

But don't worry, I will keep posting my blog to Facebook. Until something better comes along.

Another Thanksgiving

Last week I talked about how great Thanksgiving is. It occurred to me that it's such a great holiday because even the mediocre Thanksgivings are delightful.

I only had to go into the office three days this week--and I had little actual work to do those three days. I did have to work a few hours from home over the weekend because I got real assignments that needed a quick turnaround. I remarked how strange it is that I had to go to work to do whatever I want, then come home to do work. On Tuesday they had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner. On Wednesday, the office closed two hours early, so I had to use my extra daylight for one final trail run for the season. (Sigh. I don't want to rush through Christmas, but I'm already looking forward to the March day when glacier lilies mark the end of winter.)

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran a 10k. It was my first real 10k (though I did an informal trail 10k a year and a half ago). I don't do a lot of races, because I'm fairly slow, I'm not competitive, and why pay money to run a distance I can do for free? But there is a fun atmosphere at races, and I enjoy getting the holiday-themed running shirts. I placed 102 out of 306, just barely making it into the top third. The rain stopped long enough for the race, and it was perfect weather.

Over the past year, I watched my weight creeping up, and I decided that if I ever weighed in at 180, I would count calories until I weighed in at 170. Labor Day weekend, I weighed in at 180. That was an anomaly, but I decided to count calories anyway. Well, after my 10k, I weighed in at 170! I thought, "Maybe I should count calories until I'm consistently 170." But then I realized that Thanksgiving was the perfectly symbolic day to end my calorie counting. So I'm done!

My mom's family came over for dinner. I contributed a few things to the meal. I made cranberry sauce for my work lunch, and I had plenty of leftovers. I don't know why you would ever buy canned cranberry sauce. The homemade stuff is super easy, and it's so much better!

I made the filling for mincemeat pie. My grandparents like mincemeat pie, and my mom used to make it for them from a jar. I didn't like it then. But then three years ago, I found a recipe that I like, and I've been making mincemeat for Thanksgiving ever since.

On Monday night, I had a dream that I was making stuffing using Cap'n Crunch. I thought it would be funny to try it in real life. I mean, stuffing is made of stale bread, and cereal is basically stale bread with sugar. My mom made real stuffing for the turkeys, but I made boxed stuffing on the stove and threw in some Cap'n Crunch. (I used Christmas Crunch so I would enjoy the cereal after Thanksgiving.) It did impart a strange flavor, and it's not going to become a tradition, like I had secretly hoped. But it was edible.

My cousin Peter said it could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try Cap'n Crunch stuffing, and he tried to convince my grandma to try some because of that. She said she didn't like Cap'n Crunch, and Peter asked if it even existed when she was a kid. That led to a tangent of things that are younger than my grandparents.

Dinner was nice and satisfying. After everyone left, I watched the kitschy TV special The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't from 1972 and a few random Thanksgiving reruns on TV.

The rest of the weekend was really low key and enjoyable. It maybe wasn't as fun as last year's Black Friday, but I got most of the Christmas decorations up, way earlier than usual. Sometimes I have been accused of hating Christmas, just because I don't like it before Thanksgiving and I detest certain Christmas songs. But let's face it: I probably enjoy my top five favorite holidays more than your average Christmas lover likes Christmas. Christmas is my second favorite. Would a Christmas hater own a playlist of 1,279 songs and counting?

***

The end of Thanksgiving means the final installation of pumpkinundation roundup.

I finished the last few drops of this Pumpkin Pie Torani Syrup and put it in my hot chocolate. It's OK; I can't say it really tastes like pumpkin pie. 6/10.

I kept forgetting to put Apple Pie Tic Tac on here, even though I've been eating them all month long. I got this large pack two years ago, and sadly I don't think they make these anymore, even though they're my all-time favorite Tic Tac. It was this very pack that got me my gig over at The Impulsive Buy. 7/10.

Behind my roll is a Fresh Market Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is typical. 8/10.

Last month I got Lady Gaga's Joanne on vinyl, and they had put in the wrong LP at the factory, so I had to go back to Graywhale to exchange it. While I was there, I went next door and got this B&D Burgers Pumpkin Shake. It was OK; it was less flavorful than Arctic Circle or Dairy Queen. If you happen to be at B&D and want something seasonal, this is fine, but it's not worth going out of your way for it. 7/10. But I might have to go back to B&D for a meal sometime, because they have a good selection of veggie burgers, my favorite food.

This Trader Joe's Pumpkin Butternut Squash Bisque had a nice, sweet flavor, and it was very simple. It's a good meal if you've already eaten a lot that day (as I had), but it's not substantial on its own. 7/10.

My sister brought over this pumpkin roll that a coworker had made. Pumpkin rolls are so classic that I'm surprised they aren't featured in more seasonal settings. Pumpkin cheesecake is fairly popular, but I like pumpkin roll better. 9/10.

At the 10k, they had these pumpkin muffins. I had already filled up on pumpkin oatmeal and Pumpkin Pie Pop-Tarts before the race, so it wasn't as good as it otherwise might have been. It was a typical pumpkin muffin. 7/10.

Here's the Thanksgiving pie plate (which was the same as the dinner plate because I didn't want to dirty two dishes): homemade mincemeat pie (8/10), Costco Pumpkin Pie (9/10), Costco Pecan Pie (10/10), and homemade apple pie (10/10).

Another thing I contributed to Thanksgiving dinner was Trader Joe's Breaded Turkey-less Stuffed Roast with Gravy. It has a weird, poultry-like texture with lentils in it. For a vegan item, it's OK. If you want it to taste like turkey, it just tastes like sadness. 7/10. (In case you're wondering, no, I'm not vegetarian. I just think it's fascinating the things they can do without meat.)

My cousin also brought this pumpkin ice cream, I don't know where from. It was creamier than most ice creams. But we were already full from dinner. 8/10.

Wrong holiday, but I have to show you these because of how weird they are. I got these Peppermint Tums Chewy Bites a few weeks ago at Target. On Friday, I went on a five-mile run and had heartburn as I got home, since I had eaten lots of Thanksgiving leftovers. Then I remembered I had these in my drawer! They have the texture of candy. But it wasn't as minty as I had expected. 8/10. Now I've had pumpkin spice cough drops and candy cane antacids!

I could have had this Apple Cider Dum-Dum for Thanksgiving, but I forgot I had it. It's leftover from Christmas Dum-Dums last year. It's OK. 7/10.

I did not buy this Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie. It's squashier than most pumpkin pies, and I like the crust's texture. 9/10.

Well, that's a wrap. See you here again in September!

A mini essay on Thanksgiving

No one likes holidays more than I do. And my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.

There's just so much to love about it. It's not super cold yet, it's a low-key day to gather with family, it revolves around appreciating what we have, it involves lots of comfort food, it invokes happy memories.

This summer, my family went on a vacation to New England, and Plymouth was the highlight of the trip for me. I was super excited to get various Thanksgiving-themed souvenirs, and I did get a number: a squishy Plymouth Rock, a pen with a moving Mayflower, a Mayflower ornament. But one souvenir has forever altered the way I think about Thanksgiving: the book Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday by James W. Baker.

Once upon a time, I was looking at an old Latter-day Saint hymnal from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. (I'm not going to track it down right now. Sorry.) In the "Topics" index in the back, I looked under "Thanksgiving," and they had one or two typical songs, "Now Thank We All Our God" or something like that. I also noticed that this book had a song about the Pilgrims, and they even had "Pilgrim Fathers" as one of the topics in the back, but this song was not listed under "Thanksgiving." "Why," I wondered, "is there a song about Pilgrims in the book, when it's not even considered a Thanksgiving song?"

Well. It turns out that Pilgrims weren't always part of the holiday, and in fact Thanksgiving was retrofitted to include them. Thanksgiving was already an established holiday, and in the late nineteenth century, people found a newfound interest in the Pilgrim Fathers. Some people found accounts of the 1621 harvest feast, thought, "That sounds just like our November celebration," and dubbed it "The First Thanksgiving." Even though it wasn't. 

So the Pilgrims didn't celebrate Thanksgiving? Well, they did, but it's not what you think. In the seventeenth century, Puritans and other religious adherents held thanksgiving days and fast days. The Pilgrims had a true thanksgiving feast in 1623, their first recorded one. But other groups had held similar thanksgiving days before that in America and Europe. These thanksgivings did involve feasting, but they were also religious observances. The 1621 "First Thanksgiving" was a secular harvest feast that looked nothing like the religious feast days.

Over time, these thanksgiving days became an established, recurring part of the New England calendar. You've probably heard that Abraham Lincoln officially made it a national holiday in 1863. That's true, but he didn't invent it; it was already a popular celebration.

I have sometimes wondered why Thanksgiving is all about the autumn and harvest, when much of the harvest and autumn has already passed. Well, it wasn't always that way. In the nineteenth century, before Christmas had gained its massive (over)popularity, Thanksgiving was regarded as a wintry holiday. You might go to church, hold a feast, and after dinner go on a sleigh ride. A "White Thanksgiving" was the ideal. That's why "Over the River and through the Woods" was originally a  Thanksgiving song before Christmas stole it (as if it didn't have enough songs already!), even though it talks about snow and sleighs. It bothers me when it snows in November and people think "That means it's Christmastime!" Snow is part of Thanksgiving.

Which brings us to "Jingle Bells." I had long heard that "Jingle Bells" was originally a Thanksgiving song, so I have included it in my Thanksgiving playlist since 2014. The story you often hear is that it was written for a Thanksgiving Sunday school program, and it was so popular that it was brought back for Christmas. Some historians question this account, because the lyrics aren't fitting for Sunday school. Fair enough. But the part they question is the Sunday school, not the Thanksgiving. Knowing what I do about the nineteenth-century Thanksgiving, I think it is not unlikely that it was indeed meant for Thanksgiving. So I continue to count it as both a Thanksgiving and a Christmas song. (James W. Baker doesn't mention "Jingle Bells" in his book, so I don't know his take on it.)

Now, you may ask, "You read this one book, so you have one author's interpretation. Does that mean it's fact?" Fair question. But it's entirely consistent with the nineteenth-century sources I have personally seen. I already told you about the Pilgrim hymn I saw. Once I found a syndicated sentimental, fictional Thanksgiving newspaper story from the 1850s, and it had a very wintry setting. And I have begun doing research for a personal project. I have found several references to Pilgrim Fathers pop up in the 1870s (in non-Thanksgiving contexts), whereas they weren't as common in the 1850s and 1860s. 

So turkeys and pies have been part of Thanksgiving longer than Pilgrims. But I don't think that means we should toss out the Pilgrims and the Indians. They've been part of the holiday for so long that they're very much a tradition, and we don't have any other holidays for them. Some cynics like to focus on the Pilgrims' seventeenth-century attitudes and actions against the Native Americans and thereby disparage Thanksgiving. (Even though that's not how Thanksgiving began anyway.) You can wallow in your negativity if you want. Or you can instead focus on the fact that these differing groups chose to put aside differences for a time (before things went downhill). I prefer this latter interpretation.

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Now that I've given you an overview of the holiday, I want to show you a few of my Thanksgiving decorations and tell you about my November memories of them. I delight in having Thanksgiving decorations. Why put up Christmas lights already when you can put up Thanksgiving lights?

We have had this ugly felt turkey for as long as I can remember; my mom says it originally held candy. I associate this turkey with my elementary school memories of dark November evenings at home, making my own arts and crafts from brown, red, orange, and yellow construction paper.

We have likewise had this cornucopia for as long as I can remember, but I have put different fake fruits and veggies in it. When I was in fourth grade, I was obsessed with these Veggie Friend Seedies and Fruit Seedies toys, and now I think they're a great filler for the horn of plenty. In fact, it was during those dark November nights that I was introduced to the Fruit Seedies (the Veggies had come out in the summer, but the Fruit came out in the fall). One evening, my cousins were over, and my mom brought me home Sunny Orange, an orange with sunglasses. I went around the house chanting "Sunny Orange, Sunny Orange!" My cousin Chancey was playing Nintendo, and he messed up on the game, and looked at me and said, "Sunny Orange made me die!" He often said things like that, and the whole idea of blaming others for your video game mistakes was entirely foreign to me. Later that month, my cousin Tammy left Hula Pineapple (on the right in this picture) under my pillow because I had let her sleep in my bed while she was visiting.

Back in 2007, my mom bought me the Fisher Price Little People Thanksgiving and Mayflower sets. I still think of them as kind of new, but it's been eleven years! They don't even make the Mayflower anymore. My niece used to play with them, and when she was seven she told me I was too old to play with them--I think because she wanted them for herself. The horse (not pictured) ended up in her other toys, which they gave to someone else--but she rescued it for me (i.e. stole it back) when she was eight. When we went to Plymouth this summer, I saw the squishy Plymouth  Rock and knew it would be perfect for this set.

We have had this inflatable turkey since 2004, which means it's older than all of my nephews, and it's still in great shape! I remember taking my baby niece out to look at it.

I got these light-up Pilgrims online in 2007, and for many years I put them on our doorstep, where they would fall over when it was windy, and the cord was a potential trip hazard. Then in 2014 I bought the turkey on eBay, and I found a better place for them all.

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Since pumpkinundation roundup now includes Thanksgiving foods, I have quite a few weird things this week.

The frozen turkey meals continue with the Banquet Turkey Meal. I really liked the peas, so this one had the best veggies. The Banquet turkey wasn't as good as the others. It's all right. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread & Muffin Mix tastes pretty similar to its gluten free counterpart from last month. Good, but not groundbreaking. 7/10.

I went to the Neighbor's Market convenience store, and they had a sign saying "Pumpkin and Cheese-Cake Muffins." I don't know whether they had two flavors of muffins and only the pumpkin ones were left, or whether these are pumpkin and cheesecake together. I noticed a slight tang, but it didn't really seem like cheesecake to me. 7/10.

The Atlantis Burger Pumpkin Spice Eggnog Shake has been around at least since 2011, and they sell it at least October through December. I don't know why it's their thing, because it's not especially noteworthy. Mostly it just tastes like eggnog and not pumpkin. But who can complain about that? 8/10.

I made pumpkin turkey black bean chili from this slow cooker cook book. It's not the most flavorful chili, but it's still satisfying. 7/10.

I learned of a new dessert shop called Last Course, which has some...interesting seasonal flavors. I got a sample of the Last Course Pumpkin Brownie Cheesecake, since I couldn't get three scoops. It's hard to judge on just one bite. The chocolate seemed good, but the ice cream was a little more tangy than I would like. 7/10.

What I was most eager to try was Last Course Cranberry Turkey Ice Cream. If you think that turkey and ice cream don't go together, you are right. The cranberry ice cream part was fine, but the turkey had a really weird texture, like it was freeze dried. It was super weird to be eating ice cream and then suddenly be eating savory turkey. This ice cream is only useful for the novelty. 6/10.

I also had Last Course Candied Yam Ice Cream. I'm guessing this one was vegan, though I don't officially know. Part of me even wonders if they gave me the right one. When I think of candied yams, I think of deep orange potatoes with marshmallows on top. This was a purple ice cream with a few pecans. It was decent, but nothing about it said "candied yam" to me. 7/10.

I was happy to see that there is now a See's Candies in City Creek. I love See's! I stopped in, thinking of buying their Pumpkin Spice Lollypops. I didn't see any on display, so I asked the cashier if they had any. She said they were all out, but she had a full box of samples (I didn't even know that was a thing), and since she didn't have any of the real thing to sell, she gave me a bag of them for free! So I got a ton of small Lollypops with no sticks. They're my least favorite of See's Lollypops, because they don't really taste like pumpkin spice, and they almost taste like plastic. But they're OK. 6/10.

After getting a haircut in Trolley Square, I had Normal Ice Cream Apple Pie Composed Cone. Their ice creams might not be "normal," but they're more normal than turkey! This flavor (made just for November) has vanilla ice cream with apple pie filling and crumbs. You can't go wrong with apple pie! It was great. 8/10.

Earlier this month, I tried to order Thanksgiving Pringles, but there were so many people trying to get them that the site froze and they sold out. It was like trying to get Tabernacle Choir Christmas tickets! But I was still able to get Trader Joe's Turkey and Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips. They are somewhat reminiscent of stuffing. My dad ate most of the bag, but my mom thought they were terrible. I thought they were OK; I mostly like them for the novelty. 7/10.

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Spice Almond Beverage is officially the worst pumpkin item I have had this season. It tastes like they blended almond milk with melted pumpkin candle. It's OK enough that I will likely drink it all rather than throw it away, but I won't look forward to it. 3/10.

Since I count apple pie as a Thanksgiving dessert, I bought this JJ's Bakery Apple Pie, even though they sell these year round. It was not as good as real pie, but still decent for 99 cents. 7/10.

Every other time I have tried to get a Parsons' Bakery Pumpkin Cookie, they have been sold out, so I was glad to finally get one (the penultimate one in the case). It's a typical pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, but it has a lemon frosting. Most frostings for pumpkin items are cream cheese, so this was a refreshing change. 8/10.

Cafe Zupas Turkey Cranberry & Brie has good turkey, good cranberries, and decent bacon. I'm picky about cheese, so I didn't much care for the brie. It was OK, though. 8/10.

I also had Cafe Zupas Pumpkin Spice Crème Brûlée. I had never had crème brûlée before. That part was fine, but it was the non-pumpkin part--the caramel and nuts--that was the best. 9/10.

I had a Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice Glazed Doughnut because I heard them advertising it for just a limited time. It's just flavored glaze on a regular donut. (I choose to spell it "donut.") As a donut it's great, but the glaze wasn't noteworthy. 7/10.

All the fuss I heard was about the glazed version, so I didn't know there was also a Krispy Kreme Pumpkin Spice Cake Doughnut. It didn't look or taste like pumpkin; I think it was just that lame "pumpkin spice without the pumpkin" nonsense. Again, it was great as a donut, but not as a pumpkin donut. You're one of the biggest donut companies, and you can't even do a pumpkin donut right? 7/10.

The Hungry-Man Roasted Carved White Meat Turkey had the best turkey of all the frozen meals, but the stuffing was a little tough. It was also the only one to feature cranberries. This was a "cranberry apple dessert," which just tasted like pie filling. 8/10.

I hadn't seen Pumpkin Puffins all season, and to be honest, I was almost disappointed to see them, because they're really not a great cereal, unless you're a hippie. But they probably are the best kind of Puffins cereal. 6/10.

If you had not told me that Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes were gluten free, I would have never known. But if you had not told me they were pumpkin pancakes, I wouldn't have known that either. Good as pancakes, but not very pumpkiny. 7/10.