Happy New Year!

Here we are again! The end of another year. Time for my annual year-in-review, a post I look forward to writing all year.

January. I began the year with some kind of sickness that woke me up repeatedly. I was working part-time for the Utah Historical Society (UHS), but then a colleague at BYU hired me to do some contract research and editing for him, so I've also been doing that all year. I went to UHS's awards party at the Governor's Mansion. I began practicing with the swim team at the rec center (I was in the slowest lane, of course), since it's hard to do other things in the winter. But I did do some hiking in the snow. 

February. I went to Signature Books to hear a panel discussion about D. Michael Quinn's memoir, Chosen Path. I spent Valentine's Day proofing issue 3 of Wayfare magazine. I visited Provo to attend the conference of the BYU Slavery Project. On Presidents' Day, I went with my parents to the Bear River Bird Refuge. I went on some very steep bike rides, including one on Leap Day. And I still did street running when I wasn't swimming or biking.

March. Trail season resumed! As a RINO, I attended the Republican caucus to vote for Nikki Haley. On March 9, which is Utah State Flag Day, I went to the ceremony at the capitol for the new state flag.

I helped judge National History Day. I went to the Siamsa festival at the Gateway on the day before St. Patrick's Day. The day after St. Patrick's Day, I attended the Manti Temple open house. I spoke about writing at the symposium of the Peoples of Utah Revisited. The following week, I attended a UHS event with the Mexican Consulate, in honor of our special issue of Utah Historical Quarterly. On Good Friday, my half-birthday, I visited Utah Lake. On the night before Easter, I helped tear up carpets in the Bountiful Temple.

April. I went on a road trip with my parents. In Arizona, we saw Saguaro National Park, which I fell in love with.

In New Mexico, we went to White Sands National Park and Carlsbad Cavern. In Texas, we saw Guadalupe National Park. But most significantly in Texas, we stayed with my cousin Shane's family to watch the solar eclipse. The clouds cleared just in time for totality, and it was just as amazing as it was in 2017. While my parents continued their road trip, I flew home so I could attend the joint conference of UHS and the National Council on Public History in SLC. I also helped judge at National History Day state finals. At the end of the month, I twisted my ankle on the sidewalk, which put me out of running for a few weeks.

May. May is normally a wonderful month, but this May was harder for me. Not only could I not run at the beginning of the month, I had a friend trauma dump on me. I did the Splash 'n' Sprint Triathlon, which went better than it had before. I organized a ward service project at the Wild Rose Trail to pull up invasive myrtle spurge.

I helped staff the UHS table at the Living Traditions Festival. Sadly, my grandpa entered the hospital, and then he began hospice care. My brother came with two of his kids to say goodbye. 

June. On June 2, my grandpa died, and we had the funeral six days later. I wrote the obituary. I really appreciate all the messages of care and condolence I received. But honestly, I felt more relieved than I felt sad. Grandpa was mostly deaf, and in recent years he had lost his sight as well, so he had a very poor quality of life, and it was very hard to communicate with him. I went to UHS's party to send off the statue of Martha Hughes Cannon to Washington DC. I did a Juneteenth 5K, and on Juneteenth I also led a ward service project cleaning up garbage along the Jordan River. I got my new Nancy t-shirt, which is legally dubious.

July. Like every year, I enjoyed wearing all my America apparel. 

I hung out at the Eaglewood golf course before the annual firework show so I could get some reading done. I made cilantro ice cream for the Fourth of July after having a dream about it. On July 5, I attended Salt Lake City's Independence Day drone show. I joined my family at Scofield Reservoir. I also did many things for Pioneer Day, which I'm the world's expert on. On July 17, I presented part of a Zoom lecture about the history of Pioneer Day for UHS's Perspectives Speaker Series. 

On July 20, I attended Deseret Book's Pioneer Day concert at This Is the Place. On July 22, I spoke at my friend Madi's ward about Pioneer Day. On the holiday itself, I swam in Farmington Pond and attended SLC's second drone show of the month, which had an Olympics theme. I invited ten people, but no one came, so I went by myself.

August. I joined my family at Moosehorn Lake, and I hiked (with some running) to the top of Bald Mountain. 

In Kamas, I had a chicken and waffles milkshake. I got stung by insects twice in one week, and we randomly had a peacock on our shed. I helped staff a UHS table at the Friendly Islands Tongan Festival. I organized a ward service project assembling high school hygiene kits. I twisted my ankle again. At the end of the month, I went to the Jordan River OHV Park and Rockport Reservoir. 

September. I went to Park City for their Miners Day celebration on Labor Day. It was a fun adventure, and then I got stuck in hours of traffic on the way home. I went to the Faith Matters Restore gathering, then the Gather Conference a week later. I began making grape juice from our own grapes. I went to Wasatch Mountain State Park with my parents, which was amazing. I attended a Tori Kelly concert, and she is so seriously underrated. For my birthday weekend, I proofed issue 4 of Wayfare. I began observing the Halloween season. 

October. I attended one session of general conference in person, and the next week I attended the Affirmation conference. I went to the Church History Symposium at BYU and the Conference Center. I went running on some new trails in Bountiful, and the last weekend of the month, I went on a fourteen-mile run, the only one of the year. 

November. Trail season ended. I went to see the national Christmas tree at Wheeler Farm as it was passing through, and I attended a couple of Friendsgivings. I attended a launch party for issue 4 of Wayfare. I rode my bike at Bear River Bird Refuge, and it was a perfect day. I read a book on the history of turkeys, after I read a book on the history of pumpkins in September.

December. I went to the Best of Utah party at the Masonic Temple. I watched the Nutcracker ballet, and I attended concerts by the Lower Lights and the Tabernacle Choir. I made apple pine nut cupcakes for a work party. I cracked myself up by a piece of cheese that was accidentally shaped like Idaho.

I sang in a quartet at church, even though I had just recovered from a cold, and my brother's family came to town from California for Christmas. 

My goal for 2024 was to get rid of something every day, and I was pretty successful at it. If I missed a day, I made up for it the next day. Some of the things were small things, like old papers, but some were more substantial, meant to reduce clutter.

And I've decided I'm not going to set resolutions for 2025. Sometimes I wear myself out because I have too many expectations. I already try to do a chore, cardio, and strength training every day, and I pick goatheads in the summer and fall, and this year I will have to prepare Sunday School lessons. So my New Year's resolution is not to have a resolution.

Happy New Year! 🥳🎆🎈🎊🎉🕛🎩

The Voice of Christmas

My state job had a holiday party this week. Last year they did a cookie exchange, but a few weeks ago they announced they were doing a cupcake bake-off. Who ever heard of a cupcake exchange!? I was annoyed, and one of my colleagues was as well, because cupcakes are harder to eat, transport, and make. I boldly sent an email asking if it had to be cupcakes, or if it could be cookies like last year. While many people agreed with me, the response from the admin assistant was one word: "Cupcakes."

Ugh. I had hoped to make pine nut cookies with all the pine nuts one of my uncles picked this fall. So instead I looked for a recipe for pine nut cupcakes, and one of the recipes I found was for apple pine nut cupcakes. We have a fridge full of apples from our neighbors' tree, so that was perfect! I didn't have shortening, superfine sugar, or cake flour, so I just used butter, regular granulated sugar, and all-purpose flour.

This was the first time I ever made cupcakes, and it was more time consuming than I expected. But I liked the way they turned out, especially the brown sugar buttercream. 

Unfortunately, I developed a cold. Last week, I noticed I had a bit of a cold at night, but I was fine during the day. When I ran 9.5 miles last week, it was with a nightly cold. But beginning on Monday, it started affecting me in the day. So I wore a mask while I baked.

Tuesday was the holiday party at Smash It, a place where you go into rooms and smash garbage. I watched my colleagues pick out old printers, analog clocks, and other such items to destroy, and it just didn't appeal to me. So I opted out of that. Instead, I went with the paint room. They had a room with a black light where you could splatter washable neon paint. I kept the canvas with paint splatters, but I don't know if I'll do anything with it. 

There was also an ugly sweater contest with awards for ugliest sweater, best Utah history–themed, and most creative. I didn't care to be creative, so I wore my pants with tree print (which is subtle, and not everyone notices), my jingle bell sweater, and my matching hat. Oh, and a mask because of my cold. And I won the "ugliest sweater" portion of the contest, which is eight paid hours off! 

On Thursday I meant to pull some cheddar cheese out of the fridge, and I pulled out Idaho instead. 😂😆😂

The real highlight of Thursday was attending the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. My mom and I went to the Tabernacle for standby tickets, and we got to go in to the concert itself. We've done that before, and it seemed more chaotic and unorganized this time.

The guest singer, Ruthie Ann Miles, is a Broadway star, and the guest narrator, Dennis Haysbert, is the narrator of Allstate commercials. They were both very talented, though they did mess up a few times. For the story, Dennis told about an African man who sold all his businesses to help poor children, like he once was. And he happened to be in attendance, so they asked him some questions. One of the songs the choir sang was an African song. And every year, they have an organ solo by Richard Elliott. This year he played "Patapan" along with a jazz ensemble, which I quite enjoyed. I actually like jazz better than organ music, but I felt like the jazz overshadowed the organ, and Richard Elliott is an insanely talented organist.

When I got home, I discovered I had received a card and candy from the editor of The Impulsive Buy. I've been writing reviews for that site for eight years now, and it was a nice gesture. I was really insecure about my reviews in the beginning, but I've gotten more confident. And this week I got some new Valentine's candy to review, so I should submit that sometime soon.

Since I spend a lot of time in historic documents, and I enjoy campy, kitschy things from decades ago, sometimes I worry I don't see enough new things. So yesterday I took myself to see The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. (I'm trying to be more content doing things by myself, because it stresses me out to invite other people, and I don't have a great success rate.) I mostly liked the movie, which I would give a 7 out of 10. It was nostalgic, because Orchard Elementary used to stage a play version of it, and I had a small role in it in fifth grade. My friend Hillary was a minor (made-up?) character named Juanita, and when she saw her role, she asked, "Who is Joo-ann-it-uh?" The teacher in charge said that the angels could wear garland as halos and around their waists. A few days later, one girl asked, "What was that thing you said we could wear?"
"Garland."
"Oh, I told my mom it was garlic!"

Speaking of kitsch, remember that episode of The Brady Bunch where Carol lost her voice when she was supposed to be singing in church for Christmas? I had a similar experience. Because of my cold, I didn't have much of a voice for most of the week. That made me even less chatty than usual when I went to the holiday party, went shopping, and talked to my BYU boss. And I was asked to sing in a quartet for my ward's Christmas meeting. And luckily, my voice came back in time! Our ward sang the new Christmas hymns, and they had special musical numbers sing the first verse and then the congregation sing the rest. My quartet sang "Star Bright." And it went well. (I sang the harmony, but I don't know if I could have done it if I had to sing the upper notes.) 

I wore my Christmas suit jacket with red pants, and this week I found a white button-up shirt with reindeer on it at Target, which I had to have. 

(Ugh, the d on my keyboard isn't working very well.)

The bishopric also asked me to be a Gospel Doctrine teacher. I feel a little bit like an impostor, since I'm such a cynical heretic. But 2025 is Church history, and if there's anyone who's qualified to teach that, it's me. 

Though I might not keep up with modern things, I do keep up with modern Christmas music. I wasn't too impressed with this year's offerings, but here are my four favorite additions this year, two covers and two originals. (I also know you won't listen to them, because no one ever listens to songs on blogs.)

And to close, here are this week's dreams. Merry Christmas all! 

Mark moves into a house for queer people in Provo, Utah (the next four images are part of the same dream)

Mark accidentally goes into the bedroom of an elderly woman

one of Mark's housemates is Bart Simpson

Mark is annoyed that one of his housemates keeps a goat in the house

Mark's used cellphone is pink and sparkly

Mark pushes an old woman in a wheelchair at the fair

Mark, Ann, and Susanne visit a fake fortune teller in the spooky section of the fair

Mark finally puts his dresser drawers away after a year (hey look, it's Reggie!)

Carly wants to put up Christmas CDs as decorations

Mark can't drive his car up a steep, snow-covered road, so his ward members reconstruct the trail

Mark drops his retainer, breaking another piece off

Some random vignettes

This season, I've found myself getting annoyed with how busy it is. How am I supposed to do my chores or run or swim or do the various things I expect of myself?

But then I changed my mindset. All the busy-ness is one of the things that makes this time of year enjoyable. The chores and exercise will always be there, but the other activities are only seasonal. So I shouldn't resent them! 

Here are a few vignettes from this week.

Christmas donations

My calling in my mid-singles ward is service committee cochair. For our ward Christmas party, the activities people wanted to collect donations of Christmas trees and decorations to donate to needy families. We couldn't find specific families, but we found a nonprofit that just collects Christmas things. So people donated the supplies for our party on Monday, and then on Tuesday I drove out to West Valley after work to deliver them.

And that might be my last official act. My ward has lost a lot of members with the YSA age change, so I think my calling is being dissolved.

Martha in Washington

This week, a statue of Martha Hughes Cannon was unveiled at Statuary Hall in the US Capitol. Each state gets two statues to represent them, and Cannon is replacing Philo T. Farnsworth. Cannon was the first female state senator in the US, and she beat her husband in the election. She was also a doctor. Her statue was supposed to be there long ago, but COVID put everything on hold.

A few of my colleagues at the Utah Historical Society were heavily involved in the process, and some of them were there for the ceremony in Washington DC. Those who were left behind held a watch party at our Utah capitol, so I went and helped out a little with that.

I helped set up this photo backdrop

There was a problem with the livestream, but eventually it got set up. Cannon's statue is next to a new Johnny Cash statue, and my colleagues were annoyed that three different people (Mike Johnson, Celeste Maloy, Mike Lee) talked about him. Like, can't a woman be good enough without having to invoke a man? Mike Lee was mostly OK, but he made a baffling comment about King Kamehameha that literally made my jaw drop. But Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson did not mention Cash, thankfully.

They had a closing prayer from one of Cannon's descendants that made me deeply uncomfortable. I literally winced. I didn't say anything about it, but my colleagues did, and I was glad I wasn't the only one who felt that way. One of them said, "It feels like I'm at church, but I'm at work." This was a national event, yet it was a deeply Latter-day Saint prayer. I'm pretty sure he literally said "no harm or accident will befall us." He invoked a blessing on "President Russell M. Nelson" and was grateful for the "gospel of Jesus Christ" that brought Cannon to the US. Has this guy ever been outside of Utah? Has he heard of ecumenicism? And I'm a bit uneasy with prayers in civic events anyway, even as someone who prays every day.

Christmas music

On Wednesday, I attended the Lower Lights Christmas concert with my mom. I have seen it every year since 2014, except the two years they were cancelled from COVID. It's always a fun tradition. It was their opening night, and they didn't have all the bugs worked out. Some of them sang the wrong lyrics or didn't sing when they were supposed to. I guess those are the hazards and charms of live music.

Every week I check the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and I'm always amazed at the Christmas songs that are played all the time. 

I don't know much about music airplay, but it must be cheaper to play some of those old songs. That's the only reason I can think of for them to play them so often. I am indifferent to "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," but I dislike "Last Christmas" and "Jingle Bell Rock." There is an infinite supply of Christmas music, so why do those all the time?

(Similarly, there are at least two channels that have been showing the movie Christmas with the Kranks, which only has 5 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and even the audience score is only 39 percent. There must be some cheap licensing deal for them to show a movie that no one likes.)

I continue to diligently make it through my Christmas playlist of 2,083 songs. I'm in the 2023 section now, so I should finish within a few days.

Friday the 13th

I was so happy on Friday to wake up to snow. Remember when it was reliably snowy in December?

I like to think of Friday the 13th as a mini Halloween, and I had hoped to watch a spooky Christmas movie, like Gremlins or something. But instead, we had a power outage. That did seem appropriate for Friday the 13th. It lasted for five hours. I tried to do some work without internet, but I was very limited in what I did, so I had to go work at my sister's house for a time. All the weirdness set me back, so I only had time for the "Halloween vs. Christmas" episode of Teen Titans Go!

Running

Yesterday I ran to the Bountiful Temple from my house, which is my default long run in the winter (about eleven miles). I like doing that at Christmastime, because the houses around the temple have displays telling the nativity story. It's a fun gesture, though some of their picture choices are odd, and they spelled "forth" as "fourth." 

When I hit 9.5 miles, my knee started hurting, and I had to walk the rest of the way. This wasn't unexpected, as that often happens in the winter, but it's still annoying, especially since I'm dressed warm enough for running but not for walking. This fall, I visited a sports med doctor, and he said he thinks it's IT band syndrome. It's more likely to act up when I'm going downhill on sidewalks, because it's worse when you have a longer stride. So it's rarely a problem when I'm on trails. The office gave me some exercises, but I haven't done them yet because a lot of them require resistance bands.

Sorry, that was probably boring for you.

Crisp

Last week I made gingerbread cranberry apple crisp, a recipe I invented. I modified it from another crisp recipe, but it's different enough that I count it as my own. I posted the recipe last year, but here it is again. I'm very pleased with the topping; it's chewy and gingery.

 Ingredients:

Topping:
1 stick butter (8 tablespoons)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 cup whole wheat flour (all-purpose flour works too)
pinch salt
1 cup rolled oats

Fruit:
6 to 8 cups apples, peeled and cut
2 cups cranberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup granulated sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rub the stick of butter on the inside of a 9x13" baking dish.
2. Cut the stick of butter into smaller pieces. Cream it with the brown sugar and molasses. (A food processor makes this step quite easy.)
3. Mix in the lemon juice, spices, flour, and salt.
4. By hand, mix in the oats. (Don't use a food processor for this step, unless you want the oats to be all ground up.)
5. Combine the apples, cranberries, and sugar in the baking dish.
6. Put the topping on the fruit.
7. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Finally, here are this week's dreams. I hope you're not sick of these, because I still find them entertaining.

Mark's character in a movie admires his hometown at Christmastime

a liquid seeps out of a batch of mashed potatoes because they were made with turnips (The generator wouldn't make it when I put "red liquid" because it detected "unsafe content")

after a trip, Mark brings chairs and suitcases that aren't his into his bedroom

at a BYU sporting event, a toddler boy retrieves balls

an inflatable cornucopia decoration blows away, so Mark returns it to the owners

on Google street view, a house has plastic blow mold decorations of Utah pioneers

an ornate building from the early 20th century is converted to a park restroom

Mark plays Mario games late at night at his late grandparents' house, which now belongs to his uncle

a man and his friends walk through a new elementary school, which has a confusing design

a tube of seerstone cream to translate the Book of Mormon

Mark has a very long spoon, and he keeps hitting people with it by accident at a ballet class

Mark worries he's going to run over hoses as he drives out of the repair shop

a woman insists that people take Thanksgiving leftovers in aluminum foil

Mark wants to get a haircut at Dairy Queen

the bus driver hopes he can make it up the really steep hill

Best of Utah

To prepare for America's 250th birthday in 2026, the Utah Historical Society is working on a project called the Peoples of Utah Revisited (Peoples for short; we used to call it POUR, but that sounded like "poor"). A team of contributors are writing histories of different communities in the state, and many of them will be published in Utah Historical Quarterly, so I am part of the Peoples team. And I have also talked about writing and citations at the two Peoples symposia.

Salt Lake City Weekly recently announced their Best of Utah 2024, and Peoples won an award for "Best Resource for Preserving Cultural History." That sounds like a category that was made up just to recognize us, but hey, that's cool! Consequently, UHS employees who work with Peoples were invited to the Best of Utah party on Thursday this week, held at the Masonic Temple, which was built in 1905. 

I got there early, and it wasn't too busy then, but it got really crowded. In the basement of the temple, they had various food winners sharing their products. As a foodie, I enjoyed having a peppermint macaron, a pink deviled egg, ube cornbread, and other goodies. I declined the drink tickets, THC gummies, and pornographic donuts. 

In the main auditorium, they had different performing groups. They had circus acrobats performing at the same time as a band that described itself as if "Tom Petty had a baby with Radiohead." Not many people were watching, and I felt bad for the performers having such a small crowd.

More people trickled in for the next performance, which was a drag performance. I've never been to a drag show before, so I stuck around. It was . . . weird. It reminded me of when I went to the opera: I can appreciate it as a cultural experience, but it's just not my thing. I'm glad that other people enjoy it. It was basically drag queens lip-synching to pop songs and dancing. (For the record: I reject the far-right claims that drag shows are somehow harmful to children. Some are appropriate for families, and some are not—just like standup comedy, and plays, and literally every other form of entertainment. This particular drag show was not family friendly.)

The party lasted till eleven, but I left about nine thirty.

The other cultural experience I had this week was to see the Nutcracker ballet. According to Ballet West, Salt Lake City is the first location of the full-length Nutcracker in the United States. That was in 1944, so this year was its eightieth anniversary, and it has been held continuously since 1955. The ballet was written in the 1890s, and I'm surprised it took fifty years to make it to the US in full. (An abridged version was performed before that.)

The dancing, set pieces, and costumes were spectacular, and it was fun to hear the iconic melodies performed live. Overall, though, I found it kind of dull. It's a product of the nineteenth century, and I live in the twenty-first, so that kind of entertainment is just not in fashion anymore. (I say that as someone who is regularly in the nineteenth century.) And I'm not really into dancing. I also expected more of a story, but the second act was just random dances and nothing to do with Christmas. I'm glad I got to go and experience it, but I don't feel a need to see it again anytime soon.

Last week, I told you I had cooked a large pumpkin to use in other foods. So last Sunday, I spent a long time in the kitchen making pumpkin soup from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, pumpkin pancakes from Southern Living Christmas Cookbook, and pumpkin granola from Pumpkin Lovers' Cookbook. They were fine. The soup isn't my favorite, but I enjoy it with Trader Joe's Everything but the Leftovers seasoning, and it's a convenient way to eat vegetables at a time of the year with lots of sugary carbs. I made a second batch of the soup yesterday (with some different vegetables) so I could use up the rest of the pumpkin. 

With the inversion and darkness, I went swimming a couple of times this week and wore my new Christmas jammers. 

My blog posts will be shorter again now that pumpkin season has ended. But I still like to share my silly dreams. I love what my brain comes up with!

Mark visits a retention pond in the middle of the night, and there are catfish in and near the water

Mark is reluctant to swim in the retention pond because it has foam and dead leaves, but his mom encourages him to swim

during a volcanic eruption, glowing orbs lit the way

Mark rides his bike uphill, but the tires go flat when he tries to go up stairs

Milk from different animals, including frogs

Calvin and his friends prepare to defeat Bowser

Mark debates whether to take the books off the bookcase before moving it

in a high school history classroom, every desk is a display case of historical artifacts

in May, the ice cream shop sells several red, white, and blue flavors

Mark almost takes the orange kitten home, but he has to return it to the ice cream shop

Mark and Ron discuss classes they would like to take in college

at the grocery store, Mark buys cornucopia socks, stuffing-flavored microwave popcorn, small berries, and a tiny toy stegosaurus

carved wooden figures lipsync to the songs playing at the grocery store

Mark asks his former history professors what books they've been writing

Mark talks to someone at Costco while an author sets up his display of books

Roger tells Mark that Utah Historical Quarterly should publish more music

Reid has a meeting with Mark, Scott, and Roger in an open cubicle