Memorable Moments of 2011

This year has been filled with many adventures and a great deal of personal happiness!  Here are my top five moments of 2011:

#5 Southern Utah Camping Trip

Over the long Memorial Day weekend my family went camping in the motor home in St. George.  It was so much fun!  I got to hang out with my awesome cousin John and I got to visit two of my favorite national parks: Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.  The scenery was spectacular!

#4 San Diego

In July I went to a conference for school held in San Diego!  When our sessions were finished my colleagues and I played!  We went to Sea World, the beach, the Old Town for some awesome Mexican food, and a Padres game.  I don't really like watching baseball on television but actually being at an MLB game is very exciting and Petco Field is absolutely incredible.

#3 Sean's First Jazz Game

In January I got to take Sean to his very first Jazz game (we even had matching Deron Williams jerseys).  It was an absolute riot!  He was so excited and he wanted to know everything that was going on!  I think he brought the Jazz some good luck because they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves after a bit of a losing streak!

#2 U2 Concert

I absolutely love U2 and I had been anticipating this concert for more than a year!  It was definitely worth the wait!  The stage, known as "The Claw," was absolutely incredible!  Bono and company played for more than two hours and included all of the hits and many of their more obscure songs from their back catalogue (such as "Faraway So Close" which is one of my favorites) as well as most of the songs from their latest album No Line On The Horizon.  It is an evening I will never forget!

#1 Canadian Rockies

In July I took an incredible trip through the national parks in the Canadian Rockies!  It was thrilling to be back in Canada (the customs officer even welcomed me home when I showed him my passport which produced one or two tears).  I got to see some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world as well as walk on a glacier, eat in the fanciest restaurant I've ever been in, and go whitewater river rafting!  Amazing!

Thanks to those of you who joined me on my adventures in 2011 and I'm looking forward to bigger and better things in 2012!

Check Mate

This evening I went to see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows with Marilyn.  I loved it as much as I did the original movie!  This installment has everything that made the first one so good: the snappy dialogue, especially between Holmes and Watson, the engaging action sequences, the brilliant cinematography, and the unmistakable fiddle music throughout.  Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) believes that Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris) is at the center of recent assassinations, terrorist attacks, and business acquisitions around Europe.  It turns out that Moriarty has been using anarchists to foment conflict between France and Germany thus creating a need for the advanced weapons of war produced by the companies he has purchased.  With the help of Dr. Watson (Jude Law) and Madame Simza (Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), a former anarchist tracking down her brother, Holmes travels to France, Germany, and then Switzerland to foil Moriarty's plans.  But has Holmes met his match in Moriarty?  Once again I think Downey, Jr.'s characterization of Holmes as a Victorian street punk is completely spot-on.  As a fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I think the script is extremely clever at meshing the deductive techniques of the original stories with a Guy Ritchie action adventure.  It is a very entertaining movie and I definitely recommend it!

Note: I absolutely loved that a key part of the story occurred during a performance of Don Giovanni (one of my favorite operas) and I thought the confrontation between Holmes and Moriarty while they played chess was exhilarating!

Reaching For The Sun

My book club chose A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith for its December selection.  This is another book that I can't believe I haven't read before now because I loved it so much!  It tells the story of the Nolans, an immigrant family living in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, from 1902 to 1919.  Francie Nolan likes to sit outside reading books from the library to escape from the drudgery and poverty of her life.  While reading, she notices a tree growing in the hard soil in a vacant lot.  Despite the fact that the tree gets very little sunlight, it somehow manages to thrive.  This tree becomes a metaphor for Francie's struggle to get an education and rise above her family's circumstances.  At the end of the novel, as Francie is getting ready to leave Brooklyn to attend college, she notices that someone has attempted to cut the tree down but it has taken root once again.  It is a moving and compelling story peopled with wonderful and eccentric characters: Francie's no-nonsense and hard-working mother, her artistic and alcoholic father, her illiterate but deeply religious grandmother, her promiscuous Aunt Sissy, her crazy Uncle Willie who deserts his family to perform as a one-man band, the soldier leaving for the front who becomes her first true love, and a bevy of interesting neighbors and archetypal shopkeepers.  It is more than an inspiring coming-of-age story; it is a fascinating portrait of America at the turn of the last century and I highly recommend it!

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Tonight Marilyn and I went to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert at the ESA and I absolutely loved it.  TSO is known for symphonic rock and it was an awesome spectacle complete with giant video screens, lasers, explosions, and more than a dozen musicians!  The first half of the evening was devoted to Christmas music.  I particularly enjoyed "A Mad Russian's Christmas" which was a rocked out version of The Nutcracker Suite.  It was kind of like Tchaikovsky on steroids.  I also really loved their rock and roll version of "Carol of the Bells."  The sound and light show during this number was spectacular.  The second half of the show was devoted to their versions of classical music.  I really liked "Canon Rock" which is their interpretation of Pachelbel's Canon.  At the end of the show they performed an incredible version of Mozart's "Requiem" which absolutely blew me away.  The show was completely over-the-top with every single move choreographed to synchronize with the pulsating beats but it was very enjoyable (although I thought the flipping of the hair by the dancers was a bit much).  It was definitely a fun evening!

Christmas 2011

Christmas this year was absolutely wonderful!  I spent several days at my parents' house and it was so much fun to be around Sean and Tashena.  There is nothing more fun than watching children get excited about Christmas!

On Christmas Eve Sean and Tashena get to open one present and it is always Christmas pajamas.  Sean was disappointed because he wanted Batman jammies instead of polar bear ones!

Here is the traditional Christmas Eve photo in their new pajamas.  I actually had to take about six pictures before I got a good one with Sean smiling!  He is making a goofy face in every other picture!

Christmas morning!  It was so much fun watching Sean and Tashena open their presents!

Sean was so excited to open his presents!  He got lots and lots of Batman, Green Lantern, and Captain America toys (he plays with these figurines for hours).  He asked for a book light for when he reads to his Mom and Dad before bed and he was very excited to get it!  He also got some sweet remote controlled robots from Grandma and Grandpa!

Tashena has turned into a teenager!  I sometimes wish we could go back to the Barbie days!  She got lots and lots of jewelry, several new outfits, and two pairs of boots!  She also got a new rug and lamp for her room.  She asked for a foot spa because she loves giving everybody pedicures (we all benefited from this).  She was pretty excited about the itunes gift card Grandma and Grandpa gave her!

I got the DVD X-Men First Class, a mini cupcake pan, a cake decorating kit, a rotary blade and cutting mat, a new Swatch watch (I collect them), and a new camera!  I got my old camera wet while white water rafting this summer and it got completely drenched at Sea World so I definitely needed a new one!  My favorite present, however, was a Colorado Avalanche hoodie!

Last Christmas Santa brought me a new car!  It would have been very difficult for him to top that present but he came close by giving me a guitar!  I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar!

After opening presents we had a wonderful Christmas dinner and then played an epic game of Shanghai Rummy!  Marilyn won for the third time in a row!!  It was a really great Christmas!

The Secret Of The Unicorn

This afternoon I took Sean and Tashena to see The Adventures of Tintin, a performance capture animated movie based on the beloved Belgian comic books directed by Steven Spielberg.  Tintin is a young reporter who buys a replica of a three-masted sailing ship called the Unicorn.  The sinister Ivan Ivanovich Sakharine tries to buy the model from Tintin without success which ultimately leads him and his loyal companion Snowy on a swashbuckling adventure full of hidden clues, pirates, and sunken treasure.  Along the way Tintin meets the bumbling detectives Thomson and Thompson, the drunken sea captain Haddock, the pirate Red Rackham, and the opera singer Bianca Castafiore.  Both Sean and Tashena loved all of the thrilling action sequences but I loved all of the satire.  The script is quite smart and, of course, all of the special effects are amazing.  It is a really fun movie that both kids and adults will enjoy.

Land Of Ice And Snow

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is one of the most captivating novels I have ever read and David Fincher is responsible for some of the most disturbing and mesmerizing movies I have ever seen (Fight Club and Seven).  When I discovered that Fincher was set to helm the Hollywood remake of the novel I literally couldn't put down, I was giddy with anticipation.  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is, quite simply, brilliant!  While I did enjoy the Swedish film, this version is more cinematic with Fincher emphasizing the bleak winter landscape as a metaphor for the things people hide.  I usually do not enjoy film adaptations of my favorite books but Fincher perfectly captures so many of the images I had as I read (I saw everything in black and white) and the script is very faithful to the book.  Daniel Craig does a good job as Mikael Blomkvist, the disgraced journalist hired to find a missing woman, but Rooney Mara is electrifying as Lisbeth Salander, the anti-social computer hacker who becomes his assistant.  The supporting cast is also superb, especially Christopher Plummer as Henrik Vanger and Stellan Skarsgard as Martin Vanger.  Once again Fincher collaborated with Trent Reznor on the soundtrack and the use of a hypnotic version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" in the opening credits is inspired.  I highly recommend this movie!  It is gritty and raw and it is most definitely not for everyone (there are some incredibly graphic scenes) but if you are a fan of the book it is a must-see!

Monday Motivator

"It is reasonable that a man should be something worthier at the end of the year than he was at the beginning."

- Henry David Thoreau

Reindeer Cookies

I saw these adorable reindeer cookies on Pinterest about three months ago and have been waiting until Christmas Eve to make them for Sean and Tashena!  I think they are the cutest cookies I have ever seen.

Here is the recipe for the peanut butter cookies (which I found here):

3/4 cup peanut butter

1 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup shortening

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 egg

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

chocolate covered mini pretzels

mini brown M&Ms

regular sized red M&Ms

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Combine peanut butter, brown sugar, shortening, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl.  Beat at medium speed until well mixed.  Add egg and beat until just blended.  In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Add to creamed mixture at low speed.  Beat until just blended.  Form dough into 1-inch balls.  To make reindeer shaped cookies, gently pinch bottom of the ball slightly to form a point then gently flatten with your hand.  Space cookies about two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes.  Remove from oven and immediately add two mini pretzels for the antlers and two mini M&Ms for eyes and a regular M&M for the nose.  Allow to cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet then transfer to a rack to cool completely.  This recipe makes quite a few cookies.

Give these cookies a try!  I bet Santa would love to eat some of these tonight!

Merry Christmas!

Mannheim Steamroller

Ever since I heard the album A Fresh Aire Christmas, with the amazing song "Carol of the Bells," the music of Mannheim Steamroller has been synonymous with Christmas.  I start anticipating Christmas when I hear the drums and synthesizers of "Good King Wenceslas" on the radio for the first time.  So, needless to say, I have really been looking forward to the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas concert this afternoon at Abravanel Hall.  I loved every second of it!  Some of my favorite songs are the traditional ones which feature such instruments as the lute, mandolin, dulcimer, and recorder.  I remember singing a lot of these tradtional songs when I was in the choir in college and they always transport me to a castle somewhere in Europe during the Renaissance: "Gagliarda," "Greensleeves," "Wassail, Wassail," "Carol of the Birds," "I Saw Three Ships," and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."  I was really happy that they played "Pat A Pan" which is probably my very favorite Mannheim Steamroller song!  They also played a song called "Above the Northern Lights" that I had never heard before.  It was really beautiful.  Of course the Christmas season just isn't complete for me until I hear my very favorite Christmas song, "O Holy Night," performed live and Mannheim Steamroller played an incredible version of it.  All of the performers were very entertaining but I especially enjoyed watching the drummer because he was so energetic and charismatic!  What a great concert and what a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!

Ice Skating Downtown

Today was my first day of Christmas vacation from school!  It was also Sean and Tashena's first day of vacation so I took them downtown to the Gallivan Plaza to go ice skating.  We had so much fun!

Finally, here is my favorite photo of the day!  Tashena is literally dragging Sean off the ice and he is laughing so hard!

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful start to my Christmas break!

Nutty Reindeer

I found another adorable Christmas cookie featuring Nutter Butters here and I couldn't resist making them!  Unlike the Santa cookies, these are incredibly easy to make!

Simply use some frosting to attach a red M&M for a nose and two brown M&Ms for eyes to a Nutter Butter cookie.  Break the middle part of a mini pretzel off and use frosting to attach for antlers.  That's it!

This would be a really fun project for the kids!  Give them a try!

Bah Humbug!

A Christmas Carol at Hale Centre Theatre is another Christmas production I never get tired of no matter how many times I see it.  There is just something about the story of redemption and the heart-warming way it is presented that gets me every time.  Many of the main characters have been played by the same actors for years and years  (Ebeneezer Scrooge has been portrayed by Richard Wilkins for the past 27 years) so it is like visiting old friends every year!  I have seen this production so many times that I notice any little variation and there are always a few every year.  This year there are some great special effects for the Ghost of Christmas Past and there is some new choreography for the octet of carolers throughout the show (who sing beautifully).  The opulent sets and beautiful costumes transport the audience to Victorian England.  I am always amazed at what the production team at Hale Theatre can do with such a small stage.  The actors do a marvelous job and the little boy playing Tiny Tim is absolutely adorable.  I highly recommend seeing this wonderful show to get you in the Christmas spirit!

Monday Motivator

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time."

- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Gingerbread Houses 2011

Tonight Marilyn and I made gingerbread houses with Sean and Tashena.  This is one of our favorite traditions and we have done it since Tashena's first Christmas with us.

As usual we used the kits you can buy because it makes it really easy to build the houses and get to the fun part: decorating!

Sean was very proud because he actually got to build his own house (with minimal help) this year!

However, he still found time to eat lots of the frosting and candy!

Tashena is a pro at gingerbread house construction!

Various stages of construction.

Sean's masterpiece!  He was particularly proud of the gum drop wreaths on the roof!

Tashena's masterpiece!  She was proud of her gum drop walkway!

Here is my thatched-roof cottage!  I am proud of the sliced almond cobblestone walkway!

Marilyn absolutely refused to pose with her house!  One of her walls caved in and, instead of fixing it, she had one of her trees crash into it.  There was a horrible wind storm in Bountiful several weeks ago and many houses were damaged by falling trees.

Our gingerbread village!  We had so much fun with Sean and Tashena tonight!  I can't wait until Christmas!