Briton & Melissa's Christmas Card 2009

I did Briton and Melissa's Christmas card again this year. I feel like I've put more in this card than any other years, because I went with them when they took these pictures so I could make Cole smile, which wasn't the easiest task that day! This year, it's just a simple folded card. The first picture is of the front and back and the second picture is the inside.

Gloria

Emily came into town this weekend to play in Lex de Azevedo's production of Gloria: The Life of Christ Part I - The Nativity. My mom went on Friday night to see her and my dad and I went on Saturday night. It was a beautiful production and Emily played a major role. The only other instruments besides the harp, were the organ and piano. There was also quite a large choir made up of 3 choirs. One of them was a high school choir. After the production, my dad and I were standing by Emily while she was talking to some people. A kid from the high school choir came up to Emily and said he and some of the other guys in the choir were really impressed. As he was walking away, he turned around and said, "and not just with the playing!" Since this kid was about 17, we got a laugh out of that.

I was glad I was able to spend time, however short, with Emily this weekend. I'm so excited for Christmas. Kate comes home on the 16th, Danny the 23rd and Emily on Christmas Eve. It will be great to have a full house. It's too quiet sometimes.

The lighting was not cooperating with the flash on my camera. We're pretty washed out. So my dad decided to stand far away and zoom in on us . . .

and this oblivious kid walked right in front at the exact moment my dad took the picture.

My dad took another picture. Successful this time, but I'm laughing.

I had to stand far away to get this one too, but no mishaps.

Here is Emily with Lex. Emily played Gloria for him last year and has done a few other productions with him over the years.

Here is Emily with Lex, the soloists and 2 pianists.

What's all the hype about?

In case you haven't heard, In-N-Out Burger opened in Draper this week. My dad said he went by around 11:30 AM on the opening day and the place was packed. I'm talking, cars-lined-up-for-a-couple-of-blocks packed. On the news they interviewed several people who had camped out in tents just so they could get a burger and fries at opening. I started wondering what kind of people would do this. Obviously, they weren't doing it for the food. Honestly, In-N-Out Burger is good, but it's not that good! Do you think they wanted to get on the news or do you think they wanted to have a good story to tell? I'm willing to bet that for most of the people, it's the latter. Confession: I once stood in line over night. Although I really wanted the item I was standing in line for, the story was probably a bigger motivation. So, here it is . . .

Do you remember when the Nintendo Wii came out 3 years ago and they were really hard to get? For some reason, Kate and I really wanted one. It was almost Christmas and our goal was to have one under the tree. I think that we may not have been so desperate to have one once Christmas was over, so a lot of of our motivation depended on getting one for Christmas. It would be a great triumph. I called around to so many stores and soon realized that the only way we were going to get one was if we waited in line . . . all night.

I called the Circuit City in Fort Union on the first Saturday in December and found out that they were getting a shipment of 6 Wiis, but they weren't going to sell them until Sunday morning. Kate and I loaded some chairs and blankets in the car, dressed in our ski clothes and headed to Circuit City around 9:00 PM. There were already about 3 people in line, so we set up our stuff right next to them. At first, I really couldn't believe what we were doing; it didn't seem real, but as the surrounding stores began closing and the parking lot emptied, I realized we were in this for the long hall.

Did I mention it was snowing? Yeah, there was a big storm that night. Luckily we were under the overhang of the building. Just across the parking lot at Target, there must have been about 50 people waiting in line. Target was getting a bigger shipment, but the people had to be out in the open. I almost felt sorry for them. Around 2 or 3 in the morning, my dad showed up and stayed the rest of the time. I don't think he could sleep while Kate and I were out of our minds. We alternated going to the car and sitting outside. Of course my dad brought the camera so I included the pictures below. Kate was so enthused!

I think it was 7 AM when Circuit City opened. Kate bought one and I bought one. We kept one and sold the other for almost double. I thought it was worth it because we got a Wii out of it. Now doing the same thing for a hamburger? I don't think so, but I do plan on heading over to In-N-Out eventually. It is pretty good.

Domestic Disturbance

Yesterday I went to Paradise Bakery for lunch. When I was walking back out to my car, I noticed a couple who passed me, walking fast. The man was carrying a crying 2-year-old girl while the woman was trying to keep up with the man. There were other groups of 2-3 people around me walking to there cars as well. So now I was walking about 15 feet behind this couple when the man grabbed the woman's phone and threw it hard on the ground. It bounced away, the woman went to retrieve it and then ran after the man saying, "you can't take my daughter." She looked around at the people in the parking lot and said, "will someone please help me?" She made eye contact with me, but I didn't know what to do. Luckily, there were 2 rather large, tough-looking guys nearest to her, so they went over to intervene. This is how the confrontation went:

Tough Guys: What's going on here? (These guys are pretty much ignored by the couple.)
Woman to Man: You can't take my daughter. She's crying because she wants her Mommy. She doesn't want to go with you. You can't take her.
Though Guys: Are you two separated?
Man to Woman: Do you think it's okay to do this in front of her? Let me just go put her in the car and we'll talk.
Woman: No. I'm going to call the cops.
Man: Let me just go put her in the car and then we'll talk.
Though Guys: We can't let you do that if there's going to be violence.
Woman to Man: Yeah, you're violent.
Man: I'm not violent. How am I violent?
Woman: You threw my freaking phone. Give me my daughter or I'm going to call the cops.

That's all I heard because at this point, I got into my car. There were a bunch of rubber-neckers and I didn't want to be one of those people. As I drove away, the man was putting the little girl into a car. He shut the door and then the talking commenced. Obviously I didn't hear anything, but I saw a bunch of angry hand gestures and people still standing around to keep the peace, I guess. It was kind of intense though. Have any of you ever seen anything like this? Did you do anything?

I Voted

So, you know those "I voted" stickers you get after you've voted? I'm just curious, do you guys wear those? Isn't it kind of like bragging or giving a guilt trip to those who haven't voted? That's what I've always thought. Today, when the lady handed me mine, she said "here's your badge of honor." I thought about that a bit and realized that that was really true. It is a badge of honor and it's sad that those who go and do their duty as Americans have to be honored for doing such, even if that honor is just a little sticker. Well, I attached my sticker to my sweater and I hope it will remind those who see it to go vote too.

I Love Halloween!

I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I love Halloween! All the scary movies come out, the weather starts turning cool and, as Kate wrote in a recent letter to me, it's the start of good things to come. I also really love dressing up. Always have. Don't you remember when I wrote about it before?

Today was such a beautiful and rather warm day. When I got home from my art class, I took the dogs out in the sun and set to work carving pumpkins. I thouroughly cleaned out 4 pumpkins with the intention of carving some incredible scenes into them. I started carving a haunted house, but got frustrated and sick of carving. My mom turned it into a "B" and carved "O's" in 2 of the other pumpkins. I decided I could handle carving a face and the result is the photo above. Not too bad I guess. We only had about 10 trick-or-treaters. I think our hill is too much work for a little piece of candy. These kids need to strap on the roller blades like I did. I collected so much more candy wearing those, but I think they're out of style now.

Last night, I went to a Halloween party and dressed in Emily's fairy costume (thanks Emily!). I must say the wings were a challenge though. There were a lot of people there and I think I hit just about everyone I passed with the wings. There were some really cool costumes. People are really creative. I think I need to be more creative next year. Unfortunately, the cops came to break up the party around midnight. I guess we were a bit too loud, or maybe it's just all the old people in Holladay who like their quiet little town.

Well, tomorrow is November. I can't believe it. I'm already looking forward to turkey! Happy Halloween!

A spooky story

Since I was a little girl, I've loved hearing and telling ghost stories. I don't know what it is. I don't know if I even believe in ghosts or paranormal activity. I guess I just like getting scared from the possibility. Why? I don't know, but I know I'm not the only one. Why else would all the haunted houses that pop up in the month of October be so successful if people didn't like getting scared?

I was talking to some friends who had gone on one of those Salt Lake City ghost tours. They were telling me some of the stories they were told and so I went online to find out a little more. I found another pretty spooky story that I'd thought I'd share. It takes place only 2 years ago at the Pioneer Memorial Museum downtown.

On October 10, 2007 Utah Capitol State Police saw an image on the monitors which come from the Pioneer Memorial Museum. One of the officers actually took a photo of the image in the monitor, and gave the photo to the museum. The monitors are in the Utah Capitol building and the images come from the cameras in the museum a few blocks away. State Police watch the monitors and respond if there appears to be an intruder.


The image appeared four times over an 8 day period and always appeared between about 11:00 PM and 3:00 AM. During these hours the museum is closed and empty, no one is inside except cleaning or maintenance. During this 8 day period the motion detectors in the museum were set off several times, and the image appeared 4 times. The ghostly image appeared without setting off motion detectors sometimes, other times motion detectors went off without showing the image. Each time the image was seen, it looked like the same person and the image always persisted for several minutes. Capitol State Police are the security for the museum, so they sent Officers to investigate and found the museum secure each time they saw unusual images or motion detectors went off.

In an interesting side story, the museum director speculates that she may know who it is in the image. 20 years ago a sampler was stolen from the museum. A museum staffer recognized the sampler recently listed for sale on eBay. That staffer contacted eBay and sent documentation that the item was stolen. eBay contacted the seller whose family had purchased the sampler in good faith years earlier. They immediately returned the sampler to Daughters of Utah Pioneers.

During the interval of the images appearing to the State Police and the return of the sampler, a Custodian reported that on one night, he saw a young lady who was dressed in black and sitting on a bench in the museum foyer. The custodian explained that the museum was closed and she must leave. He unlocked and opened the front door for her. She never spoke, but arose and walked out the door, but not down the steps! The girl floated above the steps and sidewalk until she disappeared!

I don't know if this is true, but I've always kind of wanted to experience paranormal activity. It would probably scare the crap out of me, but I'd have the best story to tell! So now I want to know, have any of you seen a ghost, heard a voice, anything? Let me know and have a happy Halloween!