DisneyWorld 25-26 - All Good Things

Sunday, January 4 we were all sick. We managed to attend church on Zoom and otherwise slept the majority of the day away. We finally gathered in Pop and Grandma's hotel room for one of the most important parts of our trip:

John-Thomas received the Aaronic Priesthood!

Hyrum was voice, with Pop, Uncle Steve, and me in the circle as he was ordained a deacon. Even though everyone was still tired and worn out, it was one of the higlights of the trip. He has loved serving as a deacon, having a quorum with activities, and passing the sacrament to the congregation.

We had planned to also take him to the temple for the first time on our drive home, but enough of us were still too sick to make that happen. :( 

Monday - Epcot day 2?

Monday was the first day all of us were well enough to get to spend most of the day all together in the parks. Frozen, Remy, and the Guardians of the Galaxy naturally got more love. 

We wandered through Moana's water fountains. It's such a lovely walk! Joy eventually decided to park herself there for a time and rest. "I wanted to stay there because it was so peaceful and beautiful. They even recreated Te Fiti. They did an amazing job with her. I wouldn't be surprised if she was the same one they used in the movie ;)  ."

We finished doing most everything at Epcot and Hyrum had a hard choice. We had talked about him leaving the group to go to Animal Kingdom that he had missed because of being sick or maybe he could catch a couple roller coasters at Hollywood Studios. JT and I would follow wherever Hyrum wanted to go, so I said, "We just want to ride the Hyrum." That was one of JT's favorite memories. In the end, Hyrum decided to stick with the rest of the family for the afternoon. 

We had dinner at the Space restaurant, where Hy told JT he had really been wanting to go on the Tron ride with him. JT: "That was the best time of my Christmas vacation!" The space restaurant had this chocolate cheesecake, covered in decorative chocolate to look like a planet with dusted chocolate chip asteroids and a somethingberry swirl. I liked the whole thing. Joy liked the asteroids. 

After dinner, Hyrum, Nia, JT, and I raced from Epcot to Magic Kingdom (which takes quite a long time, really) to ride Tron. That was Hyrum's last ride. 

Tron is pretty awesome. Since I wore the MagicBand+, it took pictures of me and whatever person I was with, but missed the rest of our party. Here are Nia and I experiencing it for the first time.

On our way out of the park, I parked the kids at the corner of Main Street to watch the electric light parade while I did a little errand. Joy had seen A and L enjoying some giant Mickey chocolate chip cookies and she wanted one. We asked at every cookie shop all over the place, and no one had them. Finally we just asked Emie, and she told us where they were. The cookie shop insisted they only had M&M cookies. I got several, which were WONDERFUL. But the searching and debating with the staff took a while. Once I came out, the parade was just ending. Hyrum said that watching the parade was "the perfect end for my trip." We were all very sad to put him on an Uber Tue morning early and ship him back to the Y.

Tue - Magic Kingdom

At some point I finally had the bright idea of letting the professional photographers around the park take pictures of us when we had a little time to kill waiting for someone else. I wish I had done so earlier when we still had Hyrum. I didn't know my parents were going to buy the full set of pictures. I just figured it was a little fun and maybe we'd be able to find a way to use a miniature or preview version of one. Instead, here are JT, Nia, and I outside Adventure Land:

One of the things I really loved about the trip were the Christmas decorations and especially the Christmas music in every park. The variety and, especially in EPCOT, the cultural versions of beloved Christmas songs were delightful. I've been scouring the internet to find similar renditions and just cannot. Disney is missing a trick, not selling me the international Christmas soundtrack! One of the sad things, was watching the Christmas decorations slowly vanish. There were a few fewer every day after New Year's, and by our last day they were mostly all gone. I sure do love me some Christmas!

Nia's favorite souvenier was a mini Eiffel Tower. She has loved learning French at school, so greatly enjoyed her time in France at Epcot. Here she is posing with it outside Tiana's water ride that replaced Splash Mountain. Sadly, it broke. Both the ride (again!) and the tower. Pop and Grandma were staying in Florida an extra day or so beyond what we did, and even though they were feeling very sick, they did a quick jaunt to Epcot to get her a new tower. My parents really spoiled all of us!

Our second time on Tron.

Wednesday morning we flew home (well, my old home), arriving in Santa Barbara in the early/mid afternoon. We rearranged all the stuff we had left at Pop and Grandma's, fed the cats, and drove off to Riverside, CA for the night. That's where we had hoped to do temple work Thursday morning. Instead we got off to a late start, ending in our usual stop in Deming, NM before finishing the drive home Friday. We were very thankful to have taken two nights for the drive instead of just one. That gave us permission to pause or rest when we needed to. I attended my college meeting on Zoom as we drove.

And THAT was our great adventure to DisneyWorld and California this Christmas!

DisneyWorld 25-26, Day 3, 5, 6

 Wed (31) - Magic Kingdom

We spent New Year's Eve in the Magic Kingdom. Our family huddled near the exit from Tomorrowland for the fireworks at midnight. Everyone else had gone to bed. Disney sure does know how to do a good display!

This was the day John-Thomas discovered the joy of roller coasters and began going on ALL of them.

It was an odd day because we kept splitting up. Joy walked with the rest of us to Pirates, which she doesn't like, then walked back to join Steve's family for the Seven Dwarf's Mine Train. The mine train was A's favorite, so she went on it as many times as her special pass would allow, taking each of us with her 2-3 at a time. That's also why we kept getting together and splitting up again. 

We have known for a long time that Nia looks a lot like my mother.
This picture shows that JT gets his looks from her too!

I had this memory that the Autopia was "too easy" a driving experience. Maybe it is at DisneyLand, but in the Magic Kingdom it is one of the hardest cars to manuever! You have to keep jerking the wheel back and forth to stay going straight, but you can keep the wheel straight to go around curves smoothly. JT enjoyed it greatly, and you can see Nia here being very cool about it.

A and I, Grandma and JT

That night we also caught the Country Bear Jamboree, which they have updated to include a bunch of countrified Disney songs. I have to say, it was a blast! Nia and I were falling over ourselves laughing.

L and Pluto

Fri (2) - Animal Kingdom

After Give Kids the World, we spent Friday at the Animal Kingdom, where I got my newest hat: a safari pith helmet. It's very good at shade and keeping cool, but is not as good at blocking rain as I thought it would be. For some reason I think of wicker holes as being less permeable than they are. Nia says, "It was the first time I ever left a store bearing my personalized name on something. You can NEVER find those ANYWHERE if you have a unique name. It was an engraved bracelet, and only $15 or less, and I was like, MINE." Joy got a tribal drum that fits in your hand.

Nia and I had a great time during the safari. Our tour guide kept pointing out things on the trail and saying, "And we know that because...." So when we got to the Baobab tree, he explained that it actually grows that way; nobody had planted it upside down accidentally. I called out, "And we know that because....?" He didn't get what I was saying, so Nia helped. "How do we know that someone didn't sneakily plant it upside down?" That stumped the guide. He said he was going to be pondering that all day. And he referred to it again as we left.

Joy remembers really enjoying the safari ride. We got to see a lot more animals than usual, everywhere we looked. "And there was a walk through Asian architecture and animals that was really nice too. I enjoyed the bird sanctuary. I worried about getting pooped on, but they always make the bird sanctuaries so green and pretty" Nia remembers meeting up with Pop and Grandma on the walk.

My favorite fun fact about Baobab trees is that in German they are
Monkey-Bread-Trees.

We love breakfasting at the Tusker House. It's a character buffet with both traditional Mickey breakfast items plus a number of African specialities. Joy says, "It seems there was some yummy whip cream thinger that they were serving that was really good."

Hyrum was sick starting today. He hadn't been feeling too well at Give Kids the World, but today he was really down. He hoped to rejoin us when Pop and Grandma did at lunch, but he still wasn't up to it. So he spent all day at the hotel.

L at the Yak & Yeti

Nia and JT loved the Mt Everest roller coaster. My stomach can still just manage it and the seats are ever so much more comfortable than the Matterhorn at Disneyland. 

We watched the Nemo play. Joy says, "I think that was my favorite play." L and A enjoy the plays and bring us along. "It was cute and fun and worth watching." And of course we love our dinosaurs. We managed to catch one of the last showings of the new Zootopia 3D show that replaced A Bug's Life. I had pointed out the holes in the seats to JT, telling him about how little bugs would poke you during the previous show, and there they were again in the new one! 

Dinner was at the Yak and Yeti, which we hadn't ever tried. It was one of my favorite dinners. We also got their souvenier mugs of Buddha's head, which turned into a .. well, not a running gag, but we sure did buy a lot of souvenier mugs this trip! Nia enjoyed some shopping with Grandma. At one point the ladies tried to sneak away to do some shopping, but the menfolk had no other instructions, so we picked a direction and started walking ... right behind them. They got about 2 minutes of uninterrupted shopping. Sorry, ladies!

We usually get through the Animal Kingdom in half a day, but this time it took the full day! The park was spectacularly crowded. I had expected worse crowds on the 31st, but they came out in force once the New Year started!

Sat - Hollywood Studios

Joy, Nia, and JT got up extra early in the hopes of catching Rise of the Resistance before the line got long. I stayed with Hyrum for a bit, but he urged me to get to the park and enjoy myself. I caught up to them at the Resistance, but Joy had left the line to find breakfast. She was too late for the breakfast and then missed us in line too! A very disappointing start to her day. Nia and JT waited for Joy at the end of the line and convinced the cast members to let her in all the way to the start. Joy had many worries for her children, "But none of my worries happened, and it was nice."

I remember being very disappointed about Rise of the Resistance. It's one of my absolute favorites, but for whatever reason they opted to have the line skip all of the cool interactive stuff, like Rey inviting you to join and BB-8 and all that. Nia says, "I think they were down, out of order ... which is funny because it's the First Order, so maybe that's why they were down." The ride didn't quite break down while we waited for it to start, but it was a long delay. Some of the props hadn't been cleaned in a while, it seemed. It just felt like an older ride than it is! Star Tours was great, though!

The Little Mermaid play left something to be desired. There's, like, only one human actress (Arial of course). Everyone else is either a muppet or CGI. "Even Eric was a muppet!" Joy agrees. Eric and Arial don't even kiss at the end! But it is a good review of the excellent songs, with just enough plot to tie them together. The effects are good.

JT with his new lightsaber

Hyrum joined us with Pop after lunch while we were in line for Toy Story Mania. I gave up my scooter so he could sit, but as a merely-17-yr-old he wasn't allowed to drive. So I manned the controls and walked alongside it in line. I won the Toy Story Mania for our car.

We eventually decided between the rain and him and JT not feeling well that I would take them back to the hotel for a nap before dinner while the others headed to the Rock n' Roller Coaster for our last chance to ride it before it is upgraded. Unfortunately, it took us so long to get to the hotel, that it was already time to leave for dinner! So we just traveled for a couple hours, arriving last to the dinosaur restaurant in Disney Springs. Think of a Jurassic Rainforest Cafe and you've got it. We sat in front of the T-Rex. Every 20-30 minutes, the meteor strikes as the lights change color and all the dinosaurs scream for their lives. Joy says, "That was one of my favorites. It had a lot of atmosphere. It wasn't just a place with some decorated walls - it was a different world! That made it fun."

Most everyone went home after dinner, but Joy, Nia in her wheelchair, and I tried to find a particular souvenier. We got caught in one of the most torrential downpours! We took cover in a surf shop for 15 minutes while I found a couple ponchos. Nia remembers the hard time she had picking a souvenier at the many parks. She eventually chose an Eiffel Tower from EPCOT "to be my special little souvenier."

One of these days, no memory which one, Joy and I grabbed a deep fried Hawaiian roll and some corn dogs on the Boardwalk. That deep fried roll was surprisingly good! "Tasted like a really good cinamon roll," Joy says. 

Give Kids the World, Jan 1, 2026.

Many of you will be familiar with Make a Wish kids. You may be much less familiar with Give Kids the World. Those Make a Wish kids who choose to do a weeklong Orlando vacation go to stay at an equally magical resort called Give Kids the World. There are streets and streets of vacation homes where their families stay. Dedicated volunteers focus on helping the children and their families be able to relax and enjoy this very special time as much as possible.

Hy, Joy, L, me, Nia, Pop, JT, A, Steve, Emie
Mom was too sick to make it

My niece, A, was a Make a Wish kid some years ago because of brain cancer. (She beat the cancer into submission.) For her wish, she chose to stay at Give Kids the World and enjoy a week of Disney, Sea World, and I don't know what else. They allow alumni to come visit occasionally and bring family with them. During this Disney World trip, we took Thursday to visit. For our TX family, it was the first time experiencing this loving place.

The main building and welcome center has a large collection of stars, one for each child. They like to know that you are coming in advance so they can find your special star (that you signed as a Make a Wish kid) to showcase for you. There's a lovely ceremony where cartoon fairies welcome you back to see your star and they send their friendly giant to help you find yours. The door opens and you are ushered into a room of stars and they reveal where yours is.    

Like, a LOT of stars

 There's also a bunch of stuff for kids to do there. There's a movie theater, a small arcade that also has ping pong and one of the most complete, interactive model train sets I've ever seen, several parks to play in, playground equipment, and dino mini golf. They have an antique merry go round that needs a bit of a push to get it running. 

The dino mini golf is pretty special. The dino statues are sometimes statues and sometimes animatronic. When you get your ball in the hole, various roars resound. There are some that spit water at you when you pass them. The last hole has a T-Rex that pops up to say hi. There's a hole in a volcano with lots of glow in the dark paint. ... It's well done.

The cafeteria has a wide variety of kids food. A robot brings by fruit snacks. They also have all you care to eat ice cream and cookies. And all of it was free for all 11 of us because we had A with us. JT best remembers that they had great food. Nia says, "It was fun. The dino putt-putt was cool. And the ice cream was yummy."

L being adorable

We spent a full day there. One of the staff drove me up to the local WalMart to get a prescription med we had run out of. The volunteers really are something special. Joy says, "The people are loving, going out of their way to help with the very smallest comfort. The dear lady in the cafeteria who cleans up after people have eaten defends her sacred right to clean up every dish, requesting very kindly that you not do her job and you leave your dishes there. The people at the ice cream shop come in and ask if you would please like to have more ice cream, and don't even complain when you ask to bring it someone who isn't there" [like me at WalMart!]. "They didn't just take Derrill to WalMart. He was unable to get the prescription because we sent it to the wrong place. So then the man very kindly came back later to pick my husband up after the prescription got to him. They aren't just working for those kids. They are living for those kids, and it's really beautiful."

Really, it's a bright little jewel and a wonderful service these folks give. It's a charity well worth supporting!

A and Nia

 

Disney World 25-26, Day 1-2

The Big Christmas Surprise, that we all somehow managed to keep from the children, was that Pop and Grandma were taking us all to DisneyWorld for about ten days!!! They gave everyone a matching family shirt. Little L (4 yr old) hid hers in the air vent somehow, which took a while for Nia to find. Monday after Christmas we flew out at much-too-early a.m. and enjoyed dinner at the Rose and Crown in Epcot that night.

Our caravan of 11 (at full strength) was a half-chariot troop. Pop, Grandma, and I were in motorized scooters, A and L had their strollers, and Nia was in a wheelchair because of her sprained foot. It was sometimes a struggle to find enough people to push. I normally pride myself on my ability to walk and endurance, but standing in lines gives my back enormous pain, making the wonderful Disney parks a great trial. Our three strollers were decorated with Star Wars characters, inviting many friendly comments from our fellow vacationers.

Tue Dec 30 - EPCOT

We had breakfast crepes. Nia practiced her French with the waitress, who expressed pleasure at Nia's attempts. Right after breakfast most of us did Ratatouille and the key on my scooter broke. I had to climb out of the line to get a new key when the company's rep got there so I could move the scooter again. JT and Hyrum ran off by themselves to hit Soarin and Imagination while we were in line for Ratatouille.

L is particularly fond of Elsa's ride in Norway, so she took people with her in shifts so she could ride it many times without anyone else getting too sick of it. I hadn't been yet and am very impressed with how they remade the Viking ride. Joy: "I loved going on Elsa with L. She makes Disney so magical!" She runs around wearing princess costumes all the time, even at home, so she fits right in.

I took several pictures with odd decorations under the heading
"Me and my brother enjoying DisneyWorld".
He gave me permission to share this one. :)

Nia enjoys "Figgy", aka Figment's World of Imagination. We did Soarin' and visited the Epcot greenhouse called The Land. Nia: "There were lots of signs that tell you to stay off the sand. I think it's because there are tiny hermit crabs that will crawl out and bite you! Either that or there are things that digest stuff under the sand that will infect you." Or they just ask you to stay inside your boat at all times on all rides. I was impressed with how little soil was being used to grow such a very wide variety of plants. "They were BIG! Explosion of vines!!! Like the tomatoes, and the cucumbers, and I think there were some squash that big too."

Most folks did the Space ride, but I remember (from like 20 years ago) that the Mission Space ride was too much for me, so I stayed outside with L. In the middle of waiting, she suddenly crouched down in the middle of the plaza and cried out, "I am LOST! I don't know where my parents are!" A bunch of visitors were staring at her as I came up to comfort her. 'We know where your parents are. They are right inside that building there. They left me to take care of you.' I was most concerned that the staring people would suspect the guy in a goatee of nefariousness. Thankfully I could demonstrate that she trusted me and she was in my party, and let us go at that.

Joy was in line for the faster version, but eventually backed out because of all the signs warning of how extreme it was, so she never got the chance to enjoy it. I did eventually do the easy version with the kids on our second day in Epcot. 

A's favorite ride, and rightfully so, is the new Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind coaster. Nia and I agree it is one of the top three roller coaster/attractions of all time. The other two are Star Wars Rise of the Resistence and Universal's Harry Potter experience. Great, great experiences, one and all! It is so cool, how your cart manages to spin independently of the coaster, so it feels very much like you're going through a double corkscrew and ride backwards, but on minimal track changes. 

(Pictured, JT, Joy, A, and Steve on our later day.)

Joy and I have some confusion about which night was which, but Pop and Grandma weren't feeling up to it one night, so the rest of us headed to China for dinner, only to get there after they closed. The boys and I managed to pick up the last meals served in the America pavillion just before the fireworks started. Joy and Nia had been doing some shopping while Steve's crew did Elsa again. We finally all got together during or just after the fireworks.

Christmas memories, Dec 20-28

Our Stephenville ward Christmas program was held a week earlier than usual, so we got to participate. Nia sang a solo verse of Angels We Have Heard on High in French, and she and Joy were part of a lovely quartet. She and "John-Thomas" were credits to the tenor section, Joy sang soprano, and I accompanied and sang bass. I also had a solo called Joseph's Song, where he reassures Mary that she can rest while he protects and cares for her and Jesus.

Hyrum flew to Pop and Grandma's in California a few days before we did. We drove up Sat evening - an uneventful trip - and the next morning all three children joined the tenor section for my home ward's Christmas program. Hyrum has developed a much stronger voice this year, so his siblings could rely on him for support. Joy was in the soprano section, and I joined Pop in the bass section except to accompany the Hallelujah Chorus.

Pop arranged for 4/5 of us to stay at a hotel, while the last one stayed at their house with my brother and his family. Usually it was Nia there so she could be with her cousins and Hyrum could be with JT, but we sometimes switched it up. Hy and I enjoyed using the hotel weight room together. I've got one buff-looking son!

A few headlines

• My parents' jaccuzzi was just upgraded this year, so the kids enjoyed much soaking in it.
• I tried to fix a problem in the curio cabinet when a glass shelf fell and broke on my head. I did finally get the one problem fixed at least!
• Pop figured L (4) was finally old enough for us to read through the entire Christmas Scroll Grandma caligraphied in college, and she was. Joy: I was glad we could read the whole scroll. I don't think I'd realized we had been shortening it.
• Pop and Grandma also shared some special books they had made to help L be reverent during church and a song to remind all the grandchildren that someone was always thinking about them, loving them, and waiting for their return home.
• We did several buffet style meals. Joy particularly enjoyed the kringla.
• Hyrum would pull L in her little red wagon, while JT shot at him with whatever missile they were playing with that day, like a Paw Patrol pool ball. JT says, "Playing with Hyrum was the big part of that week." 
• Joy: I was most happy to be with everyone, and to see Hyrum again.

Nia and I assembled a new clothes organizer together for Grandma
Joy: I really enjoyed seeing how happy Nia was
with helping Grandma upstairs

Nia: I successfully had a 'terrific' tumble in which I thankfully didn't fracture anything, but I got like at least two different sprains in my foot and ankle. I didn't even know spraining your foot was possible! The doctor said I tore a couple ligaments. I am grateful that my foot no longer wishes quite as much to be a chameleon.

???

Nia: My joke has been that my foot saw a chameleon when it fell, and it decided it wanted to be like, so it changed colors and grew! Playing with L was fun. We made up a new game. Because I couldn't walk around, I was watching A (14) play games and one of the bad guys was a piggy. At one point, the piggy was made of marshmallow, so everytime L said "Piggy marshmallow piggy," I tickled her. And she really liked that! 

Nia: I did not know that Grandma is good at hair cutting, but apparently she's done some before with Aunt Emilee and on her mission. So I got a haircut from my grandma and will be keeping some of my new look!

Christmas Eve night was really special. The fire alarm at the hotel went off at 2am. The hotel evacuated, then we waited in the pouring rain (Santa Barbara had enough rain in 3 days to make up a full year's worth!!) until someone finally announced that it was a false alarm and we could return to bed.

A few favorite pictures of the opening of presents below the fold...

Thanksgiving and memories

We felt better prepared for this Thanksgiving than we normally are. Our home was cleaner and we had half the food ready to go before the big day. We even had time to play games while the food cooked! That was special.

We had three missionaries over for dinner. It was a nice conversation. Here's a pic one of the elders snapped of the four of us and one of them.

When we asked the kid what foods we wanted, the first answers were: pie, pie, pie, and ... pie. And after we figured out the non-pie foods, we continued discussing making a few more pies on top of it! So Nia made her three-berry pie, I made pumpkin, JT made the apple pie, and Joy made the chocolate pecan. Nia is hankering to make another berry pie and also a chesecake. Joy is thinking about baking another chocolate pecan (I'm spoiled!). We gave away one of the three pumpkin pies I made, but a FB video has got me considering a no-bake peanut butter pie..... I wonder about us sometimes.

We also had turkey (a la Alton Brown brining), mashed potatoes and my candied yams, corn on the cob, green beans and their casserole, croissants, deviled eggs, and Joy's crab cheeseball. We got the Christmas tree put up, including three trips to WalMart for more new light strands. Restringing the whole tree took up a good portion of my break! Nia had second Thanksgiving at her bestie's house the next day and JT got to spend several hours with friends also. The kids really got along well this week - like, the best they ever have. They've started biking/jogging around the neighborhood together and they are finishing up a chess match just now.

Hyrum enjoyed Thanksgiving with cousin Mike and Genevieve's family in St. George. We were thankful to chat with him during the week and on his drive home.

As he rode back with his cousin, I remembered a similar trip I took. At BYU, I enjoyed Thanksgiving with my Grandma Straw in St. George. Someone she knew was taking his son/grandson back to the Y and I hitched a ride with them. Somehow the conversation turned to the BYU Bookstore, and I started in complaining about it. Prices were so much higher than in the surrounding community but I couldn't go there without wheels, the return prices for textbooks were so low ... the usual stuff. The fellow driving tried to help me understand the economic realities, but I was not overly teachable. 

We finally got back home and I called Grandma to let her know I'd made it home safely. As she and I talked, she let me know the fellow I had been riding with was in charge on the BYU Bookstore. I was so embarrassed I was ready to melt into the floor.

It's so nice to have a few days off before the truly hectic Finals part of the semester begins.

Easter 2025

I care about Easter. I also care about Passover. On the years when the two celebrations don't line up, we spend a week talking about the children of Israel being freed from slavery, watching Prince of Egypt, and talking about how Moses and Elijah came to the Kirtland Temple at Passover to restore the keys of gathering Israel. We also spend a week reading about what Jesus taught and did during His last week of life, His atoning sacrifice, and His resurrection. We usually separate the sacred celebrations on Sundays from the Easter bunny and egg hunts on Saturday. This year we also bought an Easter creche.

This year, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints invited congregations to also make a bigger effort for Easter. Because of my calling at church, I was the point person for our celebration. We spent an hour one January Sunday as a congregation gathering ideas of what people would like to do, and it was pretty ambitious!

We set up a community service project, mostly involving the youth, who worked in a soup kitchen. On April 12 there was a miniature Passover Seder (dinner) for the congregation, and right after there was a concert where we invited musical groups from all across the community to participate and sing about Jesus and His divine mission.

Nia's Temple in Bountiful

A lot of people pitched in to help, obviously. I focused on the decorations for the building and setting up the concert. Different organizations took charge of a room which they decorated to represent an event from the last week of Christ's life or witnesses of His resurrection. Folks were encouraged to tour the building and experience what happened at that pivotal time. Starting at one end of the building and going around in a half-circle, we had:

• The triumphal entry
• Teachings, such as the parable of the Ten Virgins and rendering unto Caesar
• The Last Supper
• His suffering in Gethsemane and on the cross
• His burial and ministry in the spirit world
• His resurrection in the New Testament
• His resurrected appearance in the Book of Mormon
• His appearance to Joseph Smith
• Modern prophets and apostles bearing testimony of Jesus
• His prophecied Second Coming

Gethsemane

Yeah, it was a big to do! I really enjoyed setting up the art. Joy and I borrowed the plastic plants from work to set up Gethsemane, and she put together a costume to read The Living Christ - the testimony of the Twelve Apostles written around 2000. Nia drew a temple for the Book of Mormon scene. I put up large sticky pads with quotes and pictures all over the building. Lots of people put in a lot of effort to make it work. The missionaries set up a podium and flowers so it looked like General Conference backdrop for the modern witnesses.

Then we had the concert. I was emcee and also sang a medley of hymns that all fit the same meter. I sang them to the tune I know as "If you could hie to Kolob": I heard the voice of Jesus, Upon the Cross of Calvary, Welcome Home, and one or two others. Joy and Nia sang "Risen". A group led by an adjunct law teacher did some fun gospel music. We had a good 60-90 minutes of music and praise of Jesus from a bunch of different styles. It was a really good program and I am very thankful to everyone who shared their talents.

Joy: I really liked that each organization took charge of a different room. I was alone in my room. The missionaries helped do some of my setup, which was cool. I don't usually feel very creative, but I went out into the great expansive of creativity and didn't break my nose... It was nice to get to meet the people who sang. A couple people brought real palm trees, and that was cool! 

Happy 4th of July!

We enjoyed watching 1776 as we do each year. Nia made a turkey, and it was one of the best we've had. We had the missionaries over as well who encouraged us to consider all we are grateful for, including our country. I enjoyed much less physical pain than I have had in a week.

To end the evening, we left dear America and went to medieval England for A Man For All Seasons. It tells the story of Thomas More, who is portrayed as one of the last honest men in a corrupt, power-hungry government. He refused to sign a loyalty oath, admitting the Pope had no authority to let King Henry VIII marry his brother's widow and therefore he was free to marry Anne Bolyn. He did not speak against the king either, so it took years in prison before someone came forward with false testimony to support his execution. There are any number of outstanding quotes from that film, courtesy of imdb:

------

Thomas: Some men think the earth is round, others think it flat. It is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King's command make it round? And if it is round, will the King's command flatten it?

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• William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
• Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
• William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
• Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

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• The Duke of Norfolk: Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not but ***, Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and come with us, for fellowship!
• Sir Thomas More: And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?

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Sir Thomas: I think that when statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.

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And let's end this post with a quote or two from John Adams, celebrating both men's commitment and integrity:

John: There are only two creatures of value on the face of the earth: those with the commitment, and those who require the commitment of others.

John: Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Courtesy of ChatGPT

Moscow's Christmas in January

My side-gig these days is as a short term consultant for the World Bank to assist the Eurasian Center for Food Security in Moscow, Russia. The World Bank and ECFS hire researchers to produce case studies about food security in Eastern Europe/Western Asia. I came out in Nov 2016 to help the first cohort of case study authors learn how to adapt their case studies so they could be used by teachers and demonstrate to interested faculty and students at Moscow State University how to teach with case studies. I gave a couple presentations that were very well received, but didn't hear anything else about it for a long time. 

In 2019 the World Bank asked if I would grab a colleague (Jim Gentry!) to run a week-long all-day intensive training program for professors in the area to learn how to teach using case studies. It was a wonderful experience, and it occurred to me this week (for reasons that will become clear in a future post) that I never blogged about that wonderful experience.

So I spent the last week of January in Moscow! Russia celebrates Christmas later than we do, on January 7 (blame the Gregorian/Julian calendar switch). That meant the Christmas decorations were still up when we were there. Here are some pictures and videos of Christmas in Moscow:

Down with Elf on the Shelf

John-Thomas has been traumatized by his classroom's Elf on the Shelf. He is afraid of elves. We've had a couple tearful conversations about what will happen if Santa puts him on the naughty list.

Joy and I have never been the kind of parents to threaten children with no presents, so I was all comforting. I told him about how I caught Santa in my house when I was 4-5 years old (true story!) and that I have Santa's email and would have a conversation with the jolly man about how good JT is and about all the progress he has made this year. He was temporarily reassured.

So Monday I had a conversation with my father, a man well-accustomed to donning the red suit, a job he takes most seriously. I told him the whole story, reported my youngest's good behavior, and requested he be put on the nice list. Pop agreed.

Today JT was in tears again, afraid of some elf decorations we had up. I explained about elves' other jobs - like making toys and feeding and cleaning up after reindeer. That helped a little. Then I told him I had talked to Santa, reported his good behavior, and that Santa had agreed he deserved to be on the nice list.

My youngest shed a few tears of relieved joy and held his daddy tenderly and gratefully. I hope that's done it. He says he's not scared of elves anymore. If not, I may need to print out a certificate of some kind for him....

Cutie pi

Digging his brother's first soccer game of the year

He loves teddy bears, so this was a dream come true.
He keeps asking to go back to this friend,
where they played some Very Noisy tag.

For pi day, we tried to calculate pi by drawing a circle on some cardboard, then measuring how many little blocks it took to trace out the circumference. We were off by about 2%, which isn't too bad, I guess. We also enjoyed chocolate pecan pi (rounded up).

Watching some friends roping, he stole my hat

We start our family scripture study with a hymn.
This Sunday was particularly calm, with everyone dressed and
ready before breakfast; everyone sang along. I wanted to
remember the morning. So ordinary, yet so special.

Some flour had been contaminated, so the
Littles asked if they could play in the "snow"

Some friends brought us a beautifully decorated cake

Princess, building her own Minecraft tower
with blocks made from gym floor foam pads.

7 Happy Watsons at Christmas 2018

We were greatly blessed this Christmas to have my parents come to our house, instead of us driving to them. Between one thing and another, it was a good arrangement for everyone, though hopefully next year we will also be able to gather with my brother's family.

Pop and Grandma got to sleep in late at the hotel every day, then come to us and be pampered. We had a lot of fun together and are really looking forward to when they come here again for Princess' baptism this summer!