Weasel Stomping Day 2013

In years past, my friends and I have assembled to watch one of our favorite all-time movies, UHF, starring comedic geniuses "Weird Al" Yankovic, Michael Richards (of "Seinfeld" fame), and many others. Typically, these shindigs have been held during the summer. Since August really has no major holidays, this year we decided to hold this year's party on August 10 and to call the holiday "Weasel Stomping Day," based on the "Weird Al" song of the same name.

One of the traditions involved in Weasel Stomping day is to "put your Viking helmet on; spread that mayonnaise on the lawn," which I demonstrated in the following photo:

Well, why not?

There were only a handful of us involved this time around, but still we had a good time together watching the film. Another important tradition is the eating of Twinkie-wiener sandwiches, which consist of a hot dog on a Twinkie bun (Twinkies are rather hard to find these days, since they just went back on supermarket shelves, so we had to improvise with the generic brand), covered in Cheese Whiz.

Erica was both a first-time UHF watcher and Twinkie-wiener sandwich eater:

I think it would be safe to say that she enjoyed the film much more than she enjoyed the sandwich, which is definitely an acquired taste.

Good times were had by all!

No Place like Home for the Holidays

There is, indeed, no place like home for the holidays, just as the old song says. The Plowman bunch managed to have a very nice Christmas celebration last week.

On Christmas Eve, we first went for some sledding on the big hill next door at Hannah Holbrook Elementary. That was followed by a very nice Christmas dinner, which rivaled our Thanksgiving in size and scope.

Biz wrote and put together a fun Christmas pageant, with pretty much everyone getting the chance to either narrate or act out different parts of the story.




Two-month-old Kira, being the youngest member of the family present, probably had every right to play the baby Jesus. Instead, she chose to be held by her mom.


Eight-month-old Jackson got that part in her place:



Kylee, who has already been rehearsing to play a Munchkin/monkey in The Wizard of Oz, played an angel:


Dallin and Xena portrayed a couple of animals in the manger (at least, I think that's what Dallin is doing here):


Jenna and Luke were, respectively, cast as an angel and a shepherd.


Mike, Dallin, and I portrayed the three wise men. (No, I don't think we were typecast, per se.)



Steve accompanied us on the piano as we sang some Christmas hymns.



Adding a new dimension to the holiday this year, we had a family talent show after the pageant. Ben participated by playing "Orange Blossom Special" on his violin:


Kylee, Jenna, and Kenna sang some songs of their own. Mike, Ben, Dallin, and I also performed a couple of skits that Mike had previously taught to his Cub Scouts.

After that, everyone got to open the gift(s) given to them through the name-in-the-hat exchange. Jackson was looking great in his new Batman PJs:


Dave's family and Biz and Jeff returned to their homes, but Mike, Jana, and their kids slept over for Christmas. The kids looked up Santa's location on the Internet - he was in Canada at the time - and quickly went to bed. The rest of us fell asleep watching The Muppet Christmas Carol, a family favorite.

Christmas Day itself was loads of fun. The kids had us up by 6:45 a.m. to open presents, and watching them enthusiastically rip through wrapping paper and discover their gifts was the highlight of the day. I was especially grateful when Kenna squealed with delight when she saw the DVD I bought for her family, The Chipmunk Adventure, and ran over to give me a big hug.

Moments like that kinda make your day.

Wherever you were, or however you spent your holiday, I hope that you, too, were surrounded by loved ones.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

The whole Halloween to New Year's stretch is actually my favorite time of year, so I think of the Christmas/New Year's season as kind of the grand finale of it all. As I write this, it is (finally) snowing outside and making things look like a true winter wonderland.

One of my favorite holiday traditions is wearing Christmas socks. This tradition was inspired by both the Christmas episode of "Mr. Bean," in which Mr. Bean gets a pair of Christmas socks, and a gift from my friend Jacob Lowell in high school, which was the result of a gift exchange in our A.P. Spanish class. (Some of you know Jacob's brother Jonathan, aka J-Lo.) Jacob gave me a pair of red socks, on which Santa Claus was playing basketball.

After that, I began to collect Christmas socks of all kinds. I even had a pair that played a rap song by Santa Claus - until they went through the wash. I now have six or seven pairs of Christmas socks that I rotate throughout the month of December.

Someone at church yesterday pointed out my mistletoe socks, and it wasn't long before a handful of girls were gathering around and commenting how much they liked them. (Yeah, so, you can see now why I wear them.)

Thursday night, I attended the ward Christmas party. In spite of what I mentioned in my last post about a little incident that occurred at dinner, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening spent with many good friends and ward members. I am still not the world's greatest gingerbread house construction worker, but I was sorted onto a team with a professional architect in charge for the gingerbread house-making contest and was happy to take orders and try to help my group out as best I could.

For Saturday's Improv rehearsal, I got to play Santa Claus in one of the games, with my brother Steve and my buddy Ryan Huff as some of Santa's helpers. You really had to be there to understand it - the game ended with Santa dying when a child stopped believing in him, coming back to life at his funeral as a zombie, and going out to kill the Easter Bunny - but Improv, likewise, is now helping me to enjoy the holiday season.


In ward choir, we are rehearsing four excellent numbers: Mozart's "Jesus Savior," "The First Noel/Pachelbel Canon" medley, "Were You There?", and one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs, "Still, Still, Still."

Pepe once again gave me two tickets to attend last night's First Presidency Christmas Devotional at the Conference Center. The Tabernacle Choir sounded great, and the talks by Presidents Monson, Eyring, and Uchtdorf were all fantastic and really helped me to put some things into perspective. After the meeting, my date and I wandered around Temple Square, gawking at the Christmas lights and enjoying the holiday air. Among other friends, I ran into my old Institute choir leader, Bro. Paul Hanks, and his wife, Jean, both of whom I hadn't seen for a few years. It was great to see them both.

Incidentally, since a few of you have asked me about how I have been handling the Person A/Person B situation, I asked Person C - meaning someone else entirely - to go with me to the devotional. I am still trying to figure out Person A and Person B's personalities, and someone who is nice all of the time seemed like a better choice.

In the next few weeks, I'm looking forward to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert, family festivities, watching my nieces and nephews open their presents, egg nog, bowl games (way to go, Cougars and Utes!), Christmas caroling, friends' birthday/graduation parties, and the like. There are so many things out there to enjoy.