Happy Wishes

1. Free head-socks, helmets and results to go with our go-karts.
2. Text messages from all over sending happy wishes.
3. Little Skippy at the front window, wanting to go for a walk, over and over. ‘Maxi [insert doggy language here] take meeee?’ End that with a huge grin! Max crosses to the kitchen to retrieve the leash. Skip returns to his side. Repeat. Each time with a grin bigger than the last.

Alums

Alumni games are a new way to see my boys play. It's just once a year, so check them out and let them know what you think!

Monopoly

1. Winning another battle in the money game at home!

2. "First you will lack confidence. Then your weaknesses will become your strengths." - Gymaholic

3. A masters degree enrollment counselor took the time - over an hour - to patiently listen, and to answer my questions. [I'm so glad she's not a lawyer.]

Zoology

1. Zoo, Complimentary: Long lines with Miss Preslee.

2. Work, Deliveries: I ascended as babies descended.

3. Sofabed, Sleepless: Late-night Zumba session.

Listen

I listened to three people today:

1. My brother
2. Morgen
3. My brother (again)

Open House

The Family Party:

My dinner companions shared their ham with me. (I always prefer turkey because it's ostensibly healthier, but as soon as ham is set on the table, I am like the family puppy.) That is my 1, 2, 3-in-one. 

The Neighborhood Party:

1. On telling my sister I was a ‘little late getting off work’ – this was true – she replied that she appreciated my honesty, let me stay and even gave me a present.

2. A storyteller named Dave met Jim-bozo and Cliff's brother, whereupon they – all three possibly divorced – voted on the matter of Christmas cards and told each other stories.

3. At the end of the night, this to me from my boys: ‘Hi, we just wanted to be home before Christmas.’

Merry Kiss-Mas

1. Holiday downtime, at last, to start reflecting on the year.
2. Christmas dinner with family whose friends aren't far away.
3. Beautiful gifts from my boy's own hard earned money of pandora charms, lush bath bombs, and honey lip balm.

"Life, the gift of nature. Love, the gift of life. A kiss, the gift of love."

Christmas Eve

1. No big rush hour: morning commute into the hospital.
2. Bill the time anyway: all patients went home by the afternoon.
3. Kids' Christmas Eve: being given imaginary kisses.

joy

1. A day wandering Fashion Place:
Mall. Touch-ing JOY. Christmas film pics Netflix.
2. An evening at a houseparty:
Chicken. Chopping cilantro. Drop-in Hockey advice.

3. A late night journey home:
Snow. Delayed Flights. Complimentary kisses from this cute boy.

Count Down

1. Goodbye, Miss C-Section (brunch titled ‘yogurt’)
2. Goodbye, Miss Vaginal Birth (linner titled ‘Pizza’)
3. Hello, Miss Preterm (friend at work titled ‘dirty diet Dr. Pepper for you’)

I love Elf on the Shelf, but do not recommend it in labor and delivery.

His Wish

1. One little nurse sneaking into bed early in the morning. ‘Oh! I thought you were sleeping – but you're up and ready for the gym!’


2. With my brother as companion, sneaking red and blue light sabers and little karaoke machines into the cart at Walmart while shopping for his 9 children and 4 grandkids.


3. In hysterics, rolling back and forth with Markus on speckled white floor tiles after West Coast Renegades: sneaking white elephant gifts into a giggly, fidget spinner fourteen-year-old in an American winter is a simultaneously hilarious and exhausting moment.

Firefighters Return

1. Guest Surprise – Seeing once again the brave men of Utah Firefighters.
2. Guest Spoon – Sipping on Morg’s cherry garcia ice cream.
3. Guest Beds – Adam, picking him up from the airport and for-going a little afternoon nap. B, Sneaking into the break room around 4 am for a little massage chair action.

Tip

1. Honoring: attending one very inspiring final for this semester.

2. Spacing: attending a temporary job for pretty much his favorite ever.

3. Attending: to the $100 tip he called to tell me.

‘Today is the tomorrow I was terrified of yesterday.’

white winter

1. Trekking through freshly fallen snow with these boys early on Saturday night in a city hugged by the white blanket of winter.

2. Journeying through carol-filled shops and stores packed with young teens wired on chocolate milk and mac and cheese.

3. Laughing through dinner as Markus repeatedly hides an extra bowl of noodles, dipped in bright yellow cheese.

Star Wars

1. Character 

2. Plot 

3. Theme

City Creek

1. Free full-size milk with Starbucks ‘traveller.’

2. Free exchange of ringing bells in a creative fundraiser.

3. Free spirits, free, with the free gift of caring.

The Light

1. Feeling the love: film directors and learning the art of the light between oceans. 
2. Feeling the love: grandmothers and beaming smiles from. 
3. Feeling the calories: Cafe Rio and sharing free meals.

Things To Do

Christmas Bucket List

1. Buybe Presents
2. Wrap Giftssomeone in a hug
3. Send Cardslove
4. Shop Fordonate Food
5. Make Cookiesmemories
6. Seebe The Lights

Early

As Christmas party season kicks off:

1. Keep an extra plastic bag at home in case you are the lucky winner of the new skates just delivered off Amazon.

2. If you're wearing new skates, for heaven's sakes, wear new socks!

3. If your company is sweet enough to keep chatting with you, by all means feel free to listen for as long as you can possibly keep your eyes open.

Sauce

1. Good: Got a lot of good deliveries done.
2. Better: Then got even more deliveries done.
3. Best: After work was done, the pleasure of being sandwiched between four teenaged boys fresh from the ice. Yes, I do mean that. It was remarkably entertaining. Every sentence started with ‘Yo’ - as in ‘Yo, check out the sick sauce!’

What is sauce? Yo, that would be the best possible passes from stick to stick, like a flying saucer.

Restoration

1. Decker Lake Drive West: Doing the hockey night, warm lights glowing from storefront galleries at twilight.

2. Constitution Boulevard West West: Gingerly picking up salad with chicken and warm tortillas; eating an entire meal without utensils at Cafe Rio restaurant. Ridiculously delicious!

3. Foothill Road: A day of fire restoration and the boys of JW Restoration for Max with his new job. Ouch! Hot! Sigh...

Transformation

1. Memory! Got a Christmas print from this year's highlights.
2. Kitchen painted! Served warm, delicious color.
3. Work! Lingered in my bed all day... sleeping.

The IG

Markus scoring a game winning goal in Minnesota last weekend!

1. Instagram: Randhir is a real woman working on her master's degree. Who takes the time in the middle of our night shift to listen to – of all things – my silly stories. All the cool games get recited. I beg her to listen to a few more (‘is this too corny?’) – and she actually does, even though she has real school work to do.

2. Non-Instagram: My first experience with permanent cosmetics.

3. Instagram: Is it possible to spend two hours on the IG at work? Oh, it is possible to spend a lot more than two hours! Just a theoretical supposition.

Jazzy

1. Midday: In a quiet corner of the library, a midday Brazilian drumming party. Murray's own Hillcrest Jazz Band was performing the one and only Deck The Halls.

2. Later That Day: Met two of these guys at their lunch break, since I brought one of them lunch. Musicians need to eat lunch together more often: it saves money and it's social.

3. Really Later That Day: Didn't need to sit in the rink to be cold, as I was already cold running to Walmart. Riding shopping carts by day puts me in touch with the city.

Concerts

This was a special three-part day.

1. Scott: My friend was deployed early this morning for California, fighting fires and bringing trucks.

2. Delivery: Babies to the burbs and back (and what a fabulous delivery it was).

3. Markus: Got to leave-work early concert, thanks to my boss covering for me, listening to both the jazz band concert and orchestra (for a Merry Christmas combo, thank you very much).

Wasatch

1. Scott returned to town from Palm Springs. Last week, he and I got together for lunch to satisfy my massive craving for Salmon. 

2. Then he picked up the tab. He swears Wasatch Brewery has been a roaring success since the 80's - anyone else remember?

3. He's a good friend, up late at night. We had a proper chat to catch up on affairs of the mind and matters of the heart.

It seems everyone returns to Wasatch Brewery for that special beer. I'll return for the salad dressing.

Tuesdays

1. Precious sleep: ‘There are twelve hours in the day, and above fifty in the night.’ - Marie de Rabutin-Chantal

2. Silver Tuesdays: All he wanted was to fly home after the tournament. Easy? Not so! After a painful notice, the plane was too heavy from all the hockey bags (mind you, three teams all on the same flight to Denver).

3. Happy convert: $300 (plus another flight voucher) and a voucher for the night in a fancy hotel; $50 buys that same flight - for the tournament next month - in that same team's home town.

‘If you can't sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It's the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.’ - Dale Carnegie

Max is safe. I finally heard from him, after he had to evacuate the home he's staying in with his billet family. The Ventura fire burned down the house across the street. 

Parties

1. The pretty red shoes I got from Kailey are pretty hottie-hot!
2. Famished, I discovered sweet pork salad in the break room at work.
3. Thanks to planning from Heather, I had fun exploring for gifts for the Road Home (a ‘continuously needed source of goods on holidays and offerings made from everyone at work—food supplies, new gloves, coats-hats and toys and gifts affecting change’).

The Legend

‘Life is all about timing... the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable becomes available, the unattainable... attainable. Have the patience, wait it out. It's all about timing.’ - Stacey Charter

‘Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.’ - Steve Jobs

‘If you get up one more time than you fall you will make it through.’ - Chinese Proverb

Demolition

1. 10am: My dog helped me demolish the backyard.
2. 5pm: My neighbor helped me remove the garbage.
3. 8pm: My missing Christmas tree lights reappeared.

Then some Stranger Things...

December First

‘We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams.’ - Jeremy Irons



‘Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.’ - H. Jackson Brown

Furnace

3. In a freezing cold house over a kitchen counter, leaning up against a running dishwasher for hot, steamy comfort. It almost felt as good as taking a shower.
2. In a busy work morning over cream of wheat, chatting with the furnace repair man.
1. In an unexpected moment over a pile of delivery records and laundry, receiving some very good news from a man who was able to fix rather than replace.