Yesterday afternoon everyone at Heather’s house except for mother and Heather went to the movie National Treasure II at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City. That Megeplex has twelve theaters, I think, and the movie was playing in two of them (it has been a pretty popular movie this holiday season). Along the hallway where the theaters are located were advertisements for upcoming films. Danielle (aka Dani-girl) posed for a picture by the advertisement for Water Horse. The ET-like creature must have something to do with the movie and Danielle looks quite cute with the creature.
When we came out of the movie the promised snow storm had moved in. It was snowing and blowing and definitely ensuring a white Christmas in the valley. Back at the house Heather had prepared a delightful turkey dinner which we enjoyed by candelight. After dinner they enjoyed a couple of other family traditions. We gathered around the piano to read the Christmas story and sing the traditional Christmas carols. Heather had put the program together and everyone had a folder with the story and music. I really enjoyed singing and hearing the story again.
The other tradition at her house is that the kids all buy gifts for each other and open them on Christmas eve. Heather buys new pajamas for everyone, they all put on their new pajamas and bed down for the night together in one of the bedrooms. The whole family had a great time and enjoyed the entire evening. So did I!
This morning dawned white and clear! The storm is gone (but another should be here by Thursday, just in time for us to drive home). This picture looks north from Heather’s front door across Bountiful towards Ogden. The air was clear … a marked difference from the past week or so, thanks to yesterday’s storm.
We got to bed about 1 a.m. this morning and the grandkids were up and ready to open presents by 7 a.m. They were all well gifted, as were Nina and me. Stephanie had to go to work in mid-morning but the rest of the family has been just hanging out, playing with the new games, watching movies, and generally having a very laid-back day. I managed to get an hour-and-a-half nap in the late morning.
Ty has decided he needs a snowblower (and I would also agree). He’ll probably do that shopping tomorrow. I’ve got another appointment at the Genius Bar in the Gateway Mall Apple Store to see if they can really fix the problem with my Macbook where the keyboard suddenly and randomly stops working and the computer has to be rebooted. Last time they replaced the keyboard. Perhaps there have been enough other people having this issue that they’ve finally got the problem figured out. Apple has been the topic of conversation in the blogoshpere the past few days. One of the people I follow and admire is Dave Winer who recently had a problem with with his Mac computer and with the repair policy of the store where the problem was fixed. Robert Scoble picked up on that and a few other complaints. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple responds to the bad publicity!
Heather was wearing a interesting shirt today … her blog is at heather.rnsmith.com and she’s always very interesting to read. I’m hoping she got plenty of material to blog about from this Christmas holiday … Ty’s search for a snowblower can definitely be a topic, in my opinion.
We’ll be at Heather’s house until Thursday morning when we’ll head back north. The webcam pictures from Pocatello show that the storm left some snow behind there as well. I’m sure our snowblower will get a workout when we get back home. That will be followed by the next visit to the dentist on Friday morning. Despite that, it will have been a great week.
Merry Christmas!