Merry Christmas, Hyrum (1)

 'Sup.



Mario collects coins, and now I know why: chocolate!

 Excalibur! I mean, Pinocchio! It's mine! All mine!

Reading Mother Goose with the grandparents.

This was the sight that greeted Hyrum/Mario/Buzz/Pinocchio/rubber ducky when he walked into the living room Christmas morning and his reaction.

Picking Favorites

Hyrum announced that he wanted to listen to Hark the Herald Angels Sing during dinner tonight (because we had just watched it from the First Presidency Christmas Devotional). Well, he didn't have any Hark the Angels on his playlist, so we need to pick one.

There are only 6 versions on this computer right now. So for dinner we listened to Mannheim Steamroller, Anthony Way Choirboy's Christmas, Julie Andrews, two Mormon Tabernacle Choirs, and Bing Crosby. After each one I asked which one he liked best. His answer was invariably "Hark All Ye Nations."

Until we were all done. Then the vote was in: Bing Crosby wins. Sometimes simplicity wins out.

(And now he's singing Hark All Ye Nations again.)

Small Moments of Christmas Happiness

Over the last couple years, my musical tastes expanded significantly, and there's a part of me that hasn't worried per se about my parents' reaction but has significantly doubted how well they fit into the family

Then for Christmas Pop not only bought me some of the new music I'd recently discovered, but liked it enough that he got it for Grandma Boo as well.

It felt a little like indirectly giving a Christmas present. :)

The Christmas Bride

For our church Christmas party, each organization was supposed to come up with a song or a sketch or something to perform. As I told the elders, I LIVE for this stuff. So I was put in charge of coming up with a sketch. I pitched several ideas and the one that stuck was a parody of The Princess Bride. I got my food policy textbook off to the publisher by Thursday and wrote the script. The main players rehearsed it that night and we performed Friday. So the fight scene is completely impromptu. A friend recorded it and put it on YouTube. Sorry for the background noises of children, but you can hear us pretty well for the most part. The video is below the fold or linked here.

Performing the Chorus

Last year, Hyrum stood on the front pew at church enthralled as Pop conducted and Daddy accompanied the rest of the family and the choir in singing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. He joined in the conducting, making a Christmas memory for most of the congregation that has gone down in legend.

I warned Pop last month that Hyrum probably wouldn't be conducting this year. He doesn't see Mommy doing that every Sunday and his enthusiasm for conducting has died down. He's much more into singing right now, and I joked that Hy might try to join in.

The last month he has joined me for most of my practice time as I tooled up to move the Chorus from piano to the organ. He was always very excited during rehearsals, but regularly interrupted rather than conduct, never sang along, and generally had an exuberantly good time running around.

That was more or less true yesterday too as the choir had its next-to-last practice -- and the first one on the Chorus. Our plan was that Hy would sit with a family in the ward, with Pop and Boo joking that they could probably auction off the right to care for Hy during the program on Facebook and get some pretty good offers.

Then on the last rehearsal Sunday morning, Hyrum stood in the middle of the choir next to Mommy and Grandma Boo and ... sang. I'm not sure which parts he was following, but I had a good view of him from the organ singing along. He sang the whole thing.

Joy and I looked at each other. We had the most scathingly brilliant idea since moving the Chorus to organ. Every year, Pop invites anyone from the congregation who has sung the Chorus before to come up and join the choir. We invited a good friend to watch Hyrum during the program whom we knew would come forward and told her to bring Hyrum. And so she did.

Pop says he just about lost it (his voice caught with tearful emotion) when he saw Hyrum walking up the aisle to the choir. He stood directly front and center next to Mommy and Grandma Boo again.

And he sang.

He sang and he sang and he sang.

He, himself, the Hyrum sang the whole piece.

Sometimes he may even have been on key, but that's not the point. It was a lot of fun to spare my eyes from the sheet music and the keyboards for a few seconds just to watch my son sing.

I feel very sad for the many members of the congregation who came up after to say they had missed seeing Hyrum conduct or sing -- some of them said they had brought camera phones just to record his performance. Since he was front and center, Pop, the organ, and the piano effectively blocked most people's view. Those in the choir generally noticed and talked about how adorable he was. The nice part of where Hy stood, though, is that since Pop didn't get a chance to see Hyrum conduct last year, at least he got to see him sing this year. Although, when he did look at Hy, he choked up, so he tried not to pay much attention.

I learned how to play piano with a vision of someday playing while Pop conducted. That was my dream and ambition, fulfilled when I was only 12. Today I played with Pop conducted ... and my son sang. My cup runneth o'er.

A Very Mario Christmas 2-3

Joy has been doing an advent calendar with Hyrum this month based on an article from The Friend magazine. Each day it asks a question about the nativity and they read a scripture from the New Testament to answer it. We've already mentioned Mario interrupting the story. Saturday the question was: "Who did the king send to find the baby Jesus?" Hyrum answered, "Mario!" ... Sorry, Mario, but your Savior is in another manger!

Hy and Joy have also worked up a new rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas. Joy has come up with eight days so far, but Hyrum only cares about the first two: two Mario and Luigis and a Buzz Lightyear coloring book.

My favorite ornament and other goings on

Hi there. Hy here.

This is my favorite Christmas tree ornament. Gamma Boo made it. I ask Mommy and Daddy every day if I can take it down and play with it. It's one of the first things I ask for after I make sure they turn the Christmas tree lights back on.

Boy, if it weren't for me there would be no holiday cheer around here, I tell you!



Tonight I got to put Daddy in time out. He went to my room. After a few moments, Mommy called out to ask if he was going to stay there or rejoin us. He called back, asking *me* if he should come back or stay in time out.

"Stay in time out!" I called then started walking to him. Mommy asked if I wanted to go talk to him. "Yeah," I said.

I walked in the room, and with my biggest big-boy grin looked him square in the eye and said, "Why are you in time out?" just like Mommy and Daddy!

'Cause I hit Hyrum with my head,' Dad said meekly but with a twinkle in his eye. He waited for me, then continued the script without me: 'I'm sorry, Hyrum. Will you forgive me?'

"Yes!" I leaped into his arms and gave him a big, wet smooch. Then we walked back to Mommy again.

[Daddy says: Best. Time Out. Ever]



In other news, I got to keep my underwear on from after my nap through to bedtime before I wet it. A new record!

Santa: After and Before

Part 1: Hy meets Santa (pictures to come later)
Hyrum had a good time at our ward's Christmas party. Daddy had a great time too, but that's another story. After the food [so nice to have that first and on time] and the singing and program, a Special Visitor was announced. I asked Hyrum if he would like to meet Santa Clause. He's not overly familiar with Santa yet, but he's heard the Night Before Christmas and the Grinch, and we did a family home evening about Santa ... and he did well meeting tall strangers at Disneyland ... so he might be interested.

Hyrum said yes. Great. I snapped him up and raced the big kids to get Hy back home within three hours after his bedtime. (Poor kid). As we waited our turn, I told Hy what to expect:

When you go up and sit on Santa's lap, he's going to ask you some questions. He's going to ask if you've been a good boy. Have you been a good boy, Hyrum?
"Yes."
Yes, you have. [It's so nice to believe that!] Then he's going to ask what you want for Christmas. What do you want for Christmas, Hyrum?

[This is the big question. In previous attempts to elicit information from him, he hasn't really gotten it. He usually asked for a toy he already owned but wasn't in his hands.]

"I want a decorated Christmas."

Interesting.

It was Hyrum's turn. He walked up to Santa and stood in front of the big man nervously. Santa invited him onto his lap, but Hy stepped backwards. So Santa reached into his pack and pulled out ... a Candy Cane! Aha! Hyrum knows candy canes. They decorate Christmas trees. They are crunchy (blekh). It's just what he wanted! He hopped right up on Santa's lap.

Have you been a good boy?
"Yes."
Good.

I couldn't tell what else Santa asked, but I could tell that Hyrum's response was silence. So Santa let him go and I took his hand and walked back to Mommy. Hyrum was very excited. He paused to tell good friend Jon that he got a candy cane. He played with the candy cane the rest of the night and much of the next day. We asked him how he liked the party the next day: "I got a candy cane."

And that's how Hyrum met Santa.
-------------------------
Part 2: a PSA on planning for Santa
Now that the Church has gotten rid of Activities Committees, there's no risk of me be called to one when the bishopric goes bat-guano-insane. But it's worse: now anyone can be assigned to prepare things, so having a calling is no protection.* So just in case someone ever decides I need to organize Christmas, I'd like to remind myself of a couple points about preparing for Santa:

Hyrum according to Facebook

Last night I plugged the camera into the computer and discovered I haven't been posting Hyrum pictures or many blogs about him since Halloween. Time flies when you're working 12-15 hour days for two months at a time! Thankfully, we have some records through Facebook's status updates:

Saturday, Dec 11: Hy asked to listen to a song ten times. I told him when we got to number 7. He announced "Only three more times. 8, 9, 10." 2.75 years old today and he can solve 7+x=10 in his head.

Friday, Dec 10: Hy just counted backwards from 8

Thur, Dec 9: Hyrum tries on big boy underpants.

More of the story: We've been half-heartedly potty training Hy for a couple months now. We have alphabet stickers and some small prizes to give him, but there are still some significant challenges to get through before we're even going to be close. Problem is, he starts school in two weeks. Our original plan had been that he would graduate to big boy underwear as a reward for becoming potty trained like all the kids books say. After praying together about what we could do, though, I had the idea that because transitions are so important to Hyrum, we need to start even that transition now.

So we went to WalMart and bought him a pack of Cars and a pack of Pixar underwear. I had thought we would need to show him the underwear for a few days, spend another few days getting him to hold them, convincing him to try them on for a couple minutes to see how they 

Nope, nothing doing. He wanted them on right now. Joy says, "I had no idea what you wanted." It's not really what I wanted, just expected. So when he wakes up or gets up from a nap, he gets some underwear. He soils them and tells us he is wet and he goes back to diapers for the rest of the day-segment. It may just be helping! It also tells us that Lightning McQueen is preferred to Buzz Lightyear who is preferred to Wall-E.

Friday, Dec 3: For the first time, I heard the dreaded words "Whose kid is this?" No blood, no foul, right?

Just a boy an hour past his bedtime being a little rambunctous in a store, to the dismay of one of the customers.

Sun, Nov 28: We've begun teaching Hyrum about Christmas fun (in the Nativity he is well versed). Tonight after Joy's FHE lesson on Christmas symbols, I read him "Twas the Night Before..." and tomorrow we start reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In his prayer he said, "Thank Thee [for] Christmas."

Wed, Dec 1: "That's the Grinch. He had an idea."  

Sun, Nov 21: "I'm slicing the chair to decorate the floor for Thanksgiving - Steve and Emie coming"

Sat, Nov 20: Hy's new vocabulary word is Lava. "Lava is red. Don't step on the lava." Thank you, Incredibles, for teaching my son such a valuable lesson.

Wed, Nov 17: Joy won the bowling tonight with strikes in frames 8, 9, and 10. Hy prayed "Thank thee for bowling. Thank thee for strikes...."

Oh Christmas Tree

We got out the Christmas tree today and plugged it in. Enough of the lights are on that Hyrum is fascinated. Last year he mainly tried to blow out the lights on the tree, as if they were candles.

1 - He has decided the lights represent Mario Bros. characters. Red is Mario, Yellow is Princess Peach, and Green in Luigi (Wugi). He hasn't figured out what blue is. Joy recommends Princess Daisy.

2 - Joy also pulled out my Statler and Waldorf dolls from the shed while she was at it. They're the hecklers on the Muppets. Hyrum has eagerly been trying to put them on or in or through the Christmas tree, which is tough for a 12" doll to manage. When I introduced them to him by name, he took each one over to the tree and said, "There's our Christmas tree." Then he brought them back together to give each other a little kiss. (FYI - Statler's the tall one.)

Joy has also been doing a advent activity with Hyrum from the Friend. Each day they pull out a paper ornament to velcro on the paper tree and ask a question about the Christmas story. The first was the name of the angel. Today they talked about John Baptist's naming.

Giving Pop Due Notice

Last year when my dad's choir sang the Hallelujah Chorus, Hyrum stood up in the pews and conducted with him. It was the single most adorable event in 2009 by many accounts.

I have some sad news. This year I don't think he's going to conduct...

But that doesn't mean that he won't be participating!

"Aw-way-woo-ya! Aw-way-woo-ya!"



You have been warned.

"An HE shall WAYNE fohevah..."

Random Memories of Family

Oh, mystic random picture generator, what memories do you hold for us tonight while Joy is singing with a choir and Hyrum sleeps soundly?

August 24, 2004

To celebrate my birthday and the passing of my Qualifying exams, my girlfriend - the Lovely and Gracious - baked me a Q-cake (a spice cake with bananas). It was a delightful surprise and the first birthday we celebrated together.







My Aunt Virginia gave us some money for our wedding with the stipulation that we had to use it to get something that would be a long-lasting memory. So we bought this beautiful frame and a picture of the temple where we were sealed for time and eternity.








At the Trumansburg Demolition Derby ... probably around Mother's Day 2006. We sat on the front row as I experienced the carnage for the first time and were splattered with mud and dirt. We try to go every year, but I don't think any year has been as awesomely impressive as that first time. ... Aside of course from the time or two that cars caught fire.

My brother and his brand new bride walking out of the Salt Lake Temple, May 6, 2006. I was among the first to catch sight of them. For some reason, they - like we the year before - were separated from each other for quite some time after the wedding. I hung out with him for a while, then went to explain to everyone else what the hold up was, only to wait another 15 minutes. I think he was adjusting her tiara.







Steve stands dutifully while his boutonniere is adjusted. Meanwhile, Aunt Corinne examines the train. She pronounces it quite lovely and points out some of the features to Grammy until Emie decides it's time to move on.

Here I am, fighting in the trenches of the Elbonian/Swiss war.

Not really. It's the Groton fair and the sign said children of ALL ages were allowed in. So I was loud in.




Summer 2007 - One of Joy's best harvests. Almost more tomatoes than she could eat in the height of her tomato-mayonnaise sandwich phase. It was at that point that I formulated the theory that bread and salads were merely vehicles for disguised fry sauce - lots of tomatoes, lots of mayonnaise-based sauce ... fry sauce.










Hyrum briefly laid claim to Joy's temple bag as his own carry-around. Any time we left the house, he would ask for his bag and be quite upset if we couldn't find it.





Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

The Italian peacocks were disdainful of the tourists' attempts to make them show their tails.







At Christmas 2009, Hyrum delivers a present to Aunt Emilee.









Also at Christmas 2009, an updated Watson Family picture is taken. This is my edit of the base picture. We're still awaiting the final print. From left to right: the people who don't like nicknames; Pop and Gamma Boo; the Lovely and Gracious, the Permagrin Baby, and yours truly.

During that Christmas, Steve went from goatee to mustache, and I got to say, I really think it suits him and his work on Spanish lit.

Fasting, Joy, and Gifts

This post has been moved to our new family blog.

Golden Christmas Moments

We flew to my parents' house in California for Christmas. My brother (Steve) and his wife (Emie) were there with us [Derrill, Joy, Hyrum, Pop, and Grandma Boo] for 10 days, plus my Dad's mom (Grammy) for Christmas Day. The crown of Christmas was Hyrum's experience at church, which I already talked about. Here are a few other golden moments from our Christmas stay.

Joy also really enjoyed her experience at the Christmas program. "I was really happy to be feeling well enough to sing with the choir, and I gave about all I had when we sang the Hallelujah Chorus. So when we got to the last song, Silent Night, it was a great blessing that Dannon Story was singing my descant with me because I pooped out in some places." Pop had taught his choir Joy's descant an earlier year because it's so beautiful. "And Dad thought I did great with the sopranos, and I never get to sing soprano, so that was fun."

The thing I was most looking forward to was taking my sweetheart to the LA temple where I proposed to her 5 years ago [on the very stone in our new title picture] and doing some temple work. When I proposed, they were closed. This year, for some strange reason, they were open. They set up a special sealing session just for us so we could be extra romantic. It was very cuddly. "And Derrill, as a very romantic gesture, took me to eat at the temple cafeteria. This is romantic to me because it reminds me of when I used to serve in the Provo temple and how much I loved being at the temple, even more than for doing service. He knows it's special to me. I feel very grateful that the thing that Derrill wants to do the most when he has time off is go to the temple. I really married a man who cherishes the Lord's house and it makes me cherish him even more."

It was so great to see Grammy. We really missed being with her last Christmas. Seeing Grammy was the primary reason that we wanted to go to CA for Christmas rather than have mom and dad come here. "When I was talking to Grammy around the dinner time on Christmas day, I told her that I thought that our son looks just like Pop, her son. She told me that Derrin, her son, looked exactly like Hyrum when he was Hyrum's age. Then Grammy told me that he would be thrilled to know that. So, before the dinner started and Pop was in the room putting things on the table, Grammy told him how he had looked exactly like Hyrum when he was little. It was really special to me because it felt like such a unifying moment, seeing the generations so similarly and that Grammy his own mother saw it too. Pop and Hyrum are two peas in a pod not just because they look like each other. They are definitely bosom buddies. Even across the miles in Ithaca, Hyrum thinks of his Pop frequently, with wonder, and with urgency."

Speaking of Grammy, she loved Hyrum's toys. It was very fun, the night she got to town, seeing her play with this toy where you knock a ball through a hole with a hammer and the lion plays you music. She was so taken with it, I took this video of it. The best comments, though, were just before and just after the video as she told my parents she wanted Hyrum's toys for Christmas next year.

"Another of my special memories was helping out with dinner. Mom had received a blessing counseling her to take it easy in preparing for Christmas for her health and happiness. When I talked to her about Christmas dinner later, I was able to volunteer to do many of the things that she would not be able to do. I made a pie, the potatoes, helped Emilee make a crab cheese ball, and made a relish tray with Emilee. After helping with the dinner I really felt like I had helped the Lord fullfill his promise to mom and it felt good."

Hyrum's big success was eating Belgium chocolate covered cookies and drinking apple juice for the first time during the trip. Yay!

Another golden Hyrum moment was caught on video. Pop was reading him a story he got for Christmas, "The Rain on Kapiti Plain," but he got up and walked off. Watch Hyrum's face VERY carefully when Pop asks him if he wants to sit in his lap. That's the mischievous imp grin - such expressive eyebrows. He played that joke another 6 times, each time to uproarious laughter. Joy says, "I love it when that game works in my favor!"

Among Hyrum's favorite presents was a little plastic nativity. He carried Mary around with him everywhere saying, "born." We're not sure whether he thinks that's her name, or he's remembering that Jesus was born. We wondered why he wasn't carrying baby Jesus around, until Steve finally found Him between couch cushions.

Hy also served as a great elf. He picked up presents from the tree, carried them to a favorite adult to ask who the present was for. We'd tell him, then he brought it over to the right recipient. He was gentle with them and wouldn't try opening anything until we said, "Open." Then he could tear into it with increasing delight. He got the hang of it pretty quickly, unlike last year. "I begin to understand the magic of Christmas as I see him learn to do a simple thing as opening a present, that is magic to me."

Emie got a Disney nature video she had really wanted, narrated by James Earl Jones, aka Darth Vader. As we sat around watching it, we cracked many jokes about the animals on it. Emie called out at one point in response, "That's not what Darth Vader said!" Best comment of the night.

I really enjoyed getting a book of classical music favorites that I spent the vacation playing through on the piano. It was so nice to have a piano handy. I could sit down and play most of them on sight, though by far not perfectly. Just well enough to enjoy. "Hyrum would often start clapping when Derrill finished a peice or paused in playing the piano." Reminding everyone else to clap. I was also delighted when Hyrum carried his little xylophone up to the piano and asked me to play with him. Of course, he wanted to play on the piano WITH the xylophone, but it was the first intimation of our future duets and trios together.

The night before we all left to come back to the East, Steve, Emie, Joy, and I sat around and pretended we were adults. That is, instead of getting out a game, we actually talked. Dude. "It was fun. We just talked about anything, more important things, and though I wouldn't mention on here what they were, they were all special. It felt like we were close friends. So nice to be getting to know them."

Hyrum's dream come true

Hi there. Hy here.

I had the most magical Christmas Sunday yesterday! I just had to tell you about it. Last week was the Christmas Sunday at our branch and yesterday was the Christmas Sunday at Pop and Grandma Boo's ward. Mom was in charge of the first, Pop in charge of the second.

I liked Mom's: Dad and someone else read me the story of the nativity and the choir sang songs. I wanted to go up and join them, walking back and forth in front of them and helping the conductor when I think he needs it; Mom kept me safe, though, and I rewarded her by being reverent the whole time.

I really liked the music Pop picked. Dad asked me after each song if I liked it. It wasn't really my normal type of music, but after giving it due thought, I would say to him, "'gain."

Then Dad got up to join the choir. What was going on? Dad sat at the piano and started playing my anthem: The Hallelujah Chorus!

I stood up. I was so excited! I conducted a LIVE choir singing my anthem! I was in heaven. It was the most glorious experience ever!

I had lots of people come up to me after the program to congratulate me on my conducting. I had perfect timing over much of it. I reminded everyone of my talented, exuberant Pop who also led the music. Mom and Dad just couldn't get away from the throngs of people saying how talented, cute, adorable, special, musical, chip-off-the-old-block I am. Facebook was atwitter all night with reports. Pop admitted he and Boo had considered announcing there would be a guest conductor for it, but there was no need. Everyone saw me stealing the show.

Proud? Me? I'm just reporting the honest facts. It was a pity Dad and Pop couldn't see me much, but Dad said he really wished he had had permission to use a video camera.

Dad's already mentioned my growing love of the Chorus twice. That's not the half of it. The night he posted about it last, he made an announcement at the dinner table: There will be no more "yeah" in this house! "Yeah" does NOT mean Hallelu-yeah anymore. If I wanted to listen to the heavenly song, I must say "Chorus."

That night, I learned to say "Chor" and by the next day, I had perfected my first two-syllable word: Chorus. I say it every 5 minutes at least. Chorus. Chorus. Chorus. Dad. Chorus! I've listened to the Chorus over 200 times (according to the computer) in the last 10 days. Aunt Emilee put an embargo on it today: anything but the Chorus. I'm very proud of my Dad, who can play it on piano for me any time I want. I also decided Mom and Dad singing it together do a good job, and accepted their unaccompanied version on the plane.

Pictures of this magical Christmas are forthcoming. I'm having so much fun in California!

Pilgrimage: The Silent Night Church

On leaving Salzburg, we had one more stop in Austria before we made our way home: the Silent Night Church in Oberndorf, half an hour north of Salzburg. On this site on Christmas Eve, 1818, Joseph Mohr (priest, bottom right) and Franz Gruber (deputy organist and schoolteacher, bottom left) gave the world Silent Night for the first time. The original church was torn down due to flood damage around 1900, so they built this little chapel to commemorate it from 1924-1936, complete with stained glass windows of the pair on either side. Across the walkway is a model that gives you a better shot of the perspective than my earthbound legs can.

Gruber, who learned how to play the organ in only three months, retold how the song came about as its popularity was growing. I found it interesting that his rendition did not mention any mechanical problems with the organ, one of the parts from the traditional retelling that always caught my ear; only that Mohr asked him to write music to the words he had written (perhaps two years earlier) for two solo voices and guitar. Wikipedia tells me the first mention of the broken organ came from a 1909 US publication.

There are three more verses than you know. We have verses 1, 2, an 6. Here the rest are in English as clearly as I can render them without getting them in tune and time:
3. Silent Night! Holy Night!
That brought the world healing
From Heaven's golden heights
Out of the Mercy-fullness let it be seen:
|:Jesus in mortal form.:|

4. Silent Night! Holy Night!
Where today all might
Of Fatherly love poured forth
And, as our homaged brother, embraced
|:Jesus the people of the world:|
(note: Jesus is the one embracing)

5. Silent Night! Holy Night!
Long before were we planned for,
As the Lord freed from the wrath
of the fathers' first-terrored time
|:All the world was promised protection:|

If you want words that go with the music, I have some of those too. You lose a little in the next step of translation, but not much.

I'm very thankful we were able to go there. It was one of the primary reasons I wanted to head north to Salzburg in the first place, having learned about it from Elder Wirthlin. It turns out the German border is right across a bridge in Oberndorf. It has some impressive decorations, so we crossed the border several times. We then drove through a corner of southern Germany, enjoying the Kuhdorfs (Danglisch for cow-villages), pastoral land, and woods.

Not to mention some interesting town markers.

Along the way, we found a fellow whose trailer had overturned on a sharp curve on the sluck roads. We pulled off just ahead and I went back to help. He was carrying hundreds of glass beer steins to a market display to be held Sunday and lost more than half of them to the crash. He was uninjured, thankfully. I helped him move things around, separate the good from the bad, talked to another friendly motorist who stopped and the police. Even though we had been in Austria for a few days, so I had warmed up my German, this was southern Germany and the northerners I lived with told me that the southerners speak such a strange dialect that it's not even German. I understand a little better what they meant. Even though we both spoke in high German, he was really hard to follow, and when other natives came up, I caught the sense of what they were saying, but that was about it. I really wanted to say something like, "This act of service brought to you in part by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Next time you see our missionaries, think about letting them in, k?" At the time, though, the words completely failed me. It's made me ponder a lot in the last several months how I'm doing in my missionary efforts and if I'm actually prepared.

We cut back through Austria again and into very northern Italy. There I had the shock of shocks: they speak German in northern Italy. For 2-3 hours of the drive, the signs were in German and not Italian, the gelateria worker in the pictured village preferred German to Italian, the newspapers were in German, the architecture was Germanic. It took a long time to find Italian again. It was on this trip that we found some of the best gelato, one here at this village and one we caught at 10pm as he was going to bed. I explained to the fellow how much my wife really wanted to find another place for gelato, and he answered that, with love, all things are possible.

That drive in pouring, heavy rain over hairpin and switchback roads of the Alps (yes, I took the scenic route) was something I have not yet had nightmares about. It can only be a matter of time. Steep roads, dense forest, expecting deer and other animals to dart in frnot of me every moment (thank you, Ithaca), the windshield wipers weren't working... it was something else. I was thankful for a GPS system that could warn me of turns. We made it out okay, though, and came home to our sleeping baby who was happy to see us in the morning.

Hyrum vs. Handel

The other day, someone shared a video on Facebook with some "silent monks" performing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. They hold up signs for each syllable while a pretty good soundtrack plays. It's pretty funny.

Hyrum LOVED it. Oh, he went bonkers! He and I sat there listening to the Chorus over and over again for one solid hour before bed. He spent the first 8 times through conducting the entire thing. I recorded the 4th or 5th time through, but it's ever too big a file, so you'll have to make do with this short snippet. After that, he sat sleepily excited in my lap, just enthralled, though by that time we'd moved on to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir version so he could see someone actually conducting it.



When he was all done, I realized I had found my Christmas Spirit. Let the holiday begin!

Two fun links

An open letter, or what not to get your kid for Christmas, chemistry edition. Incredibly hilarious. "The time has come to ... allow your daughter to enjoy her happy intellectual incuriosity..." Hat tip: an old Wronging Rights post.

McDonald's is throwing in the towel in Iceland. What's the fun part, you ask? The opponents of American neo-imperialism (I work with some of them) cheer because Mickey D's has "terrorized food culture all over the world." If you buy that Big Mac... the terrorists win. (Hat tip: Marginal Revolution).

Merry Christmas!

Joy: "We had a warm and friendly Christmas."

Derrill: Joy saw that the Sister Missionaries had no where to go for Christmas Eve, so we invited them over to share our ham, garlic potatoes, corn, and pies. (Someone had asked for the secret family recipes, but unfortunately I'm not supposed to give them out under pain of Norwegian ghosts paying us a visit.) These are her Engagementary flowers (engaged and kissing for 4 years now!)

After dinner, we had the traditional reading of the Christmas Scroll. Back in college, my mother had calligraphied the Christmas story plus some Old Testament and Book of Mormon prophecies about Jesus' birth onto a long scroll. We read our copy of it together, sang a few carols, and Joy and I used little figures to act it out for Hyrum's benefit.

We also had the traditional pajama present on Christmas Eve. Joy got us some blue pajama bottoms this year with trees and ... MOOSE! We had moose on our red pajamas last year too. It's a family joke. I added some warm, memory-foam slippers to the outfit, and we have to say, we REALLY bought for warmth this year. These are some of the warmest slippers and pajamas known to man. Joy got out her summer blankets the other day for the bed, they're so warm. But soft and fuzzy like nobody's business.

The sisters also got a few gifts with a mission story attached to each one, trying our best to help them feel at home. It turned out that over the course of the evening, we had done something for each of their traditions, so they got a little taste of home.

"Yeah, that felt really special to me."




Christmas Day we spent about six hours opening presents, not because there were actually all that many (that's a two-foot tree), but Hyguy took two naps in the process. He and I were both sick. We had to cancel caroling earlier in the week, which was sad.

"And we sang a song in between each round and ate a yummy breakfast."

Hyrum hasn't really figured out wrapping paper yet, but I did get several videos of him trying. Here you see the conflict: he wants to open the present, but he also wants to play with the rattle ... which we still hadn't opened.


He enjoyed all the presents, though. He particularly likes Joy's presents: the little train, the egg-shaped rattle, and the small basketball. I got him a kitchen playset that he enjoys scattering over the floor, Mary and Jesus action figures, and the Secret of Nimh (which Joy said we are *not* showing him yet). Joy is definitely the winner.

"I just get to spend more time with him and see the things he enjoys playing with at other people's houses. I had an in."

My big present to Joy was a couple framed pictures of Hyrum that I got professionally done. In one, he has a very mischievous smile. The other is a collage of him on my shoulders and him smiling really big. They are very nice. Joy got me three games for the Gamecube that we can play on the Wii: Final Fantasy, The Hobbit, and Zelda Wind Waker. This has enabled her to pull ahead on Harvest Moon since now my time is divided between four games. I did some catching up this Saturday though while she was at the temple.

So we pretty much just enjoyed each other's company and sang a lot about Jesus. It was a warm, cozy Christmas.




Hy tries to figure out wrapping paper, the careful way....







Joy laughing at our new toilet seat. '











Hyrum S. Watson, birth class of '09.
Voted most likely to break hearts in high school if only he learns not to drool so much by then.

"My name is Hyrum Watson, and I approved this message."




Playing with the ball for the first time. Don't let it touch the floor!

Preparing for Christmas (and misc.)

We are so stoked! A couple months ago we had the main room of our new home cleared out. We didn't enjoy it very long though. There were all these boxes in the rest of the house and it was difficult to navigate. So we put all of them in the center of the main room so we'd be tripping over them and get to them eventually.

Last night, we got the last of them unpacked and cleared off our floor. We have a floor again! Hyrum can crawl all around to his heart's content. Joy keeps saying how glad she is every time she walks in the door.

We've got the tinsel and some decorative balls put up around the house. This week we'll get out the tree and hopefully find the lights. I'm REALLY looking forward to having some lights out that people can see. I also have my German Rauchermensch up - he's one of the three wise men, and you put a little incense cone in his belly so he smokes.

We're also preparing for Christmas baking. Steve and Emmy already did the family fatigmand fry. (A thousand thanks! Blessings on you, on your house, and on your camel! May your toilet always flush clockwise and ... yes, dear, I'll behave.) Mom and I will make German stollen and Danish kringla when we're there in January. This week will be pie baking (pumpkin and choclate pecan) and some gingerbread cookies for Joy.

Early next week we'll go caroling with some friends. (If you would like to be among those friends, let me know. I always say, the more the merrier.)

------------------------------

Steve introduced me recently to Brandon Sorenson, a new fantasy author. I've been devouring his first book, Elantris, recently and really enjoying it. I recommend it for fantasy readers. He has developed a very detailed, interesting new world with a fairly complex storyline. There were a couple plot twists that were highly predictable (I have a very firm guess as to how some it will end) but he's thrown in some fairly major surprises I hadn't expected. The characters are drawn well and are very interesting.

Depending on what comes this Christmas, I may dive into some Star Trek (Captain's Table series) next.

------------------------------

Joy has enjoyed her birthday present, Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. "It has really great graphics. I like growing a garden in 3D! And I love the little animals, especially so far the turtle and the monkey. If you become good enough friends with them, they'll become your pet."

I've been enjoying her game a lot too. Unlike the Gameboy version, the day goes by too quickly to be able to do everything I'd like, so I have to prioritize each day. They also have a pretty strict stamina system that only lets you grow so many crops at the beginning, forcing you to spend the rest of your day socializing.

------------------------------

Tomorrow I turn my dissertation over to Per for signatures, and then to the graduate school for approval and VICTORY!