Wards' Words: The Inaugural Blog Post: 32 years old, etc.

Another year older and another diploma wiser, as they say in some distant land. My birthday transpired a couple weeks ago (Dec. 6) and now I'm 32. It amuses Matthew to no end that Erika turned 32 before I did. How can this be??? It's always fun to get a glimpse of what he is thinking. E.g., he asked me once during a drive home from church why humans have lips. The best I could come up with while making a left turn on to a busy street: how else could we kiss? That satisfied him.

Dad (est. 1974)

For this photo the boys sported some balloon hats obtained at the Mayan (Mexican restaurant). We go there weekly, in part because kids eat free every Tuesday.

I wish for... (sorry can't tell)

I have had a lot of tingling in my right arm lately. It seems to flare up mostly when I sit at a desk and use the mouse (like now, for instance). I have been wanting an ergonomic mouse for a while and so, as a birthday gift for myself, I ordered this Quill mouse. I am also thinking of getting this innovative ergonomic keyboard. Has anyone tried products like these with any degree of success?

Matthew and his class put on a Christmas program

Thomas and his class put on a Christmas program
(the green things are supposed to be bow ties, I believe)

Emcee Thomas bidding everyone goodnight after the Christmas program

As you can see above, we have enjoyed some good Christmas programs put on at the boys' schools. Erika helped out a lot on the choreography, etc. for Thomas' program, which was considerably more elaborate than Matthew's.

We are thinking of starting a new Christmas tradition: riding the Polar Express at Heber City (sold out for 2006). We went for the first time with Chad Copier (my friend and coworker) and his family and absolutely loved it. As we got in the car to go, the boys queried why it was necessary to drive there. Having read the book, they knew that the Polar Express drives down your street and stops at your house. We explained that some Polar Express trains, like the one we were riding, leave from specific stations at specific times. Plausible enough.

All Aboard!

We're going to the North Pole! I can't wait!

This is one train you can ride in your red wooly jammies

Woo Woo!!

Santa's Elves took gift requests from the children
(ours both said Hot Wheels tracks)

After travelling for about 45 minutes across a barren, snowy wilderness we reached the north pole and saw Santa Claus through our frosted windows. He boarded the train and passed out magic bells from his sleigh to each child. Later, during a quiet moment Matthew reverently held up his bell and said, "I believe" as he rang it and solemnly paused to listen. (Again, read the book and you'll understand the significance of that).

Santa!

We waited a while for Santa to reach our car. Chad's son Gabe (looking over seat on left side of picture above) got a little bored and decided to lay down on his seat, which annoyed his sister. As soon as he saw Santa enter our car, Gabe sprang up and sat like a gentleman to impress old Kris Kringle.

Matthew asked the conductor to punch his ticket

Hooray for Christmas and the Polar Express

We had a splendid time at the Workman Nydegger Christmas party in downtown SLC. It was my reward for finishing a final exam that afternoon. Our entertainment was a local singing group called octapella. We recognized a few of their songs from a CD that my brother Stephen had cut for us. (Thanks Stephen and Jeana!)

Dressed to the nines (maybe even tens)

Erika had a book group Christmas party at our house this past week (I think I was in a final at the time). In all 14 women from our block came over for lunch. Their kids (about 30) had a racuous Christmas party of their own in the basement with the help of a babysitter.

Rockin' around the Christmas tree

As you can tell, our neighborhood is quite friendly. Erika has enjoyed Christmas parties almost every day for the past couple weeks. Here is another Christmas party Erika had with some neighborhood ladies. (I'm still waiting for my invitation to the men's Christmas party.)

We are the Women of Daybreak

Another Christmas party
(with a service project for homeless gingerbread-persons)

It's so nice to live in this comfortable fun almost idyllic neighborhood. It certainly makes the world seem a lot better. As a man from Georgia said today in our sacrament meeting, he knows this is Zion because there are no poor among us, or at least it seems that way to him. I have the opportunity to leave Stepford...er I mean Daybreak... to go to work every day and I see quite a contrast. Many beggars and homeless people live in Salt Lake City. Once or twice I have bought one of them a sandwich when they claimed that their ticket to the local food bank had been exhausted. I doubt that's true, but I'm certainly not going to give them money to waste on booze or whatever. Last week after leaving a final exam I saw a slightly disheveled couple selling hand-made wool caps out of a basket. The seemingly mute husband lugged the basket around and his wife made the sales pitches. Here was her sales pitch to me: "Can I interest you in a hand-made wool cap?" Resisting the temptation to point to the one I already wore, I politely declined as I boarded my train. But as I looked out the window and saw the mute husband's pained expression, I almost wished I had bought one even though they looked about as thin as my own sparse hair. At least they were doing something more productive than mere begging.

My last law school exam ended on Friday at about 2:30pm. We celebrated by going to a Japanese grill/steakhouse where the chefs performed while cooking your food. Unfortunately, my stomach wasn't well so I couldn't enjoy it as much as I wished.

Enjoying the show

A little gift for Erika's unflagging support through law school

We had a day out on Saturday. Erika found out how to get a free ticket for our family to the new children's museum in SLC. (You get them from the SLC public library, in case you're interested.) Since that's close to my office, I showed the family where I spend most of my waking hours lately. I love the view, which this photo doesn't quite do justice. I can see lots of mountains and sky. My officemates on another side of the building have a view of the Salt Lake temple. I was kind of hoping for that view, but I think this one is better because it is less cluttered with tall buildings.