Poinsettia Bowl

The last of my children arrived today and just in time to go to the Poinsettia Bowl football game. It just so happened that the University of Utah played in the game this year and since we have two kids attending the U of U we thought it would be fun to go. When we checked out the price of the tickets however we decided that perhaps it would be better to spend our money on other things like food. That is when Justin decided that it would be fun to go and watch the game as a family so he kindly sprang for all the tickets. We had a blast. We started out a bit slow but then we took off and never looked back. By the end of the game the "Cal" fans were all so demoralized that they all left early. Poor Ben however is being trained for a new job and his choices were to take the two weeks of training during school (it is pretty tough to miss two weeks of school) or to do it over the holidays. That means that pretty much every single day during the holidays he's going to have to run up to Orange County and attend training for two weeks. It will all be worth it in the end however because he has been hired by the Wells Fargo Bank and not only does he get full benefits including tuition reimbursement but it will be a great way for a student working towards a business degree to get started. He was hired in large part because of his Spanish and so this job will also fill a requirement for his business major and his Spanish minor. That was a long way for me to say that Ben showed up to the game late but still got to watch the half time show.

In addition to the very good game I also had a new first tonight. Justin, Evan, Sarah, Ben, Sharley and I were all standing in line for a hot dog during the half time show when all of a sudden, tremendously loud explosions burst above us in the air. They set off fireworks but they were being fired from just over a wall where we were standing. The fireworks were exploding right above our heads and the explosions were reverberating off the concrete walls surrounding us. Every boom echoed off three or four walls so we heard four times the explosions as there really was. The finale was so spectacular that the entire sky above us was glowing so brightly that it literally looked like the sky was red with fireballs bursting and shooting stars shooting all over. The picture doesn't come close to doing the whole experience justice.

Following the game we all came home and the original plan was to go and walk Christmas Card Lane but it was late enough that we just ate dinner and then Justin gave Lisa her Christmas present when was a game of Guesstures. Peter and Maron came over and we all played a rip snorting game of Guesstures. It was a lot of fun. After Guesstures the women all went to bed and the guess continued the night with a game of Settlers.

It is so fun to have the family all home. I'm so looking forward to the holidays.

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Jingle Bells was originally written as a Thanksgiving song.

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