A Very Potter Christmas

Christmas time!
This was a really fun, but extremely busy Christmas for me.  I wasn't in school, which eliminated the need to study, but it also removed the "break time" which most employed people don't really get.  Anyway, I was scheduled to work the Monday before Christmas, but I came down with what I think was the flu that weekend, so I called in sick.  I was actually really glad to have that day off, since I hung around trying to feel better, as well as finished off last-minute Christmas stuff.  That being said, I didn't even drive south until the 23rd.

The 24th was spent with last-minute shopping, and food preparation.  It's usually my designated job to help my mom finish up wrapping presents for the brothers.  Luckily by now the belief in Santa doesn't factor into our Christmas' that much anymore, so I got out of most of the wrapping.  That evening we had our traditional fondue with chocolate, cheese, and oil for cooking assorted meats.  We had the added bonus of including our aunt and uncle Evan and Carol, and a couple of their kids this year.  Evan's family has lived in New Mexico since I can remember (except their brief 2-year relocation to Australia for his work), and since retirement he has built a home on the property adjacent to my parent's home.  We had a great Christmas Eve cooking, eating, and catching up!

This year was also a bit different because Mitchell is still gone on his mission, and Randall is now married, and he and his wife didn't spend much of the holiday with us.  However, they made it over for part of the night, and we got to exchange gifts with them that night.  We also do our traditional sibling gift exchange on Christmas Eve.  Christmas shopping seemed like a major challenge for me this year for some reason, so lucky for me I drew my brother Calvin.  I ordered him a cool gadget from Amazon - a solar-powered charger!  That's right, he will be prepared if we ever have a zombie apocalypse... or some other major power loss.

A big part of our Christmas fun was getting to see our missionary, Mitchell.  We had it all set up so we could Skype with him via our Xbox One, which meant Mitchell's face was all blown up on our big-screen TV.  It was so fun to see his face, and get to joke and talk with him Christmas morning.

Like most people already have noticed, this winter has been very strange weather-wise.  I was glad for it, since I don't like trying to drive the I-15 in holiday traffic with the added bonus of snow.  However, it just didn't feel much like Christmas to me because of it!  Imagine our excitement (and my chagrin) when we woke up to snow Christmas morning!  My brothers mocked me as I grumbled around outside trying to scrape the snow off my car that morning.  We traditionally have a brunch with the Brown side of our family Christmas morning, as well as more gift exchanges.  Since a good number of us have entered the "adult" category, we've instituted a "white elephant" style gift exchange with the adults, but with good gifts.  That means you don't buy something specific, rather you get something an adult would like that's somewhat generic, but you can trade items around with each other.  I was last to go, and imagine my surprise and delight when I opened this puppy:

That's right, awesome little Etsy signs about Diet Coke!  Haha.  This plus about 20 bucks worth of gift cards for Slurp's Up, a drive-through soda fountain.  I actually received a lot of my favorite beverage for Christmas this year, as well as a new vacuum and a fancy crepe maker.

Blake with his gift.  A basket full of hot cocoa, mugs, and a certificate to use the condo up at Brian Head!  I think he was most excited about the basket.

After filling ourselves with delicious breakfast foods, we headed back home.  We pretty much spent the afternoon sitting around together, and messing around with my brother's giant dog Russen.  He is a total doll, and actually pretty talented with anything that can be thrown and reasonably fit in his mouth.

Rather than get into the Lord of the Rings trilogy this year, I decided to tackle a different series.  I'd brought along the Avengers, Star Wars, and Harry Potter thinking that I like options.  Anyway, we started into the Harry Potter series.  Due to technical difficulties we skipped the first few movies, but we had a good time getting into the magical world of Potter!  Seriously, I love Harry Potter!  They were such a big part of my, well not childhood, but my teenage years.  I actually just re-read the entire series again.  Now I just need to plan a trip to Potter Land in Florida.  Any takers?

Christmas Season 2014

Here I am blogging about Christmas like two months later.  Honestly, let's see what I even remember about it.  Haha.  The Christmas season was a lot of fun, but really busy for me.  I already wrote about the Santa Run, and how much fun I had putting up Christmas trees.  Here's a few other highlights from the season.

Ice Skating at Gallivan Square - Dec 5
A group of people from my ward decided to get together and go ice skating!  What better place than downtown Salt Lake at the Gallivan square?  Apparently everyone else had this same idea because of how crowded it was, especially since it was unseasonably warm.  However, we had a fantastic time!  I will admit that due to my poor sock planning, I got this massive sore on my ankle from an ill-fitting skate.  (Seriously, I think it's going to scar, because I still have it.)  Other than that, it was a total blast re-learning how to skate, and we all were witness to a very public Christmas proposal by some strangers.  Afterwards we went for hot chocolate at Denny's.

Bells on Temple Square - Dec 12
I got to go see the Mormon Tabernacle choir team up with Sesame Street, and Santino Fontana (the voice of Hans from Frozen).  This was an invite from my friend Dave, and we both really enjoyed the show.  Afterwards we went to an ugly Christmas sweater party at some random guy's house.  I didn't know a single person there other than Dave, and I think we might really have only gone for the Eggnog.  However, it was riduculously fun to see the creative and, frankly, just strange sweaters people were wearing.  Also, I'm now the proud owner of a Christmas sweater, even though it's not really "ugly."

Dave and I at the Conference Center.

Hobbit Marathon - Dec 15
Eight hours of Hobbit in the theater!  Freak yes.  Afterwards Kyle and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with one of his friends.  This reawakened my addiction to B-Dubs, and they also got me addicted to the podcast Serial!

Family Visit - Dec 19
My family is actually up in the Salt Lake area pretty frequently considering they live about 250 miles away.  Anyway, they were up in the Provo area for my brother Calvin's swim meet that weekend, and they drove up and had dinner with me after I finished work on Friday night!  We went to Joe's Crab Shack, and my brother Carson had a fantastic time figuring out how to eat crab legs.

He seems to have a problem looking properly at a camera, because all his pictures had the same expression!

My dad also enjoyed bibbing up for his lobster.

I wasn't supposed to put this on Facebook.  This doesn't count, right?!

It was a bit odd to have them come up and visit that close to Christmas, and instead of going back south with them, I had to stay to finish work.  It was still fun to have dinner, go shop, and get Coldstone ice cream with them!  As we were saying our goodbyes, my dad was concerned about me walking alone to my car, and requested I text him when I got to my car safely.  What a good dad!  Anyway, this was the result:

"I'm safe in my car, but what about driving all the way home?!"  Haha.

The next day (Saturday Dec 20th) was a bit of a marathon.  (Not literally a marathon, since I did go running that morning, but it was only like 3 miles.)  Anyway, my best friend Rachel's daughter had her first birthday party.  Her birthday is actually on Christmas Eve, but they celebrated with a Frozen-themed party that afternoon.  I was coming down with something, so I pretty much kept my distance, but it was such a cute little themed party Rach put on!  Also, I think that the igloo I built with sugar cubes totally won.  Plus, it made me way too happy that little Taylor loved my gift - a toddler-sized University of Utah sweatshirt.

This weekend we had actually planned to have a meet-up with a bunch of Omaha people (including one from Vegas).  However, my friend Steve had to cut his trip slightly short, so instead we met up to go bowling.  Stephen, David, and myself got to catch up for a few hours at the lanes.  It was a short meet-up, but it was nice to know that we still try to keep in touch.  Later that afternoon I was back to Rachel's house to go see the ballet!

The Nutcracker - Dec 20
This is put on by Ballet West at the Capitol Theater in downtown Salt Lake every Christmas season, and it's something I've been wanting to see for several years.  I finally got the chance to go with my best friend Rachel this year!  We dressed up fancy, and got pretty decent seats in the balcony.  I actually used to do ballet, and my mom was a very accomplished ballerina, so I really admire and enjoy ballet, especially because it's such a physically demanding and graceful art form.  What a fun girls night out enjoying this Christmas classic!

That weekend I remember I got this horrible virus.  It started out like a cold, but by Saturday I thought I was going to die.  Luckily I made it through my busy Saturday, but I spent most of Sunday just laying around watching Netflix.  I had all kinds of lethargy, body aches, and I felt like I had a fever, so by Sunday evening I suspected I actually had the flu (despite getting the flu shot).  Long story short, I called in sick to work for the first time ever.

Anyway, this started out as a brief update, and turned into a journal entry!  Didn't see that one coming...

2014 in Review

It's been a bit of a tradition for me to look back on the year and make a dorky little list.  It's kinda fun, especially to realize I did actually do something useful in the past year!  Anyway, enjoy.


Random Accomplishments

• Finished an entire bottle of shower gel.  Honestly, this is quite the accomplishment.  It only took an entire year!  Speaking of which:
• I actually finished an entire tube of Chapstick without loosing it.  Two actually.  Look at me, beating out the odds.

• Apparently I listened to 13,026 songs, and 887 hours on Pandora.  No really, they sent me an email and everything.  Stalkers.
• According to RunKeeper, I logged in 110 miles.  (This is an under-estimate, since I really only started logging things mid-year.)  Not to bring in resolutions, and that kind of riffraff, but I want to get in on some kind of mileage challenge for 2015.  I think I could handle like 40 miles a month?
• I did a lot of reading this year.  I decided to re-read all the Harry Potters this summer, although I'm still halfway through the last one.  Lots of other reading, although I seriously can't get myself through Game of Thrones.
• Didn't fly at all this year.  This is odd considering I was flying almost constantly when I lived in Maui, and even when I was in Omaha.  I did go to an airport, but I didn't do any flying.

First Timers

• Finally finished reading/ listening to the Lord of the Rings.  It's kinda sad that it took me this long, especially considering I'm such a Tolkien fan.  (It was really only the last little bit of Return of the King that I hadn't read before.)
• 5Ks!  Seriously, never thought I'd be a runner.  I finished off this year having completed seven 5Ks.
• Rode a mechanical bull, and I think I was actually quite good.
• Attended my first ever Comic Con!
• Test drove a car at the dealership - and didn't even buy that one
• Bought a new car from the dealer.  This was a pretty big one considering I saved up and purchased my baby all on my own!  He is a 2013 Dodge Charger.  Love it!

• Met my first celebrity, which was followed by several more.  
• Took part in a zombie walk through downtown Salt Lake, which was more like an undead flash mob.  Don't worry, actual flash mob in on my bucket list.

• Went to an indoor climbing gym, and actually really enjoyed it.

Major Accomplishments

• I went through the temple!  I've been a bit hesitant to write about this on the internet, mainly because I wasn't sure this was really something that should be announced on Facebook.  I feel okay about my blog, mainly because I think it's mostly people I love and care about reading this.  This was a huge accomplishment and goal of mine, and it's been such a huge blessing to me!  The first time I went through was at the gorgeous Oquirrh Mountain temple.

• Was able to attend the temple weddings of my brother Randall, and my cousin Marcus, both of which were at the Manti temple.
• Paid a good chunk of change on my student loans.  I paid just over 36,000 dollars in the past year.  Considering that was my entire paycheck when I lived in Maui, I feel pretty good about that.
• As of the end of December, I lost a grand total of thirty pounds, and two pants sizes.  Considering my weight has done nothing but go up most of my life, this is huge for me!  It's been fabulous, and sorry if I talk about this way too much.  All I can say is that I'm so glad I decided to just start something, and that all my hard work is noticeably paying off.

• Radically altered my diet.  Well, not totally, but I really don't eat a lot of the gross stuff I used to love, and I cook a lot more now.  Hence the above mentioned accomplishments.

There you have it.  Those are all the things I could think of.  I know there were lots more, but I'm pretty satisfied with this.  I'm really not one to get into New Year resolutions, but I do have a few things in mind that I would like to tackle for the next year.  Here's hoping 2015 shapes up to be a fantastic year!

Gym People

Welcome to the New Year!

For this time of year, it's been fun to look back onto the past year.  It seems like most everyone else is doing the same.  Because I've basically become a gym rat this year, it's been really entertaining to watch the kind of people that frequent that establishment.

• Bag guys.  Because sometimes you just have to bring a whole duffel bag to every machine you use.  Maybe you have a bunch of sups (supplements), or an extra set of sweatpants for those between rep emergencies.  Seriously.
• The random chick who uses her iPad with headphones while she was lurking in the free weight section.  Seriously, she had it tucked into her spandex pants!
• The guys with a big gallon jug of water.  While I admit I'm a water bottle carrier, I just can't see drinking an entire gallon worth of water in one workout.
• Those two awesome dudes doing synchronized lunges.  It was actually pretty great!
• Ladies with pristine makeup and lovely long hair.  Not to judge, but they either have magical elf properties of perfect hair, or aren't actually doing anything at the gym.  Just, you know, walking around and texting.
• The ladies in the locker room using blow-dryers, curlers, and makeup.  Hmm.  Maybe they're going back to work?
• Those guys who clearly need a legs day.  Really, it's a daily occurrence to see them.

With the whole New Year resolution crap, I've been waiting for the resolutionars to invade the gym.  It didn't really happen until around the 6th.  Also, Gold's Gym got bought out by VASA like a month ago and they've been making all these weird changes.  Thanks to January, the gym is experiencing a higher than normal patronage, with the parking lot turned into something reminiscent to game-day parking.  You literally have to follow people to their car to get a spot sometimes.  Not to mention that VASA decided that now was the best time to remodel.  They've been tearing up flooring, moving all the machines to different areas, packing things into smaller areas, and they closed the women's area.  On the plus side, the new wood floor is much nicer than the previous flooring, and they gave us a bunch of new treadmills that don't constantly have errors!

Anyway, the gym is entertaining, and I applaud all those people trying to get back into shape.  After all, last year I essentially was that person, but at the same time I choose to opt out of the "resolution" crowd.  I'm just proud that I stuck it out way past the two-month norm.  Here's to hoping others have the same success, but at the same time hoping the gym clears out by February!  Haha.

The Hobbit Marathon

My first year of dental school I had a rather extended Christmas break.  With little homework, and no job, I found myself sitting around doing very little for nearly three weeks.  I decided I would tackle the Lord of the Rings Extended editions, and my brothers, and soon my parents got in on all the fun.  After that it became something of a Christmas tradition of mine ever since then!

For the past two years my Christmas' have been especially fun with the release of The Hobbit movies.  This year was both fun and sad because we got a Hobbit movie, but it was also the last one we were going to get!

I thought this was pretty funny, especially since we already experienced this with the Harry Potter series!  Speaking of Harry Potter, I'm still sad that we don't get new books for that, but that's a different story.  I started looking into pre-buying tickets pretty early, and I randomly discovered that Megaplex was having a Hobbit marathon prior to the release of the new one.  They've been doing marathoning events for other series like this, and although I generally support exciting movie events, I'd never done one of these before.  Anyway, I posted something on Facebook, and I actually got a friend who wanted to go with me!

I put off buying tickets for a while because I still wasn't sure I could handle that many consecutive hours of Tolkien.  I finally decided I was just going to do it, especially considering I wouldn't really get another chance.

I didn't "dress up," but I did wear my elf ears!

If you know me, you know I love going to the theater.  We started at 1:00 pm, and went till about 10:00 pm.  They gave us 15-20 minute breaks between movies, and we got in on a Hobbit Marathon deal where you could refill a large popcorn and soda for free the entire movie.  It ended up being exactly what I needed.  Because we were in the theater, I got to just relax and enjoy nearly nine hours of movies!  Just for fun, here are the movie lengths.
Unexpected Journey - 2 hours and 49 minutes; Desolation of Smaug - 2 hours and 42 minutes; Battle of Five Armies - 2 hours and 24 minutes for a grand total of 7 hours and 55 minutes.  Huzzah!

I loved the whole thing!  It was a little long, but I loved the movies, and the Diet Coke, and it also gave me time to catch up with my friend Kyle.  Kyle and I went to High School together, and really hadn't seen each other since we had our ten year high school reunion.  (I know, that makes me feel really old!)  So apparently he's a huge Tolkien fan, and it was so fun to watch these movies with someone who appreciates them like I do!  Anyway, I'm already looking forward to getting the extended edition, and having the marathon for the ages!

Christmas Movies

Once December started, I was totally into Christmas movies.  I was finding all kinds of random holiday movies on Netflix to entertain me.  I was a bit surprised at myself, especially with some of these cheesy movies.  I also set to collecting a few more Christmas movies for my DVD stack.  I figured that since I made a Halloween movie list, I'd go for a Christmas one too!

• Elf - still one of my favorite Christmas movies, and also a favorite to quote!
• The Family Stone - awkward dysfunctional family movie, but for some reason I really enjoy it!
• Love Actually - the stories of multiple British people going through the holidays.  Rated R, so tread carefully, but I love it!  Plus there are tons of famous people.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas - The one with Jim Carrey.  Although parts of this are just way too cheesy for me to really enjoy.
• The Santa Clause - another old one I found in the Christmas section this year, but it's got Tim Allen.
• The Holiday - a romantic, feel-good comedy that happens with some Christmas stuff.
• Home Alone - Classic.  Also the other two are pretty good.
• I'll be home for Christmas - a bit nostalgic.  I just had to watch this one because JTT participates in a Santa 5k, and that was literally all I could think of when I did my Santa run!

• Jingle All the Way - that's right, it's Arnold Schwartzenegger in a Christmas movie!
• Iron Man 3 - I put this in because Tony Stark tests out his newest Iron creation to a funky "Jingle Bells," and he buys Pepper a giant rabbit for Christmas.  Plus, Iron Man is awesome!
• Holiday Engagement - Cheesy Netflix find.  Enjoyed it, but acting is pretty low-grade.
• Christmas Kiss - Another Netflix, thin plot and sub-par acting, but still kept me entertained.
• Lord of the Rings - This one is because I traditionally will marathon these during the holidays.  However, with the new Hobbit movie coming out, I decided to marathon the Hobbit instead!

Okay, I know there are tons more out there, but these are the ones I found this year.  I swear I do things other than watch movies!  Most of this was happening while I was putting up my Christmas trees.  It was fabulous!

Drivin in Style

Recently (okay, like back in July) I had a pretty major change in my life.  I'll give you a hint:

Other hint.  I didn't have a major career change.

That's right, I'm the proud owner of a fabulous new Dodge Charger, or cop car (if you must)!  There are some people who drive really nice cars at my gym, and I thought this was too cute.  I couldn't pass up this photo opportunity!

Anyway, I decided to say farewell to my last vehicle for a myriad of reasons, but mostly because it was getting on in years and mileage.  It was a sexy little slider, but after a couple flat tires (one in the middle of the California desert), a new set of wheels and tires, a fear of snow on the road of any kind, and an obsession with checking the oil, I decided to go for a trade-in.

I don't know if I ever posted a pic of my last car.  A 2005 Cadillac.

Besides, I really wanted a Charger.  I had been ogling any Charger, or Challenger on the road for the past year, so that really made my decision pretty easy!  I went for several test drives, and looked through countless online postings while slowly putting away some money.  I actually spotted a Challenger and a Charger waiting side by side at a dealership in Cedar last June, but I didn't go for a test drive till a month later.  Honestly, I liked the Challenger a lot, but I the moment I saw it, I knew the Charger was mine!

That's right, it really was a love story between me and Bruce.  (Bruce seems like a good working name for the time being.)  Funny story, my family and I were at Lake Powell that morning, and we got back to Cedar around noon.  I recruited my brother to come with as I was only going to drive by the dealer to see if the Charger was still there.  Anyway, I noticed the cost had dropped, so I went for a few test drives.  I took both the Charger and the Challenger out for a little spin 'round town while they looked over my Caddie.  Long story short, I traded in my title and a big check for a brand new Charger!  It may have seemed a little hasty as I really hadn't planned to buy that particular day, but I had been looking for several months by then.  It was a huge step for me because I paid the entire thing in cash, which gave me a little bit of a discount, and I think surprised the sales guy a little.  Either way, it became a happily ever after story, and I drove my new friend back to Salt Lake that night!

My test-driving buddy, and car guru Calvin!  He seems to like it.

But seriously.  It's been a fabulous car, and I'm so glad I picked this one!  I love my "aggressive looking" car, and I hope to keep it around for a long time.