Happy New Year!

To celebrate, we drove to Nevada on Thursday.  We left a very cold Pleasant Grove to go to an even colder Starr Valley.

Brrrrrr.

After visiting with my parents for awhile, we assembled our food contributions and headed over to Marianne and Robert's for the festivities.  Before we left my mom wondered who would be crankier, me or my dad.

I thought he would win, hands down, but I get tired....

We had more delicious food than should be allowable by law.  Marianne, Olivia, Enoch and their families were all there along with my parents and two families of Marianne's friends.  We played a game of Marianne's invention (if you ever wonder what the quintessential oldest child is like, I present Marianne).  She takes care of business and being a leader is deep in her DNA.  She also has always known how to show her younger siblings a good time.  Enoch and Olivia sparred as is their birthright and we all laughed a lot.  At one point, I took great pride in "boxing out" my huge brother (a.k.a. the finely bearded gentleman--his own designation) like we were going for a rebound.  Really, as part of the game we were trying to get my mom to pick us as the winner and she picked Enoch.

And she wonders why I'm cranky.

It got to be about 11:00 and I was tired and I don't feel a compulsion to stay up until midnight when I'm tired.  (Besides, it was midnight in Utah by then.)  My sisters were appalled, but I did the same thing last year so they shouldn't have been too surprised.  Adam drove me back to my parents' and everyone was better for the little extra sleep I got.

New Year's Day dawned bright and cold.  Before the sun came up over the mountain, I took this picture:

The picture hardly does it justice.  What look like clouds was snow blowing across the top. I watched it billow and glow in the dawning sunshine and it was pretty spectacular.

I hung out in my pjs all morning and when my dad asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in his cutter, I donned 25 layers and said, "Yes!"

Here's Ann, wishing me a Happy New Year:

To understand Ann's impressive size, my dad is six and a half feet tall.

I didn't get a good picture of the cutter but it was just as lovely as the songs proclaim to be dashing through the snow.

Besides the jingling bells and our conversation, it was brisk and quiet as we glided over the snow .  I took a picture of us (at great peril because I had to take off my mitten to use my phone):

My dad is always handsome but as Mark would say, I look derpy.  That's OK though.  It was a good time.

By the time we got back, my sisters and families were there to visit and I remained in my pajama/unkempt state.  We chatted and schemed and planned a trip in July, all of us renting a house for a few days (Ammon and family too!).  The other boys may join us but didn't want to be figured into our housing arrangement yet.  By the end of the day Marianne had a house picked, a system devised for equitable pricing and bedroom assignments.  I'm waiting for food assignments and a chore chart and maybe a bathroom schedule.  She's a wonder, that one.

We had a delicious roast beef lunch (with horseradish that made you know you're alive) and then hit the road for home.  We stopped to see my grandma on our way through Salt Lake and that always ties a lovely bow on anything.