Playing in the Big League

The speakers at the Holladay South Stake conference on January 24, 2016 were the three members of the stake presidency, the stake patriarch, a former General President of the Relief Society, a Primary teacher who also runs a drama camp for children--and Emilie.  Emilie gave a beautifully written and prepared talk on the 2016 YMYW theme--"Press forward with steadfastness in Christ."  She was perfectly poised as she spoke to 2000 or more Church members, gathered at several chapels.  What a star!

A Merry Weekend

Heidi's parents, Gay and Bevan Bastian, visited Salt Lake City the weekend of January 22, 2016 to see the opera, "The Merry Widow."  The last time they saw The Merry Widow was the night Bevan proposed to Gay, 30 years ago.  They spent Friday night at The Anniversary Inn, a Christmas present from Gay, and Saturday night with us.

Mauresa, Heidi's sister, invited the Bastians to dinner at her SLC apartment.  The Bastians invited Dave and me to join them.  Taylor, Mauresa's boyfriend, helped Mauresa cook a four-course gourmet meal that they served to us.  After dinner, we all left for the opera.  Dave and I went straight home, but the Mauresa and Taylor took the Bastians, after the opera, to the Utah State Capitol, overlooking the city, where Bevan had proposed.

The next morning, the gourmet meals continued.  Mike and Heidi invited the Bastians and us to a breakfast at their apartment of eggs benedict, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and Heidi's carrot muffins with cream cheese frosting.

 Gay and Bevan brought Heidi's sister Jessica's three-year-old, Andrew, with them to breakfast.  He is now potty-trained and gets to spend a week at "Camp Nana"--the Bastians' farm in Axtell, Utah.  "He likes to drive things," Gay says, so Andrew will get to ride the tractor and the sleigh (if not drive them).  I was charmed by how many endearing names Andrew got called during breakfast--"puppy," "lamby," "dolly," and "poodle."  He is beloved.  I liked to imagine Mike and Heidi's children someday getting called "puppy" and riding the tractor.

 Heidi and Mike put last touches on the eggs benedict.  Dave and I took Michael to breakfast in Perth, Australia, one morning, I remember, and he ordered eggs benedict.  He pronounced it his favorite breakfast dish.

 After breakfast, we took a look at Mike and Heidi's new foos ball table.  "We discovered we both like foos ball when we spent New Years with Heidi's parents," Mike said.  "Since we both like it so much, we decided we needed a table, too."

All Things African American

Fried chicken, mac'n'cheese, biscuits, peanuts, sautéed collard greens, sweet potato pie.  Those are a few of my favorite things, and we ate them all to celebrate Martin Luther King Day on January 17, 2016.  Michael and I remembered the good African-American cooking at Sylvia's in Harlem, and I tried to recreate a bit of that goodness.  Spencer and his friend, Logan Nielson, joined us from BYU.  I set out a bowl of peanuts to snack on while we finished the rest of the meal.

"You did what, Grandma?" Emilie asked, in disbelief, when she saw the buckets of Kentucky fried chicken we bought for dinner.  I am usually a stickler for everything being homemade.  In this case, good fried chicken is hard to make, and KFC does it just right.

Camille brought the mac'n'cheese and modeled her oven mitts for Annelise, our photographer.

The cousins are always glad to see each other--here, Jono and Spencer.

This is prime football season, and Sunday night football was the background for our party.

The culmination of an afternoon's cooking--fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, mac'n'cheese, sautéed collard greens, and a green salad.  The sweet potato pie was served, with whipped cream, after our party.

After dinner, each guest told about an African-American he or she admired.  Dave was very possessive of Barack Obama.

Mike chose George Washington Carver, "the black Leonardo" who invented more than 100 commercial uses for peanuts.

Heidi chose Frederick Douglas, born a slave, who became a tireless abolitionist before the Civil War and a cultured black leader afterwards.

Mia chose Harriet Tubman, who led slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad.

Ezra chose Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball.

Sophia chose Gladys Knight, an elegant singer who converted to Mormonism.

Annelise chose the First Lady, Michelle Obama.

Jono chose Muhammed Ali, boxing heavyweight champ.

Emilie chose Rosa Parks, who helped desegrate the buses.

Camille chose John Parker, born a slave, who became a daring abolitionist in Ohio, just across the river from slavery.  He made numerous trips back to the Southern states to bring slaves north to freedom.

Steve chose Jesse Owens, who won gold medals in track at the 1936 Olympics and proved to Hitler's Germany that the blacks were not an inferior race.

Gretta chose Emmet Till, who became a martyr for the Civil Rights movement  when he was lynched, as a 14-year-old in 1955, for whistling at a white woman.

Logan chose Shaquille O'Neal, the huge and hugely successful NBA player.

Spencer chose Morgan Freeman, prominent actor.

Zions in Winter

We love Zions National Park in all seasons.  On January 16, 2015, Dave and I visited Zions in winter.  We hiked the Mouth-of-the-Narrows Trail until it got too icy to go farther.  The sky was a flat gray, with the snow contrasting sharply with the red rock, dark green pines, and the black skeletons of the cottonwoods hugging the river.

Frozen waterfalls lined the rock walls.

The Virgin River was still flowing, through snowy banks.

We ate supper at Oskar's, in Springdale, before driving back to our home in St. George.  The dill vinaigrette dressing on our Portobello and salmon salads was luscious, as was the house special, a slab of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Good for Five More Years

Dave had a colonoscopy on January 15, 2016, and was pronounced well and healthy for five more years.  At 69, he doesn't take good medical reports quite so much for granted!  We laughed as we thought about our discussion with Dave's doctor about retirement.  "I enjoy what I'm doing," he said.  "Why would I retire?"  People certainly have different tastes as to what is a good job....

Next Stop Kyoto

 Mike and Heidi will travel to Japan in April.  They are preparing for their trip by listening to Great Courses lectures on Japan and cooking Japanese meals twice per week.  Heidi bought Mike two Japanese cookbooks and the two of them shopped at an Asian food store for $80 of Japanese specialty products, such as seaweed, mirin (rice wine vinegar), and soy sauce.  On Tuesday, January 12, 2016, they invited Dave and me to dinner.  We had a Japanese "hot pot" filled with shrimp balls, spinach, and rice in "dashi," a seaweed/soy sauce broth.  It was delicious, although the plate of shrimp paste Dave spied as the meal was put together was not appetizing!

 Mike and Heidi always set their table with style.