Merry Christmas

I can tell that the holidays are here because the number of people on campus has slowly decreased over the past few days. I'm looking out my office window at a nearly full moon rising over the snowy mountains east of campus with the light from the western sunset still reflecting on the mountains. The Y is barely visible under its blanket of snow.

I just posted my grades for Fall Semester, but I still have a half dozen letters of recommendation to write for students (out of the 18 I was asked to write) and my course materials to prepare for next semester. My shopping is pretty much done, and so is tithing settlement. But we don't even have a tree, and I haven't yet gone by to see a Pondtown Christmas.

Nevertheless, I'm about to shut down my scholarship and teaching for the rest of the year and head for home. We've been invited by the Payson Snyders to Heidi's special open house pie night. I love pie. Tomorrow I'll hang around home and probably deliver some goodies and gifts around the ward. We may get a tree; we may not. We're having the missionaries over for dinner. I'm excited to watch BYU beat UCLA in their bowl game.

I'm thinking about canceling bishopric and PEC Sunday morning, so everyone can sleep in a bit and hang around home a bit before sacrament meeting. The bishopric is speaking, and the choir is singing.

Monday is my birthday, so I imagine we'll enjoy the usual festivities and eventually get all snug in our beds to await Santa. We may sleep over at Travis, Heidi's, and Luke's house. I don't want to miss that little boy Christmas morning. We'll have a great day together with our family.

Then, Delys, Jack, and I will be off for California on the 26th for a week. I'm not sure what we'll do, but I'm excited to help welcome little Hamilton to the family and to visit with my sister Mary Ann and her family.

So, God bless us, everyone, and Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.

On the Simple, Everyday Pleasures in Life

Captain Augustus McCrae, my favorite character in Larry McMurtry's only truly great novel, Lonesome Dove, observes the following to Lorena, the "sporting woman" who wants to leave Texas to go to San Francisco: "Life in San Francisco is still just life. If you want one thing too much it's likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk--and feisty gentlemen."

I think Gus is right about appreciating the simple, everyday pleasures in life. Just the other day, for example, I was thinking about how much I appreciate my favorite casual long-sleeved shirt. The shirt is actually something of a Godsend because Delys found it one day recently hidden behind the washing machine in the laundry room where some careless person had left it. Truthfully, until I saw it again I had forgotten all about it.

The shirt's all black except for the Asics logo on the left front. It's a size Large, which fits me perfectly, and is made of 90% Micromatique Polyester (widely known for its wicking power) and 10% Lycra (widely known for its stretching capability). All in all, it's a warm, versatile, comfortable shirt that I wear whenever possible. Just last Sunday, for example, it was such a pleasure to get home from church at 5:30 after 11 hours in a suit and tie and then to change into my favorite shirt just before Travis and Heidi and Luke arrived for Sunday dinner.

My advice to everyone is to find some everyday thing, like my black long-sleeved Asics shirt, to take some regular pleasure in. Like Gus says, it'll be a healthy thing to do.