Christmas Letter 2018
Searching for a letter theme on a recent flight was fruitless—I couldn’t even talk myself into a movie. Would it be a cop out to reuse The Princess Bride quote theme from last year? I had a page of leftover quotes from…well, maybe… I really just wish I wasn’t on a plane. Dorothy was right when she said, “There’s no place like home.” But why? Is it the familiarity, security, food, or people? Home and family shape my days, years, and life—my past, present, and future. No need to “follow” me anywhere, just keep reading for a year of social media post’s I didn’t write (and a few more Princess Bride “quotes”).
This letter began in July 2017 when I booked tickets for June 2018 to finally show my kids where I grew up in Alaska. I’ve been waiting for Lily to be old enough to not slow us down too much, remember the trip, and be big enough that mosquitos can’t carry her away—sounds like a 5-year-old. A few months later the group had grown from my family of 8 to include my parents and 5 siblings’ families—my vacation had turned into a family reunion and apparently I was in charge of the planning. As our reunion shirts stated—Adventure is a Family Value—so we did our best. The plan was ambitious, perhaps unwise, and probably irrational—could 3 RVs, a truck with camper, a car, and “every ship but your four fastest,” carry up to 30 people 1,400 miles without cousins crying, siblings rivalrying, or the author losing his temper? Of course not, but it was still worth every dollar spent and lost hour of sleep.
A few pointers for those considering tackling Alaska by RV— not only is the RV a mobile bed and breakfast that doubles as a food truck, you can always take the scenic route because the kids can sleep. Take the warning seriously about limiting toilet paper usage or you might end up with your arm down the toilet to your elbow—rubber gloves aren’t just for draining the waste tanks. If the RV parks are full, you find yourself 100 miles from the nearest one, or you don’t want to spend the money the last night in Alaska, options include: pulling off on the side of the road at midnight with awe inspiring views—just don’t get out—you know the mosquitos are bad when they are visible in pictures, picnicking on blankets in Wal-Mart parking lots between RV’s (but don’t try to sleep there, security will chase you off), or the Cabela’s parking lot—despite the signs and cameras, what are they going to do, tow 20 RV’s? Electrical outlets in the parking lots are for plugging cars in during the winter to keep the engine blocks from freezing but double as counter space to plug electric griddles in when you need to feed 30 people quesadillas on the go. The little bubble that indicates you are parked level for the night is critical if you own the RV, but not so much if you are just renting it…“Is everything clear to you?” If not, re-watch the orientation video.
Using every hour of daylight, and that’s a lot in Alaska, meant we could spot 30 moose, catch up with old friends and familiar sights, hike, fish, and hike some more. In Alaska, it’s not just the “Rodents of Unusual Size (ROUS’s),” it’s the moose, the mosquitos, the mountains, the vegetables, and the fish (even if we got skunked King Salmon fishing—how is that possible? Maybe I just needed to keep an excuse to go back) that are of unusual size. ”That’s a lot of citronella”—wait that’s not from the movie, but from the bus driver as 15 kids got on the tour bus at Denali National Park after their overprotective moms bathed them in insect repellent. Despite the driver’s warnings about our noisy group we saw plenty of wildlife.
My other home is in the Nevada desert where we joined my family for an Easter campout...apparently the Easter Bunny has been left there to lay eggs for many generations with little else to do as we found over 1,200 plastic eggs (60 for each of the 20 kids). The epic nerf gun wars between generations left the parents asking their children, “Good heavens, are you still trying to win?”
Natali’s (16) already driving her 2ndHonda Civic (thank goodness I took full coverage insurance), retired from pole vaulting after spraining her ankle bad enough that she used crutches, a boot, and then a brace for 2 months, went to Homecoming but isn’t ready for “true love (to) save her”, worked like a grown up for the summer at Woodgrain and now in child care at a local gym, continues to read, and reread books at a pace that astounds her dad (including The Princess Bride), bakes treats and sings any chance she gets, qualified for state vocal solo competition, just about got arrested after floating the river in the dark with friends, practiced going away to college during a week at EFY in Provo, showed her brothers how strong she really is while out water skiing them, and most importantly, won the “battle of wits” in English class.
Mack (15) hiked in shorts in the snow at Yellowstone (wait, that happens every year), started an evening routine of push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups which helped him eventually get up for the first time water skiing, “perhaps I have the strength after all.” Decided maybe the female attention for his curly hair wasn’t all bad, started high school, studies the scriptures daily, plays soccer on the field and throughout the house. Spent much of his 4 days in Germany in a car since the author booked flights to Munich, not realizing the game was in Dortmund (where’s an editor when I need to erase irrelevant facts?) but loved watching Bayern Munich play Borussia Dortmund (not so much the beer being spilt on him by neighboring fans), visiting the Neuschwanstein castle, Dachau concentration camp, medieval Rothenberg, and Roman ruins in Trier. Attended NCAA basketball tournament games in Boise with Grandpa Dame who also took him with some cousins to Boston, seems to have forgotten he has a driver’s permit.
Andrew (13) added a few new species to his growing list—Dall Sheep and caribou in Alaska, earned way more than his share of the $100 in prize money for animal sightings in Alaska, earned his cousins’, and Aunts’ and Uncles’ respect and appreciation for spotting the pod of Orcas and the group of Humpback whales, made it to Yellowstone twice this year, caught a frog on his fishing pole on high adventure campout with the Scouts, confessed his crush, inherited Dad’s old digital camera to document his wildlife searching, decided he could be a wildlife biologist in Alaska, earned his Life scout (included as motivation for him to finish his Eagle next year), walked out of the bowling alley in frustration when his sisters who were bowling with bumpers beat him, might have been told by a well justified teacher, “Yes, you are very smart, shut up.” Talked Lisa into letting him get two “Possible ‘Guinea’ pig(s)?” and earned supplemental income watching dogs in the neighborhood—that pays much better than baby-sitting!
Kate McKinley(11) made the big jump from Elementary to Middle School, plays the Viola, dances her way around the house in her demi-pointe, loved the Broadway production of “The Lion King” and her solo trip to Reno to spend time with cousins, mixes a mean mystery smoothie, ventured out on the lake for tubing, hopes for snow and an early ski season, when told she had to go to Yellowstone yet again exclaimed, “Boo! Boo, boo, boo!” but was thrilled to see her Alaska namesake Mt. McKinley (Denali) in person.
Emily (8) just about died and went to heaven when a family friend and wildlife biologist let us pet 6 orphaned moose calves in Alaska, ignored the cold long enough to sea-kayak in the Kenai Fjords, wasn’t quite as excited about the young black bear that wanted her to pet it while hiking in Yellowstone, treasured every minute of a trip to San Diego with the author to visit cousins and go to the San Diego Zoo, played soccer, and rejoined the Children’s Choir—after all that fun she doesn’t get much sympathy when she declares, “Life isn’t fair!” But the real highlight was being baptized shortly after her birthday.
Lily (5) started kindergarten, earned $20 from Grandpa for counting to 100, got a one year head start in Children’s Choir due to her practicing with her sisters and mom, continued her animal indoctrination with a visit to the World Birds of Prey center, pretends to be tired of people singing “All I Want for Christmas” after pulling out her two front teeth at Thanksgiving, ends each night telling Dad, “Maybe you can…read to me again tomorrow,” but when the author was looking for sympathy for the stresses in his life she retorted, “Try ruling the world sometime—” and that she did, or at least the Easton home.
Lisa (38) crossed the Golden Spike Monument off her bucket list (she wrote a paper about the transcontinental railroad in college), spent a long weekend with the Dame girls in Albuquerque, is still adjusting to having a couple of hours alone each afternoon now that Lily is in kindergarten, votes against getting vertigo again, earned bonus points with the author for attending two Easton family reunions and acting like she wanted to go, “Then why is there fear behind your eyes?” Summed up the trip to Alaska with “It’s not that bad—I’m not saying I’d like to build a summer home here but the trees are really lovely.”
Greg (40) survived the last SAP implementation for his division (6 sites over the last 3 years) at work, gladly settled for the Alaska trip instead of adding a new country to his list, earned bonus points with the author for attending 2 days of her 20thhigh school reunion, his 2 month beard was called beautiful twice but had to shave when his mustache grew into his mouth, spoke at a BYU business class, read more books (35) than any year since graduating from college, tried hard not to feel guilty for purposefully easing up in his BYU Sports fandom, just realized in last year’s letter he repeated his age as 38— maybe he was worried about turning 40…won’t get another colonoscopy until he’s 50, dreams to be the “dread pirate Roberts, retired and living like a king in Patagonia.” Editor’s note: he is still waiting for several speeding tickets in the mail from Germany (at least that’s what he thinks the flashing red lights and then flash meant) where apparently there are speed limits in parts of the autobahn. But the unquestioned highlight of the year was replanting a tree by the plaque remembering his dad at a park in Fairbanks, AK.
Book ideas: Before We were Yours, The 100 Year-Old Man…, In Order to Live, Ok for Now, Looking for Alaska, A Higher Loyalty, Mindset: the New Psychology of Success, and The Golden Spruce
“If you didn’t say it, you didn’t do it—“or in today’s world if you did say it, and even if it was recorded, you still don’t acknowledge you did it. We need leaders of integrity, the kind that would say when they finally did something right, “Don’t worry, I won’t let it go to my head.” Russell M Nelson, a living prophet, is such a one. He recently taught, “When you are truly ministering, you follow your feelings to help someone else experience more of the Savior’s love.” May we find more ways to truly minister to others. Coming full circle, “Marriage is what brings us together (for this letter), that blessed arrangement, that dream within a dream… love, true love,” and so I don’t want to “skip to the end.” No more quotes—new shtick next year.
Merry Christmas, The Eastons (Greg, Lisa, Natali, Mack, Andrew, Kate, Emily, and Lily)
No comments:
Post a Comment