The "GRINCH" comes to town

About 5 years ago Willie Dunford asked if I would dress up like the "Grinch" for a ward party...I had so much fun with it that it's continued year after year and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to not dress up as the "king of sinful sots".  Here's a few pix of the day I visited Heather's preschool kids...I think I only made one student cry (there's always at least one) but by the end of my visit we were pretty good buddies.  

 Harley's always a little hesitant to put on the "Max" getup

 This is hilarious.  I ran over to the elementary school to visit some classes and went to Kate's class first.  I decided to make a frightening entrance and jumped into the classroom and yelled something kinda loud and obnoxious.  I scared this kid so much that he fell completely out of his chair and hit the floor.  He was laughing, I was laughing and the whole class erupted in laughter.  It was seriously the best reaction I've ever had...very worth it-I just wish I had the video camera running when it happened.  

 I think I asked the kids:  "Who likes the Grinch?"  I have quite a fan club.

The upside to this character is being obnoxious and rude to everyone I come into contact with because...hey, I'm the Grinch and...I can, and will every time I put this getup on...the downside?...trying to get all of the green off.  I can't wait until next year...

Kate's Christmas program

The first grade Christmas Program is always entertaining-of course for watching your own child but also to look around at the parents too.  It's quite amusing that as soon as the first graders march into the gym to line up on the stage, about 900 dads with video cameras jump up and start to film...yes, I'm not ashamed to say that I was one of those dads.  It was a great program packed into about 45 minutes.  Here's a clip of one of the songs performed:

Canyon Gallery commercial by Eli

I told Eli he should come to the gallery sometime and make a commercial for me. Here is his take on what the commercial should be like-it's pretty funny.

The Christmas tree hunt...

Eli is really into making movies with his new video camera he received on his birthday. The day after Thanksgiving we decided as a family to go cut down a Christmas tree for our house. Usually Heather, along with the kids and most of her family will congregate somewhere in the mountains of Nephi (about 3 hrs away or so), pay 5 bucks and cut down a 47 foot tree, strap it on the top of the car and bring it home. It sounded hard to do this year and way too far away. We found a tree farm closer to where we live that would let you go out in the vast array of Christmas trees, find the perfect match and then cut it down. When I say vast array I'm really being sarcastic. This farm had mostly "Grinch" type trees that hung weird no matter how you looked at em...or they looked half dead, or they just looked well,... stupid. We had to browse the whole place just to make sure we were getting the right one for us. Here's Eli's video of "tree hunting" that you certainly will enjoy (set to the Superman theme song). Blogger doesn't produce the greatest quality movies but this one is cool anyway. Enjoy:





The worst part of putting up the tree is...the lights! It's kinda like prepping for painting a wall...it blows! The fun part is putting the decorations on. The lights?...not so much.


Kate loves to sweep up any messes...or pine needles from
the tree. Liam prefers the vacuum




Harley makes sure we're doing it right


The tree...in all her glory.

Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving was hosted in our home...YIKES! The pressure was on to have a perfect experience for all who would be coming. As you can see in this picture of Kate, the turkey came out perfect! It didn't happen without plenty of blood,sweat and tears, that's for sure. Heather and Clayton found a perfect way to cook a turkey from foodnetwork.com by Alton Brown...thanks dude! There also was a recipe for the best dressing I've ever had...honestly, it was incredible: cranberries, apples, italian sausage...how could you go wrong? Here's some pix to give you a feel for how the day was.


Here's Liam quite proud of the uncooked turkey

...and let's throw it in the oven.














The day turned out perfect with Grandma, Grandpa & the Cheney family-Happy Thanksgiving!