16 days has come and gone so quickly.

Last night we went to Rob’s annual post-holiday party, but Rob was sick, so it was moved to Lee’s. While a smaller gathering than normal, we had a good time and finally dragged out of there close to midnight.

We met a new friend with Brook — Randy Roberts (search youtube for “randrob” to see his videos). Very talented and expressive guy with a showbiz-related story for everything!

This morning is brunch at IHOP. Probably just a small, core group.

We finally made it to Wyoming and are spending a few days with my Mom and other family members who live here. Today is my Mom’s birthday and we have a party planned tonight at my brother’s (I think he knows about it).

Yesterday we spent the day in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, some 30 miles to the east. It was fun shopping, eating and messing around.

We ended up at a Corral West Ranchwear store that was closing and my brother, my honey and I all bought cowboy hats. Not sure why, but we did. I guess we got caught up in the moment.

Last night we all gathered over here and took “cowboy” photos. I’ll get one or two posted when I get back home.

Boy, when the nights get longer, they get longer fast! Since today is the shortest day of the solar year, tomorrow morning’s sunrise –if visible behind the clouds — will be an incremental moment earlier.

We went to our friends Patrice and Harry’s annual Christmas party last night and really enjoyed it. They have the most eclectic group of friends — including us. It’s nice to see real diversity in whitebread Utah.

We’ve done a little Christmas shopping over the last couple of days. It really is more fun to give….

The weather is supposed to be stormy again tomorrow, and the the next day and the next day. It looks like our Wyoming trip may come after Christmas instead of before.

Tomorrow is my sister-in-law’s 50th birthday. We had hoped to be there for that event, but it’s not to be. She was here for mine last March and I hoped to return the favor.

The snow is high, the roads aren’t cleared and it’s cold, so here we enjoy our first vacation day: in the house.

I have been updating my photoblog and my honey is in the cold basement making a Santa suit for the Santa Pub Crawl this weekend (personally, I think he’s lost it).

We have every intent to drive to Wyoming for a family Christmas sometime during the next few days, but the predicted storms don’t give me a lot of confidence. 500 miles of I-80 in December is a crapshoot at best. This time, the house seems to be winning every day.

We are going to a Christmas party at Patrice & Harry’s tonight. They’re always a nice, relaxing respite from the hustle and bustle of the season.

We finished the Messiah Concert series last night with a heart-felt goodbye to B. Murphy, the long-standing director and soul of this annual event. After the engaging performance last night, he boarded a flight to Washington, DC to start a new job, I think he will be missed (and should be!) in this community.

My honey’s mother and sister were here from Nevada and the three of us sat on the front row, where we had a great view of the choir, orchestra, soloists and poinsettias. Lots of poinsettias.

Someone at work asked me about the LIVE for Life concert on Sunday night and I said that when the choir and orchestra performed, it felt as if waves were slowing coming in from the ocean, embracing me and then trying to pull me back out with them. It was outstanding. I’ve never felt quite so enveloped by such soothing, all-embracing sound.

We made it through the cold and snow yesterday morning to arrive safely into downtown Salt Lake and then trudged several blocks with thousands of other concert-goers (many from California judging on the footwear, flimsy and fashionable clothing and lack of expertise walking in snow) to the G&S.

The first 30 minutes was the broadcast of “Music & the Spoken Word”, followed by a “mini concert” that lasted about 45 minutes, followed by what my honey described as “30 minutes of stroking”.
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My honey mentioned that his parents were driving up from Sanpete County to attend his Messiah concert tonight, so I bought a ticket and joined them. I just got home on slick and slippery roads, but arrived safe, sound and warm.

The concert was great and very inspirational. It’s fun to see people get caught up in the moment and let down their barriers.

Tomorrow morning we’ve tickets to see Brian Stokes Mitchell sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the “Great and Spacious” downtown and then tomorrow night an AIDS benefit concert.

Monday night is the final Messiah performance and I’m going with my honey’s Mother and sister, who are driving up from Nevada — barring any bad weather.

That’s a lot of events for this homebody.

As usual, I was the photographer at our recent family gathering in Mesquite and as usual, the candid shots tend to be the best ones.

After taking a couple of carefully-composed shots, this one suddenly appeared spontaneously from my honey and his his brother and two sisters. His dad just laughed, apparently not as jaded as the rest.