Christmas 1996

It's time once again to set pen to paper and check in with all of our loved ones and friends.

Having become somewhat obsessed with cycling lately I decided I needed to have a new bicycle. I pulled out the "mid-life" crisis card and convinced Lenore that a new bike would keep me out of a funk. She was very generous and let me spend a fairly obscene amount on a very nice new bike. I keep reminding her that it is a lot more economical to buy a top-of-the-line bicycle than it is to buy a top-of-the-line car.

In addition to my regular biking routine and related sporting events, I decided to participate in a couple of triathlons this year. This type of behavior falls in the category of no-longer-in-their-prime males attempting to defy or ignore the advance of time. To show how desperate we can become for ego strokes, in the first race (my friend and I started seven minutes after the field because we arrived late) I took great pride in passing a 62 year old man in bad need of hip replacement surgery. I had caught up with him during the run and we chatted. Then he gained quite a bit of ground on me because my transition from run to bike was slow. So my first goal on the bike was to pass him again. In two races I took fourth and fifth in my age group. (I was also last both times in my age group.)

Then one day in August coming home from work, I took a spill on my bike (yes, the new one) and broke my clavicle. I was standing up pedaling hard and hit a bump that I never saw. My hands lost their grip and I pitched over the handlebars to the left. The bike and I somersaulted until my pedals released. Then the bike kept somersaulting down the street. Amazingly, the only damage to the bike were some scratches on the seat (covered up now with a small patch of black tape) and on the handlebars (new handlebar tape) and a broken spoke.

It didn't take me long to assess my own damage. I hit on my helmet (always wear a helmet, you can't buy a new head), my left shoulder, hip, knee, and even my shoe was torn up. Now, my always-just-a-little-bit-too-narrow shoulders are about a centimeter narrower and I have a nice bump on my collarbone where the break overlapped. (There goes my nude modeling career.) I learned an interesting thing: unless the break threatens to cause dangerous hemorrhaging by tearing an artery these injuries are usually left to heal as they end up. No manipulating (not that I felt like having someone do a mobility test on my shoulder). No setting. I understand that there is an old doctor's saying: "put two ends of a clavicle in the same room and they will heal together."

The kids are here in the room watching TV. Jensen has a love affair going on with my sports creme analgesic rub. The smallest excuse is used to apply some on her skin. She likes the wintergreen (Ben Gay) aroma. When I come to bed after having used some, Lenore calls it "Eau de Todd". Jensen is in the first grade and doing quite well with her spelling. She was extremely excited about the annual first grade production of The Nutcracker. She got to say a line all by herself. She elicited great bouts of laughter when she and the "mother" danced incorrectly. All the time she was on stage it appeared to me that she was monitoring everything intently, ready to step in and assist someone if they forgot a line, missed a mark, or took an errant dance step.

Ailsa is doing well with her swimming. She has joined the Murray Aquatic Club and practices a couple of times a week. She has now been in three different meets. At first she wasn't sure she liked it and the coach didn't seem to think she was working hard enough. But, she seems to have caught on somewhat now. She has taken a first place and a couple of seconds. And, she probably has an equal number of lasts and second to lasts. She looks quite official and proficient on the starting platform. Then, the horn blows and she dives in with her knees and legs all going every which way.

Most of the younger kids have not figured out that on the start you try to go out as far as you can. Their only concern is getting into the water. Subsequently, most of them go straight down. I told Ailsa on one of her races she went 5 yards farther than everyone else because she went straight down to the bottom of the pool first. She had a couple of officials worried for a second or two, waiting to see if she was going to come back up. A lot of the kids have trouble keeping their goggles on during the start. It is quite common to see a child bounce around between the lane ropes because he or she is trying to swim with their eyes closed. I think Ailsa's coaches may have told her to push off and glide before the first stroke of each lap. At the start of a recent race she dove in and looked like she was trying to glide. But, she wasn't really going anywhere.

We have picked up two more cats (that makes four). Cleopatra is a smallish grey tiger striped tabby female with a tail shaped like a planaria. The two bigger cats haven't quite accepted her yet. We have to keep them somewhat segregated. Cleo was a barn cat in Preston, Idaho who needed good owners and a good home to recover from a sinus infection. The other new cat is a black and white male found as a kitten in the middle of the highway in Cove, Utah where apparently his mother had met with an early demise. We named him Ptolemy because he took to Cleopatra very well. He has the bad habit of climbing on the counters and the table looking for food. I'm afraid Ailsa and Jensen have been poor examples for him; When you tell him to get down he brazenly talks back to you.

We also now have two rats. Don't worry, I made sure that we got two females. (Don't ask me how I made sure.) In this case, I was in favor of a same-sex union. I'm going to say that they have not yet been officially named because the kids picked some silly (read stupid) names and mommy and daddy have not yet come up with anything good. For now we just call them "the ratty's" or "little pigs".

I asked Lenore several times what she thought I should put about her in the letter. Each time she said her life was the same old same o. I can report that she still spends lots of time involved with the young women in the ward and she spends most of her other time recuperating from those duties and chasing after our kids and the messes that they make in the house. She does a wonderful job as mother, wife, and housewife and makes life for the rest of us enjoyable. She likes to go looking at antiques with her brother, Dan. But, seldom buys any. She also enjoys holding forth about the latest scandal or dirt in the newspaper, what Mayor Corradini is doing, or "those men in Washington".

We did have some fun vacations this year. Our annual ski trip to Elk Meadows near Beaver, Utah was a delight. We had fantastic weather the whole time and the kids were very low maintenance. Lenore and I visited Mazatlan in the spring for four days and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We also reprised our annual visit to San Clemente with the Smith's and had a very good time as well. We rented a surfboard one day and with Todd as official guide, instructor, and otherwise surfer dude, everyone was required to give it a shot. I had them lie down on the board and then got them into position and gave them a push to catch the wave. So, basically all they had to do was stand up at the appropriate time. This was easiest for the smaller people. The board floated Ailsa standing up even when it wasn't going anywhere. Lenore did passably for a first-timer. Thus, we have a couple of nice photos of Lenore looking like a Wahine at Waikiki.

It is here that I am supposed to write something thought provoking or befitting the season. My prevailing thought is I wish we had more time to spend with our family, friends , and loved ones and we know that a better world will allow that time. The words of Benjamin Britten come to mind: "...with Christ join thou in fight, stick to the tents that he hath pight. Within his crib is surest ward. This little Babe will by thy guard." In our quest for security in this world, let us not overlook the greatest font of security, God.

With love, Todd, Lenore, Ailsa, Jensen, and the rest of the Ark.