Christmas vacation was very fun. You do not appreciate all the things your parents do for you until you move out on your own. Visiting both of our parents made me re-realize all the blessings and comforts of home. We tried not to mooch too much from our parents and be somewhat responsible. It was nice to sleep in. It was easier to help out around the house. I have found that it is always easier to help with dishes or with chores when they are not your real responsibility and you do not have much else to do. Carrie and I went running in the middle of the day, walked the dog, raked leaves, and did dishes, trying to not be burdens to our parents, but we probably were. Melanie's birthday was fun. I like her. I also like a delicious steak dinner and a BYU bowl victory. I think J. Gilbert's is one of the if not the nicest restaurant I have ever been to. Christmas was also very fun, and the Cranes did an excellent job of shopping for me, which I hear can be tough. My birthday was also fun, and I can hardly believe that I have turned 27. As I get older I think I remember my father being my age, and that weirds me out a bit since we do not have children yet. We traveled to Boston for the final week of our vacation, which was also fun. My family surprised us
with Celtics tickets, and Matthew shared with us his Christmas present from his Teacher's quorum president of sweet seets at the Garden. We also went to NYC and saw Curtains on Broadway, ate at the famous Carnegie Deli, and saw New York from the top of the Empire State Building. Both our families were very generous. We also got to spend time with Carrie's and my best
friends from home and see their new children. Both Carrie Diggins and Clarke Low had children join their families recently. I was impressed by both families and their cute babies. This is not an announcement of any kind, but Carrie and I talked about our future children and how excited we are. I can safely predict that we will have children some day. I am going out on a limb there, I know. I was also reminded about a psychological phenomenon that I learned about in school which seems so applicable to family situations. Everyone thinks that how they think and do things is the best way to do it. Everyone thinks that how and where they grew up is a little better than it actually was. It is a human universal. It leads to things like stereotypes and ethnocentrism, and within families this tendency rears its ugly head also. Older children and younger children the world over have a constant battle over who had things better or worse. Everyone is reading this thinking, "yup." Older children often come home and see how their parents have "loosened up", the free weekends, the newer clothes, and the dinners at restaurants, etc. and all they can think about is their own stricter curfews, weekends of family babysitting, hand-me-down clothes, and how they never ate out. I struggle with this. I look at my younger siblings and quickly judge, "Boy, they are spoiled." I remember when I was in sixth grade and what I wanted more than anything in the world was a pair of Umbro shorts. I really thought that these shorts were the key to being cool. I do not think that my younger siblings have those sorts of experiences. If I remember right (and false, biased memory is another HUGE problem in these sorts of discussions) my mom made me earn half the money. Really, my bitterness is not about my siblings, but all about me and my selfishness. It is not like I grew up in the gall of depravity. So many in the world do not yearn for Umbro shorts. They want food or shelter. The truth is that within our family no one's situation is particularly better or more spoiled. The situations are just different. Usually comparisons lead to more hurt feelings, so it is not worth it. To all my siblings and siblings-in-law: I love you. You are great. I will try to not be such a jerk when I come home in the future.
In other news: Our car's yellow check engine light turned back on and stayed on the whole vacation. Our mechanic told us before the vacation that there is probably a problem with our oxygen level sensor, because the car is running better than it ever has. When we tell people about our light it seems like half of them have a story about how their car had a faulty dashboard light and they ignored it until their car died a long while later. We are not sure we want to take the risk of ignoring the light when our car has had so many problems already. We may have to take it in and get the sensor or its computer fixed.
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