Ever since Dad died, I've been trying to come up with some good ideas on how to keep on paying tribute to him. Recently, a thought came to my mind of what theme we would do for our annual family calendars. Every year before the December holidays start, we always get those ready to give to people in our immediate family. Drama Queen has always been in charge of making the calendars with Mom, but this year, she put me in charge of it. The idea I came up with was each of us in the family would share one month of pictures of one of us with the good times we had with Dad. This is my collage of pictures of me and Dad. I hope you like it. I hope everyone will be able to have the time and interest to work on their collages. By the way, "Little Nate" was a nickname that he always used to call me. And I'll always remember it.
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I just love watching Baby Doll play volleyball! She did so good today. She made at least 5 kills and multiple blocks. It was senior night, so that made it an even bigger audience.
Maybe it was because we brought the pups over for her to show her friends before the game. They were definitely a big hit!
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This is the moment of truth. Ever since the beginning of October, Mom was hoping that I start putting up the Corn Maze for this year. I was about to do it over the weekend during General Conference, but on Saturday, it was so rainy, that the plan had been delayed. So, I ended up finishing it on Sunday while Princess and the Frog came over with dinner and their kids. They were fun to be around and we had a delicious meal from them called Cheeseburger Casserole. After that, we played games together, like it was the beginning of the holidays.
This will be the first time that we are celebrating the holidays without Dad. We're always going to grieve over Dad's passing, but he wouldn't want us to give up on the things he taught us to do, like putting up lights for the holidays. Anyway, there haven't been much new things to put up this year, other than a couple of blowups that were given to me for my birthday last year. There have been some blowups that we've had for a decade, but they stopped working. It was kind of sad to have to throw them away, because they were beyond repair, but Mom told me that I still have plenty of them to show to every kid throughout our neighborhood. I hope you enjoy the looks of it.
You all know that Curly is the center for Bingham's football team #63. It is his senior year and it is so fun to watch him take charge in the huddle and be an amazing leader on his team.
So last Friday, they were playing Copper Hills. The score was 20-3 for Bingham as the game rolled into the 4th quarter. It started to drizzle. Before long, there were huge flashes of lightning and the teams were sent to the locker rooms and the fans were asked to leave the metal bleachers.
I gathered my things and headed for my car. By the time I got there, it was really pouring down. I wondered if they would just call the game since most of it had already been played with a clear winner established. After sitting in my car for about 20 minutes, I glanced at my phone. It was 9:42. I didn't know if Curly had access to his phone, but I fired off a quick text and then I headed for home.
At 10:30pm, the lightning had subsided for at least 30 minutes and the the teams reemerged and began to warm up. Just as they took the field, another flash sent everyone back to shelter. Finally, at 11:10pm, they were able to take the field and finish the game. Curly said they walked off the field at 11:55pm with the same victory they would have had if they had called the game with 11 minutes to play.
I waited up for him, but it was after 1:00am when he came through the door. Maybe we need to reconsider the high school rules for lightning delay. Otherwise, I need to arrange for him to eat and take a nap before the opening kickoff.
Even though time has been going by really fast, life has been going really slow for us ever since a lot of us have talked about all those good times we had with Dad. Before Dad passed on, he wanted me to read the series that he used to like as a kid, called The Great Brain. I'm pretty sure I've told you all about it before. He at least got to hear the series one more time before moving into the afterlife. Mom always likes it when I read to her, especially other books. I've read Tangerine by Edward Bloor to her a month ago. And now, I just finished reading Holes by Louis Sachar. After finishing reading the book to her, she wanted to watch the movie, and I was thinking of watching it with her when I get off work tonight. I'm thinking of being Stanley Yelnats for Halloween this year.
Teach's talk was written with talking points, so some thoughts here are incomplete.
Time on the mission when I wanted him to write his conversion story and he told me that he didn’t really have one because he was, like me, just someone that always knew the plan of salvation. That it always made sense. he didn’t need a large moment of conversion for it was simply always there.
I struggled with my relationship with my dad for many many years. I didn’t think we had much in common, I felt like he didn’t “get me” and I felt the term “cowgirl up” was unfairly used way too often. I always loved my dad and I knew he loved me, but we didn’t vibe great. To be totally clear - this was a me problem. It was an unmet expectations issue that I couldn’t put into words and didn’t know how to reconcile. Yet life has a way of giving you experiences that bring growth and change. One night about 6 or 7 years ago, I was driving home from picking up Felicity at my parents house. My dad was sitting on the porch when I left and I said, “bye dad,” he responded and I got in the car, he waved, I drove down the street. I don’t know what was different- I don’t remember what changed, but before I had made it as far as the elementary school I was in tears and knew I needed to go give my dad a hug and tell him I love him. So I turned around and did just that. As hard as I try to remember I can’t remember any more context or results of that day. Yet I know it changed how I interacted with my dad from that point forward.
When we moved to NJ, I started to see my dad - both my parents actually - as these vessels of knowledge. And I called many times I wanted to get into a new hobby. Dad helped me virtually learn to make bread. He walked me through fixing the plumbing, I had to call mom cause dad didn’t do video calls, and say “hey, I need to talk to dad, I got a dad question” and then I would walk him down the Lowe’s aisle of screws, nuts and bolts trying to find the one that would replace one we had lost. This specific story was especially monumental because when I was about five dad took me to Anderson Lumber to pick out screws and it was the most boring experience of my life. And he would always joke about how much I loved shopping for screws.
He helped walk me through the process of building a garden in 2019 when we lived in Taylorsville. Much to his chagrin, it died. But he helped me in 2021 when I wanted to try again in NJ with our small garden box. He even sent me a camera so I could catch the ground hog that would sneak out from under the shed to eat my plants. That garden didn’t make it. All I harvested were some lettuce leaves. Then again in 2023, he and mom flew out to see me graduate with my Masters and we tried once more to build a garden. We found the perfect wheeled boxes, I tracked the sun and shade to give him details of the conditions. He and mom helped me pick and plant so many adorable veggies! I would send daily updates. Yet - come harvest time I got some tomatoes and a pepper the size of my thumb. I made the world’s smallest omelette. It has become abundantly clear that while I take after my dad in passion for cooking, baking, eating. I do not have the ability to grow a garden. But he never gave up on me. Some day I’ll figure it out.
Finally the best and worst part about talking to dad was the unsolicited fatherly advice. He always had advice that I usually didn’t want to hear, but 9 times out of 10 would improve my life. He shared his opinions and he cared deeply about our lives. My dad loves his grand kids. He always wanted them to be comfortable and feel valued and wanted. My dad often would tell me how much he loved seeing me be Thomas’s mom and that he was so proud of me for all I do for Thomas. He loved them all so much. I asked him if he thought he would see the twins before they come down earth side - and although we don’t know heavenly logistics, I hope he does. I hope they are both at his side (surrounded by other future Christensen grandkids) and they are hearing my dad tell his stories. Because there is nothing better.
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