Holiday Update
McFarlands
Month by Month: 2014 edition
January: Rob gets a nose job, surgery # 1 of 6 for the year (Roto-rooter on the nose plumbing). Barely out of his nose patch, he then meets with other film professors for a working weekend in a swanky cabin. He and MA attend the Sundance Film Festival. Mary Ann makes a graceful exit from the film industry after a year of playing Mom to a film crew. Joss gets a cookie-as-big-as-your-head for learning all of his phonemes.
February: Will and Sebi
rip up the slopes at Sundance ski resort, and later participate in a wicked
“Hunger Games” contest up Rock Canyon.
The odds are not in their favor.
Maddie fares better at a ballroom competition. She and the waltz were made for each
other. Joss is at BYU and Wasatch
Kindergartens; most days he has lunch with his buddy Zinnia in Dad’s office.
March: Mary Ann takes over in the presidency of our
congregational women’s society, looking after the temporal and spiritual
welfare of a group of remarkable women. Sebastian turns 10, invites his friends
on a wild intergalactic mission at the space simulator. He saves the day by ramming into an enemy
starship and thrusting it out of orbit.
Renegade! Scoutmaster Rob and Life-Ranked Will camp with the scouts in
the West Desert, facing their claustrophobia head-on in an elbow-powered,
harrowing trip through Antelope Springs cave.
April: Rob and Mary
Ann barricade themselves in a hotel in Salt Lake City to madly write online
German courses for BYU. Romance is not
dead, evidently. Joss contributes the
following line to a class poem at BYU Kindergarten: “And the Crocodile, he say:
OW! That hurt me biscuits!” Rob and MA combine forces to celebrate their
46th and 44th birthdays, respectively: a 90th
Birthday party to remember!
May: Maddie trains
for and begins work as a lifeguard at the Provo Recreation Center. Hanging out
with college boys in a swimsuit and talking to EMTs was more intense than we
remembered our first jobs, but she seems to love it. Joss parties like a pirate
with a great and dreadful treasure hunt; the Honey Bucket nearby has been
referred to as “Ye ‘Ole Poophouse” ever since. The family spends Memorial Day
weekend camping with friends in Canyonlands. The kids of five families run wild
over the sandstone hills and cliffs. All of them survive.
June: Rob flits over
to Vienna for a conference and an opera and theater binge. Rob, Will and the
scouts then go to Goblin Valley. Joss joins the club swim team. “He’ll be fine
if he wears his fins” says the coach with a wink. Mary Ann sits at the deep end
for the first few months to watch him as he paddles away, sure that he’s going
to go under. But he doesn’t. He somersaults and dives and plays tricks on his
coach as soon as her back is turned.
July: The whole
family heads out to California to celebrate July 4th at the Piedmont
parade, a beach reunion in Monterey, and Ron and Nedra’s 50th
wedding anniversary with family and friends. It is wonderful to see siblings
and spouses and cousins cavorting. Back at home, Maddie celebrates her Sweet 16
with 40 guests at a pool party, then heads to girls’ camp, and dates loads of
dudes in quick succession. We buy a sweet (old) red Acura named Stella.
August: Rob and Mary
Ann spend 10 fantastic days eating French pastries, exploring Switzerland, and
settling BYU students into their Tübingen classes. Sebi and Grandpa hunt down
Consuela the Tamale Lady and change the radio presets to mariachi bands,
country western channels, and preachers. Joss begins his Mandarin immersion
program with a week full of paper plate pandas and “umpteen million” friends.
The kids return to school, and Maddie and Will begin commuting between Provo
High for ballroom and swim team, and Maeser Prep (or Hogwarts Without Wands, as
they call it) for the balance of their classes.
September: Labor Day
weekend begins with a hike, and ends with a strange ailment that bedevils Rob’s
shoulder and neck. He spends the month trying to keep classes afloat while
juggling pain meds and doctor appointments. He loses 20 pounds and gets down to
his mission weight—a number he thought he’d never see again. Joss loses his
first tooth. Finally, our neighbors who are doctors get Rob the right
diagnosis: an abscess in his clavicle and a resulting blood clot in his right
arm. He spends a night in the ER, six days in the hospital, and has five
surgeries over two weeks. Maddie attends her first PHS date dance with
“SuperAbs” from swim team. The grandparents fly back up to manage the kids and
their breakneck schedule. Thanks to Ron and Nedra, we all survive a scary and
unsure time in our family.
October: Rob begins to
recover once his surgeries are over. He has amassed an impressive amount of
medical jargon, knowledge, and equipment: about 10 doctors and specialists, two
incisions, a wound vacuum, a picc line, JT drains, IV antibiotics, and blood
thinners. The boys are overjoyed that Grandpa and CheezWhiz™ are back in
the house so soon. Grandpa does all the driving and shopping while Grandma
cooks and cleans and checks the kids for emotional scarring. Neighbors and
friends take over carpools and bring food and treats and mitzvahs of all kinds.
Will starts spending his Saturday mornings at rocket club where he finds his
people and his calling in life. Rob begins to take back his classes and
reassure the freaked out students; his stitches come out just in time for
Halloween. Our dressed-up kids--a go-go girl,
a zombie hunter, an afro-ed disco dancer, and a warmongering hippie--didn’t
get a single picture.
November: Maddie and
Will start high school swim meets—tornadoes of noise and excitement as the team
gets closer and closer to breaking the PHS school records. At this writing,
Maddie’s relay team is 13/100ths of a second away! Will turns 14 and is
ordained a teacher (the next office in our church’s lay priesthood). We
celebrate Thanksgiving with a renewed fervor, Mary Ann making sweet potatoes
and Brussels sprouts, Rob and Maddie doing pies.
December: We’re starting with our
gingerbreadapalooza so we can watch it congeal into inedibility
enjoy it all month. We will celebrate the 40th annual Adventsingen
with the local German community. Sebastian and his pal Tomas are going to sing
a solo with the men’s chorus, and the whole family is dressing up in their Trachten
outfits. Will and Sebi are looking forward to breaking in their season passes
at Sundance. We’ll attend some parties, exchange some gifts, but there may be
some rough edges and traditions left undone. It’ll be just fine. We’ve got our
most treasured gifts by our sides: our friends, our family and each other. We
are so, so thankful for the help we’ve received this year: prayers, fasting, Facebook
comments and messages, hospital visits and meals and long distance phone calls.
Through a crazy experience that upended our existence, we were buoyed up by the
number of dear friends we had pulling for Rob all over the world. We are so
grateful for that love. May you have a wonderful holiday and may you feel our
love and friendship as well.
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