Hinckley Blog

For Eliza: here is a step-by-step guide to building your own creche:

1. Travel to Sorrento, Italy, and learn the tradition of building a creche each year beginning on November 8th and finishing by December 8th, using moss, cork, and handmade collectable figurines.
2. Buy a little something in Sorrento (we acquired a basket of fruit and two small clay pots...).
3. Obtain a piece of scrap lumber from the garage to use as a base, and two or three pieces of stryrofoam for terrain.
4. Use use and (in this case) dried bark to create the backgrounds.
5. Using the moss, bark and ordinary Elmer's Glue, construct a "barn" for the manger and apply ground cover to all exposed areas.
6. Place the creche parts in appropriate places.

For the first time in our relationship Jenni and I were together for the BYU-Utah Holy War. We were in Provo wearing our respective colors and Jenni would not let me overlook her Bachelor of Arts diploma hanging on the wall. As you can tell from Pop's blog, it was one of the most intense games ever. Jenni and were both biting our nails inches from our 14" TV the entire game. The next day at church, a couple that lives two floors up said he could tell when a touchdown was scored from the rumble coming from our apartment on the first floor. Emotions ran high the whole game until the release upon seeing Jonny Harline on his knees in the endzone with the ball safely clutched to his chest. It was too much for Jenni. I, of course, had to watch the re-cap on KSL and ESPN while Jenni went into the bedroom to morn. That last play, which lasted 12 long seconds, earned ESPN's play of the day. Jenni was a good sport as the game was still the hot topic of conversation at church, her parents house, Dolly's house (where we had dinner), and even at Grandpa's (who said he watched every minute of the game). We had to go Christmas shopping on Saturday night to take her mind off the game.



The previous day, Friday, we made the traditional trip to Scipio to cut down a tree. Every year after Thanksgiving, the Koellikers spend the night in Scipio and go tree hunting in the mountains above the city. We didn't spend the night because they are remondeling and adding on to that old house where Ann Koelliker's grandmother and mother were born and married. With the Koelliker grandchildren, that makes five generations of the same family having spent time in that house.

Having grown up with a fake tree (and the same fake tree since I was 7) this was a new experience. We hiked around for about an hour and a half with saws in hand before we found the right one. It was more than 9 feet tall when we dragged it a mile down the mountain to the trailer. Of course we had to trim it down to about 6 1/2 feet before we could get it in our apartment. We went to Target where we still had gift card money from the wedding and got a tree stand and a few strands of lights. Now our small apartment is filled with the fresh holiday scent of evergreen. Tonight's FHE activity will be decorating the tree.

I suppose I should say something about the actual Thanksgiving Day. Jenni and I did both families. We helped the Koelliker's set up at Ginny and Jim's wardhouse (which is also Dave Koelliker's ward) and ate with all the extended Koelliker clan. Then we went over to YII for the reduced Hinckley family gathering. Unfortunately, Mary Dudley was in St. George with her fiance's family (she just got engaged the Saturday before Thanksgiving) so we weren't able to hear it from the horse's mouth. But her fiance is in the D&C class I TA. He and Mary are great together. The date is set for May 11. Even though the boy goes to the Y, Roger still consented because it was just a place for an education.

Thanksgiving also being Grandma's birthday, there were pictures of her on all the tables and Ginny brought the video of Grandma's 90th birthday celebration. When the video got to the end when Grandpa spoke we were all balling. Ginny then presented all her sisters and sisters-in-laws with hankercheifs that she had just bought in memory of Grandma. Grandpa told us how he had gone to the cemetary early that morning to put flowers on her grave. Then, through his sobbing tears and laughing as he cried, Grandpa waived his hand and said, "Let's just all go home." Jenni said it was the saddest Thanksgiving dinner she's ever been to.

Dick called Friday afternoon and asked if I would be interested in going to the BYU - Utah football game on Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium. This being the THE GAME, the only one that matters, I was very greatful to Chuck Rich for his generosity (he has something like 20 tickets in rows 8 and 9 on the 50-yard line).

I arrived early, approprately dressed in blue sweater and an official BYU Cougars hat, and found my lonely spot in a see of red. Chuck Jr.'s wife Tiffany was born and raised in Provo and is a BYU graduate, though she and and her husband had worked out a deal and both were dressed in neutral gray, so I sat next to them which made me only slightly less conspicuous.

The first quarter was what all Utes had feared and all Cougars had earnestly prayed for - BYU scored on their first two possessions and the quarter ended 14-0 for BYU. But the tide quickly turned, and the score at the half was 14-10. The 3rd Quarter saw Utah take the lead, and the few spots of blue in the stadium began sinking into a quiet depression. But things see-sawed back and forth and BYU again took the lead with 3:45 remaining in the 4th quarter - too much time, as it turned out. The Utes put on a steady and masterful drive and scored with 1:09 remaining and Utah now led 31-27. It was too much. I thanked Chuck for the tickets and began making my way to the exit, but had the good sense to stay at the top of the stairs to watch the final minute before taking my lonely walk home.

Jon Beck pushed hard and moved the Cougars down ultimately to the 11 yard line after completing a successful pass on 4th and 19. With 3.2 seconds left on the clock, the Cougars had one more play. Beck took the snap. Beck moved to the left looking for someone open in the end zone, but found no one. He scrabled for what seemed an eternity. Time expired. Armies moved. Nations rose and fell. Primeval forests grew. Stars blinked in and out of existence. Nearly sacked, Beck ran right and all the receivers and defenders in the end zone moved right with him - except one lone BYU receiver, who broke from the pack and stayed in the left corner. While running to the right, Beck sees his chance and throws a long, high pass back to his left. The world stopped turning, silence reigned, and the ball moved in slow motion, looking a little short. Harline, the intended receiver, fell to his knees (praying perhaps?), reached out his arms, and cradled the ball into his chest. The longest play in history ended with a completed pass and another BYU miracle victory!

With that one play, Beck moved from a decent BYU quarterback to one of the greats, and everyone who saw it happen has a new story to tell the next generation. Maybe it really is the Lord's university!

So Rob came home from work on Friday and started pacing. "I'm so nervous about the game tomorrow, I can't concentrate. I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight." Well, Ambien solved that last problem, but the lack of concentration and anxiety were still with him when Saturday dawned. He caught up on all the Buckeye blogs and news articles and pre-game ESPN coverage. Meanwhile, I went down to the office to continue the long process of clearing it out. (Turns out my propensity for creating stacks of paper sort of went wild in my office with no Rob there to help me clear them. My office gives my very organized secretary heart palpitations). Rob called me at work after I'd been there about an hour to say that he was too nervous to stick around our house - he needed to get up to his parents to be with other stark raving mad obsessive Buckeye fans. Off he went, and I came home to make brownies and get Ellie all dressed up in her Buckeye gear. Ellie and I arrived at the house just after the start of the first quarter. Well, as we received phone calls from most of you throughout the afternoon, we know you were all checking out the score at least periodically. Rob deeply appreciates such loving support - it means more to him than words can say to think that his in laws were rooting for the Bucks in his behalf.

While Jan and Aunt Nan were quite happy to talk to Ellie and me, we knew better than to bother Rob during the game. Not even during commercials. Note Rob's intensity in the picture. He stayed that way all four quarters. Meanwhile, Mike was taken enough by Ellie's cuteness that he read her the "My First Ohio State Words: Go Buckeyes" board book.

Bus started commenting that the anxiety was getting to him, and that he was afraid that he was so nervous he might throw up. He was right. I really don't know how to describe the day. I'm having trouble with words, but Rob says it doesn't matter what I report, as long as I fit "Greatest Game in the History of the World" into the blog. So there. I will tell you that after Michigan scored a touchdown early on in the first quarter, the Bucks never let them lead again. In fact, we led by healthy margins until the fourth quarter, when suddenly it became a tight game. You can only imagine the intensity in the room. But, true to their #1 rank, our Bucks pulled off a win 42 - 39. The room erupted into shouts of joy (scaring little Ellie, actually, into tears). You'll note that the after pictures are quite triumphant.

Rob would also like me to tell you that Ohio State is ranked #1 in every poll and computer poll, giving them a perfect BCS score - the first time that has happened under the new system. And so they are, in Rob's words, the Greatest Team in the History of the World (well, I remind him, there was the 1984 Cougar Team, which remains near and dear to the hearts of all of us). The next day, Rob wore his OSU tie to church, and I played "Come Ye Children of the Lord" for my prelude, the same tune as Carmen Ohio. (Bus's phone plays Carmen Ohio when Sarah calls, and it always throws me off - am I at church? Is Bus listening to hymns?)

Oh come, let's sing Ohio's praise
And songs to alma mater raise
While our hearts rebounding thrill
With joy which death alone can still
Summer's heat or winter's cold
The seasons pass, the years will roll
Time and change will surely show
How firm thy friendship . . . Ohio!

So, what can you do in a day in Florence?

1. You can see a copy of Michelangelo's David in the piazza where the original once stood, but you cannot see the original. You can, however, see the Rape of the Sabine Women in the same piazza - the original, not a copy.
2. You can see the dome of the Duomo, but you cannot actually go inside the Duomo.
3. You can walk to the banks of the Arno River and look up at the Ponte Vecchio, Europe's most famous bridge, but you cannot actually walk across the bridge.
4. You can see the lines of people waiting to enter the Uffizi gallery, Italy's greatest art museum, but... well, you know.
   
5. You can buy leather jackets for much more than they're worth.

On your way back to the port you can stop in the town of Lucca and see the anceint Roman walls, and you can stop in Pisa and see the famous leaning tower, just like in the photographs.

And you can still be back on board the ship in time to change into your tux for dinner at 6:30.

Bruce Chaitwin, the legendary travel writer, seems to have a knack of getting on a train in some obscure part of the world and striking up a conversation with a seat-mate who, it turns out, is a fascinating local figure filled with tidbits of information and wisdom.

By contrast, I never meet any interesting people on trains in foreign countries - most of my seat-mates have been tired, grumpy, and barely conversant in their own language, let alone mine. But on our recent visit to Italy I became acquainted (in a manner of speaking) with two people with whom I intend to carry on a life-long friendship.

The first is Saint Jude, the patron saint of impossible things. This is a guy I want to know better. It seems I am forever needing the kind of help that he apparently specializes in.

The second I stumbled across in the Cathedral of Barcelona, a remarkable lady known as the "Virgin de la luz - patrona electricidad y fontaneria" - the patron saint of electricity and plumbing. As the owner of a home built in 1927, I have often had need of the kindly woman but was totally unaware of her existence.

So, all in all, it was a pretty productive trip.

Meeting Jim Kimball in a cross walk in Hong Kong seemed extraordinary at the time, but I have now come to expect this sort of thing in life. Still, when it happens it always catches you by suprise.

As a young missionary in Rio Cuarto, Argentina, I lived in the Barrio Juan Pablo XXIII, the neighborhood John Paul XXIII. Having lived in a neighborhood named in his honor, I have always felt a particular connection with this recently beatified Pope (he became a saint in the year 2000, just 27 years after his death). Had I thought about it, I would have known he was somewhere in the Vatican - that's where they bury old Popes. But who thinks about these things? And even if I had thought about, don't they bury those Popes deep in the vaults, with just a marker on the floor or something, like at Westminster Abbey?

Of course, I didn't think about it, so it was with a great deal of suprise and gratification that I finally met the so-callled "good Pope" (as compared to some others?) in the Vatican this month. It turns out that following his beatification, his body was moved from its original burial place in the grottoes below St. Peter's basilica to the altar of St. Jerome and displayed for the veneration of the faithful. At the time, the body was observed to be extremely well-preserved—a condition which the Church ascribes officially to the lack of oxygen in his sealed triple coffin rather than to any miraculous event (although it was certainly seen as such by many of the faithful). So there he was, in the flesh.

You never know who you might run into in the Vatican.

The person on our cruise who will end up with the best story to tell is: Pamela Bridenstine, mother of six. We were visiting the wonderful old medieval cathedral perched on a steep peak in Marseille. Pamela was taking a short rest, sitting on a low retaining wall, her purse and camera (a brand new Nikon D80) on her lap, when a local ran by, grabbed purse and camera off her lap, hopped on the back of a passing motorcyle and disappeared down the road.

When she stopped crying, the group moved on to the next site while our local guide accompanied Pamela to the police station to make a full report and try to identify the thief (who has apparently been perpetrating similar crimes with astonishing frequency). Unfortunately, she was unable to pick the suspect out of the photographs supplied by the local gendarme, but her story of the Sunday afternoon she spent in the Marseille police precint will be a great one!

So, here's what you can do in one day in Rome:

1. Visit the Catacombs of St. Sebastian. These were used by Romans and Christians, and towards the end of their use the Christians created "chapels" in the catacombs where they would hold services. This was a very fascinating place, and the Christian focus was very much on Peter and Paul.

2. Visit the Trevi fountain and throw in a coin to insure your return to Rome. It was only 10 cents, but hopefully it works. It is a great spot, just a short walk to the top of the Spanish Stairs, many little shops in the narrow alleys, and, of course, a wonderful fountain.

3. Visit the basilica of St. Peter. The square isimpressive and the basilica exceeded all expectations. A little like the pyramids, the size is hard to comprehend until you are there. The light was on in the Pope's office. It was All Saints Day, and he had made an appearance in the morning - there were still rows of chairs set up in the square.

In addition, you can drive by St. Paul Outside the Walls (traditional tomb of Paul), drive by the Roman Forum, drive by the Coliseum (where the queue is 3 hours), drive by the great white government palace, drive by Constantine's arch, etc.

And you can still be back on board the ship in time for your 6:30 p.m. dinner seating.

(more to come)

Saturday morning JT and I participated in the Turkey-Tri of Orem Utah. I was a little nervous based on my last tri performance (please remember jelly-like-limbs and not being able to pull myself out of the pool....and then falling down on my hands and knees once I did get out!) The previous experience forced me to take training seriously the past few weeks, and it turns out, I really loved it! The only time I got nervous about this race was when we went to go pick up our race packets and the first conversation I heard was someone causually talking about how they've been racing for "seven or eight years". I almost walked right back out the door! However, the free black triathlon shirt kept me in line. Saturday morning started with my favorite event, a 3.1 mile run. Next we jumped on the bikes (we rented) for a 10 mile ride, which included a monster hill conviently no one told us about and we definitly didn't train for...and you have to loop around twice! We managed to stay on our bikes the whole time, playing with the gears and the wind in our hair. Then we jumped in the indoor pool which was splashing and chopping water every which way! It was a mad-house! We swam a 300 meter swim to the finish and completed our second ever triathlon. It was awesome!
Now that we've successfully completed two, I think that makes us Triathletes!

In case you didn't get enough pictures in the last blog...

November 5, 2006: Eleanor Elizabeth gets a name and a blessing! It was such a wonderful day. Ellie managed not to stain her dress (whew) and didn't even cry during the blessing. Good job, QE2. Bus, Jan, Mike, Sarah, Marc, Aunt Nan and Uncle Herb all came.
With Nan, Taylor, Andrew, Dani, Jared, and the twins, we took up the entire third row. Keith, Jared and Tony Strike stood in the circle with Rob. The blessing was just beautiful, of course. And then we took lots of pictures.


We missed you all and wish you could have been here! After church, we had the Lesan crew over for dinner - pasta and salad. For those of you who write down meals in your journals, I cooked tomato sauce from the Ultimate Italian cookbook and chicken alfredo sauce from the Essential Mormon Cookbook. For dessert, I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from the Montgomery Ward Relief Society Cookbook, Katie Strike's recipe. Those last two choices seemed appropriate cookbooks to use on a Sunday - sort of like how we only listen to Sunday music on Sundays? We only cook from Mormon cookbooks on Sundays? Well, anyway, it was all quite delicious. Now it's almost 10:00 p.m. and we are ready to turn in (see Ellie and Rob in pajamas).
Hopefully Ellie agrees!

Well, Halloween in Loveland was quite lovely. Trick or Treating happens from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m., and our doorbell rang constantly. It was quite fun. I took little QE2 to the door with me so that everyone could observe her cuteness. So here are pics of Ellie's First Halloween. Enjoy!

October 31, 2006 in Provo, Utah was buzzing with excitment. Only the day before it had been anounced that Grandpa was to speak at the Tuesday Devotional. Joseph, Jenni and I arrived at the Marriott Center half and hour early in time to find our seats on the stand and say hello to cousins and fam(Mary Dudley and BYU boyfriend, Celia, Amy and John Bingham, Gini, Kathy and Richard). We then found our places on the stand and unfortunately didn't even get to sit next to eachother! The place was packed, and Grandpa's talk was sandwiched inbetween Joseph's opening prayer and my closing prayer. I venture to say I have never been that nervous -- not in my whole twenty years of life! It was honor to do it, but that doesn't mean that my hands have stopped shaking! Grandpa of course was charming and whitty. He shared vingetts of his life, little experiencs that have made an impression on him and eventually formed him into who he has become. He spoke of his "beloved eternal companion" and his experiences with her as "sacred and quietly beautiful". He did wonderfully.

Cowboy take me away....
My roommate Whitney hosted a Halloween costume party at her Aunt's house in Mapleton. Superheroes, pumpkin eaters, Pippy-long-stocking, pirates, newsies, doctors, and more showed up for the event and we played the night away. We practised our best "ya'll" and "howdy" and had a swingin' time as Cowboy and Cowgirl. We found that everyone has a little country inside of them!

What were all the little kiddies for Halloween?