Madsen Family Christmas Quiz

For those of you lucky enough to make the printed Christmas card list, here is the Christmas Quiz again. For those of you who were overlooked by our bulk mail consultants, here is the Christmas Quiz:

Merry Christmas to all and to all a New Quiz! This year our update is in the form of a test. (Note: there may be more than one correct answer). The highest score (that is reported first) will be greatly rewarded with a free vacation* to where ever we are stationed next year (you may want to opt out of the prize if you suspect we may be sent to Iran—as the winner is obligated to accept the prize). Good luck and Enjoy!

1. Daniel finishes up his radiology residency this summer where he has even been the chief resident. Yet he still managed to find spare time, in which he has:
a) Planed, organized and executed a high tech (and rather mean) joke for his brother to come home to from his honeymoon. (check it out on http://dsmadsen.blogspot.com/ –hit link 10/29-11/05)
b) Spent 6 weeks in Washington DC for a board preparation conference (which he has since taken and passed his boards). While there he spent his weekends in NYC biking or running with his brother-in-law Bryce
c) Hit (but did not kill) an angry charging moose (with his manly mini-van—not his gun).
d) Bought 4 really old snowmobiles that can’t go very fast but are light weight so even the girls can lift them, so that makes them really good, right?

2. Carol has enjoyed staying home with the girls, and for fun
a) She compiled and formatted a cookbook for her church (the irony is on many levels)
b) She directed the elementary school choir for their holiday performance
c) She almost finished the Salt Lake City marathon
d) She likes long walks in the park, feeding ducks and sipping hot cocoa by a blazing fire

3. Our 10 year old Lindsey is an avid learner and tries to impress people with:
a) Spelling her chosen bonus words like lipohemarthrosis
b) Getting and staying up on water skies
c) Taking the calculator away from her teacher to solve a problem that her 5th grade teacher was struggling with
d) Advancing in both piano and violin

4. Kimmer, our 7 year old, is a very bright, kind and socially aware kid. She keeps busy with:
a) Her role in the school play Honk Jr (the ugly duckling) where she plays a cute duckling
b) Water skiing where she got up and skied for a while on her first try
c) Listening to and reading Harry Potter
d) Piano lessons that she added this year to her musical studies which already includes violin

5. Rachel is almost 4, loves preschool, singing, dancing, skipping, on-demand television, doing cartwheels, and making people think she is older than she is, because:
a) She is really good with numbers and can figure out on any day of the week how many more days until her next dance class
b) She expects to get a violin for her 4th birthday (she has asked for this for several years now)
c) She can recognize, write and tell you the sound of each letter
d) She got up, stayed up and even went out of the wake water skiing before she fell

6. Grace, our gleeful walking 1 year old accompanied us to:
a) Washington DC (twice), Pennsylvania and NYC
b) Glacier, Zion and Yellowstone National Parks
c) Utah’s famous Nutty Putty cave (where we went spelunking)
d) San Diego where we fed the bat rays at Sea World

We are so grateful for good friends and family. We hope you have a wonderful, meaningful holiday. We love hearing from you! Merry Christmas!

Love,
the Madsen family

Christmas Quiz Answers

For those of you who need to cheat, here are the answers to the Madsen Family Christmas Quiz:

1. a & b (c is almost true, but the stumbling baby moose fell to its knees and narrowly missed te car. d is what Daniel always threatens to do but somehow can't quite fork out the money)

2. a, b and d (c isn't even close to being true!)

3. a, b, c, & d

4. a, b, c and d

5. a, b & c

6. a, b, & c (spelunking at nutty putty would be pretty crazy with a baby!)

Holiday Pictures

Don't you just love holiday family pictures?

I took a few pictures while we were getting ready to take a picture for our family Christmas letter. Hopefully Santa wasn't watching.

You'd better not cry,
You'd better not pout. . .

You'd better not cry I'm telling you why

Hopefully Santa is still coming to town.

Snowshoeing

Mark and I enjoyed a wonderful few hours snowshoeing at Wasatch Mountain State Park today.

I uploaded a video of Mark's fastest movements during the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dioxjzzo81U

We were looking for deer, but didn't see any while we were snowshoeing. But we did see billions of little bugs on the snow. At first I thought they were ash from people's wood burning stoves, but then when you got down really close to the ground, you could seen these little black specks jumping around. They looked like tiny little beatles. Anybody know what they are?

Sea World

Our happy family after a day at Sea World.

 

Doug and Alisha's Reception

Notice Mom is wearing a different dress.

The happy couple

A view of things to come . . . .

"I caught the flowers!"

 

More wedding pictures

Bryce and I share several characteristics, including our beautiful skulls. But bare scalps can be dangerous in the Dixie sun. Here Bryce fashions an improvised shade device using Rachel.

Did ganster Doug grow up in the hood?

The enterouge

Beautiful Day

 

The people at the Wedding

The cool girls: Katie Powell and Kimberly Madsen


David and Tori are so hot, they've got to wear shades!

No one could be happier that Doug is married than these two.

 

Doug and Alisha's Wedding

Just a few pictures of the lovely couple . . . .




 

Doug's Bachelor Party

St. George has a new indoor go-carting facility, where we decided to have Doug's bachelor party. It was such a riot, we all went back for another round the next day between the lucheon and the reception.


Robert and Julie demonstrate their starting technique.


Robert raises his hand for help? The gas pedal is on the right!
 

Doug's Truck

I guess anyone who reads this blog knows that we love to decorate for weddings. After Alicia saw the "love" we showed to Robert, she was reported to have said, "They better not try that on my apartment."

But Alicia had nothing to fear. Knowing Doug, we had long figured that his wife would suffer enough. So we put together the most classy decorations for his truck that we could think of.


WE SEE YOU BEN!!!


 

The Aftermath

After last week's exciting posts, I'm sure you all are wondering: "How did it go?" Did Robert laugh or cry? Did the motion detector detect any motion? How many fish survived? Did the neighbor call the cops about the sign? How does a bullion shower smell? Did the Jello in the toilet ever set up? How about the alarm clocks? And how about Julie? Did she ask for an annulment after seeing what her in-laws can do?

Unfortunately, the answer to these questions remain concealed. Expecting a Sunday evening phone call, I had left the ladder strapped to the top of the minivan (made for some interesting looks at church). But no phone call came. Monday after work, there had still been no phone call. Something WAS FISHY. I called Amy, since Robert and Casey work together. Amy said she heard that it was all cleaned up when Robert got home.

CLEANED UP?? How could this be. I decided to put in a call to Robert himself and see what he had to say. He said he arrived home and the house had been thoroughly cleaned. He said there wasn't a decoration, a fish, a BB, a light, or anything in the sinks or toilets. The only things he saw were the sign on the garage and the sign way up high on the condo outside. The inside was completely clean. He said only one alarm clock (the one in the heater vent) was not found before they went to sleep. "I don't know, I guess the Milar's came and cleaned it up," he said.

I was floored. Who could have done this? What kind of person would dare interfere with in these sensitive family matters? Who did the Milar's think they were anyway?

I told Robert I was really disappointed he didn't get to see a few of the things and moved on to call Mark, Bryce and Karen and tell them what I had heard. While talking to Bryce and Karen, it dawned on me that it would have taken a small army (and one willing to flush innocent fish to their deaths) to undo all the doings quick enough that the interior of the condo was spotless by the time Robert arrived back at 3 PM. This was just not possible. Especially if you consider that it was Sunday, and the Milar's would be at church before ever going to Provo. Something WAS FISHY.

I called my dad and asked for his help. We needed to know if the Milar's were really in on a quick clean up job or not. I asked Dad to call Gordon Milar and find out if they had taken down the decorations. I even proposed he start with a little confrontational statement like "I don't know who you think you are interfering in family matters, but . . . ." Dad declined. I offered other alternatives which were not quite so offensive, but he wasn't really interested in getting involved at all. Fine. I would take matters in my own hands.

At 8:30 or so on Monday night, I called the Milar home. Due to the sensitive nature of the conversations which ensued, requests for anonymity and in an effort to protect the innocent, I cannot reveal the conversations which ensued. But my suspicions were confirmed. ROBERT WAS LYING.

I quickly called the rest of the siblings who were elated to learn that all had not been lost. Robert had seen our "decorations." In fact, he might still be discovering more decorations as we talked. Jubilant spirits returned.

We have heard little or nothing from Robert since Monday. Our lives go on with curiosity as to what happened last Sunday. The questions largely remain unanswered. Gradually certain things have leaked back to the family from other sources (which shall also remain anonymous), confirming that Robert indeed found the house just as we had intended.

Robert's nonacknowledgement of our love, however, is troubling. Various ideas have circulated:
1) Should we kidnap him, put him in a black room with bright lights and slowly dripping water and make him admit his deceptive lies?
2) Should we persist in fake anger against the wonderful Milars? Should we overdramatize how upset we are and begin telling Robert about fake plots to seek revenge?
3) Should we simply repeat the operation the next time Robert leaves town, so that he will get to see the "decorations" this time?
4) Should we employ OPERATION HUMILITY, launching a rolling wave of increasingly traumatic attacks until he comes begging on bended knee for relief? Attacks that might involve cars, employers, taxation entities, honor code comittees, fake newspapers, etc.? Attacks so big, so visible, that he cannot continue to deny our love for him?

These and other questions will be discussed in family councils in the days and weeks to come. It is our sincere desire that Robert repent of his pride, humbly acknowledge our creation of Justice through Jello and our Greatness in Goldfish, and be readmitted to the family council.

I called and invited Robert and Julie to join Mark and me for pizza and the BYU game tonight. We'll have to see if he changes his line at all.

Jello

Jim on the Office is always putting various employees items into Jello, so when we saw the Jello at Walmart on sale for 33 cents, we had just the right idea. Mark first tried the optical mouse (too buoyant), then the remote control (too long), and finally settled on a large wad of cash he found in Rob's room. A few coins were also needed to keep the bills from floating.


 

Thanks to our sponsors

We want to acknowledge that none of this would have been possible without the support of our generous benefactors, Bryce and Karen Wisan. Bryce and Karen both felt bad that they weren't able to make the wedding and wanted to make sure Robert felt their support. Without even asking for money, Bryce called up and pledged $250 to the cause, with a promise to add even more if required. I guess that's the kind of generosity that can only come from having a brother-in-law place baby powder in your car vents and 72 black crickets in your honeymoon vehicle.

And we must thank Robert himself. Certianly we had evaluated Robert's plans and it was obvious that any attempts at old blue (his car) would be futile. Strategies were discussed, and a plan made. We had planned to get a copy of his key before the spring wedding, but when the wedding was moved up, we were left a little panicked. A council meeting was held, and Casey was given an emergency assignment to obtain access to the apartment. His intelligence suggested that Robs' roomates might be around to let us in. We thought we might just have to drop by and hope we ran into them and that they would be willing to go along. But Bob came through for us and made the whole thing easy by inviting them to the wedding, where we were able to make appropriate arrangements. Thanks Bob.
 

Outside

Unfortunately, my camera had a hard time focusing automatically when I took these pictures (it may have had something to do with having it set on manual focus and forgetting to focus). But you can appreciate the red glow from the light we replaced about 26 feet off the ground. All the other homes have regular white lights, but Casey's red light gives the neon banner below it a special illumination. "Robbie's Love Shack" is proudly displayed 26 feet off the ground. After putting it up, we only had one neighbor come and complain about it and threaten to call the police. "This is private property," he said. I reassured him my brother would take it down the next day. If not, he can always call the Homeowner's Board and complain.

This is also dissapointingly blurred, but Rob's house has been posted.

I showed Mark some flourescent tape I found and Walmart and asked hime to go write something with it. He paused for a brief second, and then an evil grin overcame his face and he said "I know just what to write." Hope that stuff comes off.

Some innovative ideas from WalMart

So we were walking down the isle at Walmart and spotted a container of 4000 BB's. Now, what would you do? We did what any good Madsen with Wisan funding would do--we bought them and boobie trapped the broom closet with them. Nicole made the sign about Bob being forgiven--we've yet to hear if it's really backed up by Bryce.

Unlike many of the other ideas we came up with, this one was straight revelation. We removed the fan light in the master bedroom and replaced it with a motion sensitive flood light. 14 ft vaulted ceilings were a bit of a challenge, but nothing an acrobat on two stools couldn't handle. That might also make getting them down a bit of an issue for Bob. We also plugged in an alarm clock that plays annoying Jazz music whenever the light is on. How better to encourage a little more talk and and a lot less action?

The bed was also specially prepared with a plastic sheet under the fitted bedsheet--it will help Rob sleep comfortably like being in a bed at Grandma Snow's. Not to metion the mattress protection it provides.