Christmas in Utah - Part 5

This is the fifth and final post on our Christmas trip to Utah.  To see the previous post, click here.

You're probably just about done with reading about our Christmas in Utah.  I promise that this is the last one ; )  I'm actually writing this with only one hand...more about that later.

We were winding down the trip, but still had some fun things left to do.  First, we visited our favorite cupcake shop in Utah - The Sweet Tooth Fairy! We love this place...as we aren't strangers to desserts. However, the cupcakes and "cakebites" are exceptionally good here.

Courtesy of Sweet Tooth Fairy

This trip, I tried the Egg Nogg cupcake...delicious!  When we stopped in, we found these - what a great coincidence:

The actual reason we were there (other than the craving) was to get a cupcake for my youngest daughter, who was turning one-year-old the next day. Instead of a full-blown cake, we decided to let her rip into something more manageable:

Hard to believe that she's a year old!! She admirably destroyed the cupcake whhile enjoying some delicious blue frosting - what a sweet little girl. Literally.

We also managed to visit my youngest sister as she was in the hospital for some surgery. She's terribly brave, and kept a sense of humor about the uncomfortable procedure she had to experience...

Little sis, her husband, my oldest daughter with her husband, me and G-Man, my wife with our youngest

That evening, I was lucky enough to use one of my Christmas presents - tickets to a Utah Jazz basketball game!! I had a blast with my father-in-law, as we watched a very close game with the New Orleans Hornets.  The Jazz prevailed, making it a great night!

We arrived a little early at the Delta Center

The evening ended at a decent hour, as I had to get up early the next morning.  I was scheduled for surgery...yes, you read that right:

The story goes like this...let's just say that I've been putting off some surgery on my hands for much too long.  I have what's called "trigger finger".  It means that I'm not able to fully use some of my fingers, and have difficulty keeping a form grip on objects.  I've had this problem off-and-on for over two years. My wife's uncle just happens to be an awesome hand surgeon.  Go figure.  He offered to do the procedure while I was in town:

Sweet bandage...right??

A couple of thoughts.  First, as you can see from the photo, I am now officially "flipping people off" with my middle finger. The nurse calls it my "driving finger"; )

Second, I wanted to share something that I haven't told very many people.  If you've been reading this blog, you know that I've had some wonderful opportunities to serve others over the last few months. This doesn't even include the numerous times that I've been involved with moving people in/out of their homes and volunteering to clean our local chapel. Normally, this type of activity is beyond my abilities (with my fingers). However, in every singly case, I've prayed fervently to my Father in Heaven - to allow me to be an instrument in His hands and help those around me. In every single case, I've been able to perform all duties asked of me. Lifting, grabbing, hammering, cleaning...you name it. Without FAIL. I'm truly blessed...and if you need someone toconvince you that God answers prayers - give me a call.  I have a pretty deep testimony of service - even when I didn't think I could serve.

So, I decided that I needed to do something about my condition, so I don't have to continually plead with the Lord...at least for my fingers to work ;)

I'll finish this post by letting you know that our adventure wasn't over yet!  A few hours later, still groggy from the anesthesia, I boarded a plane for Texas. My rock-star wife had to deal with 3 children that night...our two little ones and a stubborn "older" kid that doesn't like to admit that he needed help ; )

On our late-night flight...

That's it! I can't type with one hand anymore...I hope you've enjoyed our little adventure in Utah. We're looking forward to an awesome 2012!! Thanks for reading...