Yes, it's Groundhog Day! And that meant that I absolutely had to continue my personal tradition of watching the comedy, Groundhog Day on DVD today.

This evening, at my folks house in Hurricane, Utah, Julianne (my youngest sister), Kendall (my youngest brother) and I held a small Family Home Evening ("FHE") in the kitchen, opening with prayer and the traditional Gifford FHE opening song, Here Comes the Ox Cart. Then Julianne read an article out of the The New Era (Editorial aside: I hope someday the webmasters at the lds.org web site will get rid of that awful HTML frames-based navigation system for HTML content and use frameless HTML. It's awful to link to, and difficult to use, though the actual content is marvelous. Ug!) and we discussed it and other topics related to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was fun.

While Julianne read the article, and througout the discussion, I was preparing batter for a chocolate cake, using our family's slightly modified version of the Hershey's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake recipe, the one on the back of Hershey's Cocoa containers. (I think we just reduce the butter a little bit. Oh, the family version uses less cocoa, 1/2 cup, but I choose to stick with Hershey's 2/3 cups cocoa myself.)

After the cake was in the oven and our discussion around the kitchen table ended, we gathered around the piano, picked a hymn, and sang a verse, then had family prayer to close Family Home Evening. It was fun. We hung out together afterward, Julianne getting out her guitar. I sure do have great brothers and sisters. I don't know why I'm so blessed.

Once the cake was finished baking and was cooling on top of the stove (still in it's pan—we usually cut slices right out of the pan and eat it without frosting, sometimes with vanilla ice cream, but most often just plain—it's that yummy), Kendall went downstairs and snagged the Groundhog Day DVD and brought it back up so that Kendall and I could watch it.

What a riot! I love that show. I would break out laughing in anticpation of favorite jokes or lines. I really cracked up in several scenes when the main character, Phil Conners, dealt with the annoying Ned Ryerson. Julianne, in the other room doing whatever it is teenagers do these days to get ready for bed (allegedly it hasn't changed much since I was a teen) probably wondered if her two older brothers were a little bit crazy, we were laughing so loudly and so often.

Surprisingly enough, the movie has some good messages, that are applicable to living the Gospel. Things like selfishness and pride will never be fulfilling, but true service to others and selfless love always will be fulfilling.

So I really had a blast. My parents missed out on a fun evening.

I sure hope my Dad's surgery goes well tomorrow. My folks drove up north today do the Provo, Utah area, where my Dad's scheduled to have surgery on his back tomorrow. He's in our prayers. I really hope it goes well for him, and that he will heal quickly and well. I would like nothing more than for him to find relief from the excruciating and constant pain he's endured for so long now.

My sister, Katie, and her two sons, are coming to Hurricane soon to visit. She and her husband and sons live in Colorado. Another sister, Janna, has been out staying with them now for a little while, and will be coming home with Katie. I hope their drive goes well, considering the storminess and snow that's been around. I actually saw snow flakes in the air today in Hurricane.

Well now it's after midnight, so I'm signing off to go to bed.