MERRY CHRISTMAS ELDER RIVERA!

 MERRY CHRISTMAS ELDER RIVERA!

Well, what’s it like you’re first Christmas out? What are you guys doing? And the question I’m most curious about, what were you doing at the Air Force base and what’s it like? What were you doing there.. How did you get in? I studied up a little on Canon Air Force Base and they specialize in the C-130 and other cargo planes (which I find very fascinating). Drones are also based there, which I don’t know as much about. The striking thing to me is how young the crews for those planes are. Like a captain could be Ben’s age, crew could be your age. I think it’s awesome.

Well, I may as well summarize the game. It sucked man, I mean it was really bad. Northwestern is a bad team, and they beat us. The Utah offense was worse than bad, Barns sucked. On the plus side, the company was good with only one person missing. Our seats were good, end-zone 8th row. That stadium is really cool, though I think ATT is fancier. We stayed at the Luxsor, which is the a decent hotel and is walkable to the stadium. We also got almost free plane tickets too. That may sound fancy, but we had to get up at three to get to the airport, fly to phoenix for a layover, then fly to Las Vegas. I figured that if we had clear traffic, we could have driving in about the same amount of time. Mom was on a different, direct flight, with her good buddy Julie George, in the lap of ease and comfort. 

When we got there we didn’t really know what to do as it was too early to check in. So I found a museum of the Atomic Testing grounds close by to check out. It was interesting, especially since I just finally finished the Oppenheimer book. During the Cold War, Las Vegas was where they tested atomic bombs. Well, not in Las Vegas, but pretty close by. Anyway, it was pretty cool. We just took Ubers and that worked out very well. We went to the hotel and checked in because we were pooped. Moms flight was delayed so we got a good little rest. 

When mom got there we all perked up, she has that effect on everybody. She’s pretty amazing that way. We found our seats then walked around the stadium a little. We hadn’t really eaten so we got burgers. They weren’t as bad as the garlic fries we had at Levi stadium but not as good as the food you can get at the Delta Center. I’m not going to say anything more about that game. After the game we came back to the room and mom wanted to go to the Hershey store. So, we went to the last Vegas strip with your two return missionary brothers. Well, we got some treats, one made me think of you, they had a donut flavored KitKat. It tasted just like a chocolate glazed donut. I’ll send you one when I find another one. Mom won’t let me write you a list of the icky Las Vegasy things we saw on the way. I will tell you that she lent them $7 bucks and they managed to parlay that into 50¢, Jacob says that he now has a gambling addiction. I forgot to mention, your brothers got on international tv. We got lots of texts saying that they were on, including someone from Jacob’s mission in Mexico.

After we got home today we went to grandmas house for Christmas Eve dinner, it was nice, especially after all the baby’s went home. I’m proud of grandma because she didn’t do gifts. I know that stressed her out, but guess what? Everyone survived and we still had a good time. 

Tomorrow we’re going back over for breakfast tomorrow, and everyone else is going over again for dinner. We may go see a movie tomorrow, but we’ll see. It kinda depends on if the friend comes over and when you can call. 

Well, I hope you wake up to snow and peace. I sure love you my boy. I’m so looking forward to hearing from you tomorrow.

Pops.