Nice day for a Weiler wedding

WARNING: Contents of this post are entirely suitable for children and will likely put them and most of their parents to sleep due to an insanely large amount of writing. Please refrain from reading near sharp objects or while operating heavy machinery.

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What trumps Christmas, college football, reunions with friends and a weekend of pro sports in Phoenix?

A baby sister as a blushing bride.

It was kind of dumb of me to go to Utah for the holidays packing four dress shirts and one pair of dress pants. Thankfully in the male world it worked out okay. Still, when you're home for 10 days and wear the same pair of pants five of those days, it gets repetitive.

Don't have many shots from the temple to show off due to technical difficulties. On the bright side, I accidently stumbled upon a fun way to frustrate your friends and family members: Hand them a camera with a dying battery and ask them to take pictures (Sorry Catherine).

Michelle and Michael were sealed by Elder Hinckley, who sat beside me the day before at their luncheon. (That's right, HE sat beside ME. I'm the important one here.) Elder Hinckley made quite the first impression, Just before passing me the basket of rolls, his first words were "So brother Weiler, where's your date?" Only could one of the Lord's inspired servants be so bold.

However, there's a good chance these folks fed him that line ...

Three themes stand out about my sister's wedding day, the kind of things we'll be telling Michael and Michelle's children about 20 years from now.

1) The weather. Cliche? Sure. But how can you not discuss the weather when you're January wedding in UTAH features

• no snow

• no nasty inversion haze

• sunshine

• a somewhat chilly gym during the reception (not really "weather", but it qualifies)

2) Michelle's train, or rather the nine shortys grasping the train everywhere she went. Totally adorable, especially considering the number of times they came close to lifting it too high. For a girl who grew up with no sisters and few little cousins, inheriting a half-dozen sisters in-law and nine nieces is a fantasy come true.

3) "Okay, everybody do a big hug!" Wish I had some photo evidence to illustrate this. I know my sister was really excited about her photographer. But seriously, any formal group picture she did was followed by the group hug picture. Enough already.

Great wedding Michelle and Michael. Hope you had fun in Hawaii.

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Alrighty then. Let's talk Christmas.

First of all, a big round of applause for the men and women at the airlines and airports who work on Christmas Day so cheap-o customers like myself can still fly home instead of driving for 11 hours. Oversized carry on? Welcome aboard. Yuma to Phoenix? 35 minutes.

We asked Santa Claus to make our house one of his final deliveries of the night so we could celebrate Christmas on the 26th, and the big man came through.

Christmas is a million times more fun with kids around, so we have Kevin's girlfriend Natalie and her son Chandler to thank for bringing us something else to play with than Dad's brain teasers (eh Leslie?)

The kids hooked up Mom and Dad with a flatscreen TV. There may not be high-speed or wireless Internet, cable or satellite broadcasting, blu-ray, MP3, Blackberry or Wii technology at the Weiler home, but if it ever it comes, it'll be in HD baby.

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It wouldn't be a trip to Salt Lake without getting together with some of the old 33rd ward crew. It's amazing how we can tell the some of the same stories over and over again and they never get old, but what's more amazing is there's usually one or two new stories that come out of the woodworks I've never heard before. Always good to find out new information that neglects to be shared, like the fact that one of them is now a firefighter (fairly new news, but still) and one of their wives is 7 MONTHS PREGNANT (C'mon Stir).

The other more unfortunate than amazing thing about hanging out with these guys: I'm just as bad at video games as I ever was. Mario Kart's a great game, but it gets old quickly when you're finishing 12th every time.

Also got to see a bunch of other friends from high school and college and play with their kids. Once again got schooled at the Wii (Jackson, age 4 1/2), learned the lyrics of a Black Eyed Peas song (Gavin, 2) received training in operating a circular saw (Carson, 2), dangerously ate peanuts at Five Guys restaurant (Everett, almost 1) and fell head over heels in love with a smiley-faced little girl (Kate, 1 1/2).

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Few other highlights from the vacation:

• Huge shout out to my cousin and fellow blogger Rebecca for notifying me that BYU Creamery chocolate milk is for sale at Deseret Book. If you don't understand the power of BYU Creamery chocolate milk, add it to the list of things you need to experience before you die and thank me later. Why I only bought one bottle while I was in Utah is a question with no acceptable answer.

• Finally, something to make me feel good about Max Hall.

We took a second picture where Doug acts like he's dreading losing our bet on the BYU-Utah football game, but that wouldn't be keeping it real. I wish it bothered my brother to wear BYU gear as much as it would have bothered me to be clad in Ute crimson, but it just doesn't. Curse his good nature.

• Speaking of Utah football, I spent my last day of pre-holiday vacation working at the Poinsettia Bowl. Trust me, my loyalties are just as blue as they ever were. And stay classy, San Diego.

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Last but not least, my first week back in Arizona was pretty darn enjoyable (hello 70-degree temperatures!!! You were sorely missed.) I went to my first Suns game (Thanks Athena!) and covered the Cardinals playoff game for work. Steve Nash, D-Wade, Larry Fitzgerald and the highest scoring playoff game in NFL history. It was ........ wait for it .......... awesome.