It has become an unofficial Bryant tradition to get the whole fam damily together on the Sunday morning session of conference to eat breakfast and watch conference together. I use the word "watch" loosely here because with eight grandchildren ages eight years and younger you can imagine how much of conference everyone really get to "watch." I thought I would share with all of you what a conference session "in the life of the Bryant's" is like:
Start time is 9:30 am. It is 9:45 and I am just pulling into the driveway of the Homestead. It's okay that I'm late though because Jake's family isn't there yet so my mom can't be too mad at me. Plus, I'm pretty sure that she already figured I'd be late so she told me 9:30 so I'd really get there by 10. Great! I'm early!
I walk in the house and smells of bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes and french toast envelope me. My mom had to make french toast AND pancakes because the night before she asked me and Shanel what we wanted for breakfast. I said french toast. Shanel said pancakes. In order to make ME happy (because I know my mom secretly wanted pancakes) she prepares both.
Jake's family arrives just as we start dishing out the food (in his defense, he does have to travel the farthest). I realize that everyone in my family is dressed nicely, their hair is combed and all of the women are wearing make-up. Apparently I am the only one who thought 9:30 was early enough to justify rolling out of bed, throwing on jeans and a hoodie and heading on my way. Hey, at least I put in my contacts and left the glasses at home. And I brushed my teeth. I'm feeling pretty good that I could at least accomplish THAT much.
So we all eat breakfast. The french toast is a hit (don't worry mom, I won't say, "I told you so.") and we get conference started. After about 15 minutes I look around. Dad is starting to snore in his recliner. Cade is massaging Jill's neck while he is simultaneously checking something out on his phone. Brian is reading the newspaper and Shanel is dead asleep on one of the couches. Mom is in the toy room with some of the grand kids, talking to Becky while the little ones are literally pulling out every single toy in the toy room. I don't see Jake but I assume he is downstairs on the computer working or trying to get his blog started up (that's right, another Bryant has started blogging. You can check it out here). Jill, setting the example for all of us, is intently listening to the speaker. I hope she took notes so she can fill me in on what was said, I was too busy watching everyone else!!
7 comments:
I would assume your family is not too different from all the rest. Read the Ensign, It's a curriculum product and you know I work for Curriculum. I don't even get a commission for advertising the product. Maybe an extra blessing or two.
Love the blog!!! It motivates me to update mine. Man...wish I could've been at the first Bryant Family Conference breakfast!! I would've chose French Toast too. It's a fave of mine. My family also gets distracted by many things. Thank goodness for the Ensign huh?! For your birthday, if you're seriously considering the choices on your survey, you should go skydiving because as soon as you buy an iphone you know they'll just create an even better phone that you'll be longing for and let's face it...you know you wanna!!!
Hey! Love the new look. Seriously, that other blog was so 2007.
Um, yes. Thank you for reminding me that I did not HAVE to be a nazi mom and shush my kids all day so I could listen to conference. I appreciate the reminder that it will come out in the Ensign and I can read it at my leisure. Now I have guilt.
Anyway, I vote for french toast, too! Sweet of your mom to give you guys both, though. Can I be a Bryant?
Nice new look Kan! Yes conference was good, but the most important thing is that we could be together as a family. I can always podcast conference anyway. To bad Jake has to spite us and put music on his blog. It way bugs! BTW I vote for the iphone.
You Bryants are all so flippin' fortunate to be in the same area so that you can do things like french toast & conference together! My family is too far apart. But having said that, even if we lived near each other, none of my family would be too psyched about conference....so that makes another reason you are so lucky! I loved the description of what everyone was doing! LOL
That conference day sounds a lot like my family's used to back in Utah. My parents would turn all the TVs and radios to conference and turn them up full blast so that even if we weren't paying attention, it would still manage to seep into our subconscious.
This year was the first that Jenny and I were able to watch it in our own living room. We finally moved into a place with high speed internet, and with a wireless router we could just set my laptop up on a TV tray. William kept us awake by constantly shifting from nap mode to eating mode to play mode and back again.
My husband read your blog at work today (I guess it was a slow day!), and he came home laughing out loud at your take on conference! I laughed, too. I'm always the one in my family that shows up makeup-less and feeling like I put forth enough effort just to get there . . . clean . . .mostly!
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