The Pete and Vickey Codella annual greeting

Written by Vickey on January 1, 2012

2011 was a fantastic, crazy, and wonderful year for our family. We hope 2012 finds you all well and happy.

Here is a short review of what we have been up to the last 12 months. Photos follow the text, if you make it that far.

Pete

• Applied and was accepted to the Executive MBA program at the University of Utah. He is doing a great job!
• In February, he decided to take down a wall in our master bathroom. Those of you that know Pete well will not be surprised to know that he re-tiled and painted the whole bathroom while he was at it.
• Continues to run Codella Marketing successfully.
• Is an exceptional husband and father.
• Went on a field trip with Dominic’s kindergarten class to Utah’s Hogle Zoo.

Vickey

• Went to the American Heart Association Ball with Pete (he was one of the volunteer organizers).
• Got a ticket to and attended “The Little Mermaid” at the Tuacahn Theater in St. George for her birthday (thanks Madeline and Pete!).
• Organized a Snow Family reunion at Eggett Park in Bountiful and enjoyed being with her extended family for the first time in a VERY long time.
• Became a curriculum coach for the Davis School District.
• Went on a field trip with Ellie’s 3rd grade class to see the tulip gardens at Thanksgiving Point.

Ellie

• Got to spend one week with her best friend from Las Vegas, Olympia.
• Became a 4th grader, started piano lessons, joined Young Astronauts (a science program at school), played on a soccer team for the first time and sang in the school choir.
• Got a ticket to and attended “The Little Mermaid” with her mom and grandparents in St. George for her birthday (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Codella!).
• Rode horses in Elkridge, Utah at Rimrock Ranch (thanks Dan and Paula!) and in Washington, Utah (thanks Tessa and Emma!).
• Jumped off the high dive at the community recreation center pool for the first time.

Dominic

• Started 1st grade, played on a soccer team for the first time, rode a horse and hiked to Delicate Arch.
• Became an expert Wii and DS game player.
• Survived a scary and awful bout with cellulitis. It’s a long story.
• Discovered the world of Legos.
• Went to Lagoon twice and found out he shares his mom’s love of roller coasters (much to his dad’s chagrin).
• Also – Dominic proved his independence in a solo trip to Arctic Circle to buy himself an ice cream cone (you can read about it here).

Family Highlights

Knowing family vacations would be sparse (at best) while Pete was in school, we surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland in April during spring break. We had loads of fun, ate more than we should have and decided that the next time around we will schedule a few beach days in-between days at Disneyland.

In 2010 my little sister married the love of her life, Kevin. Last June, we were able to spend a week in Moab with the Snow family celebrating their marriage. They renewed their vows in a wonderful ceremony and had a catered dinner for us that evening. We laughed, played, hiked and enjoyed being together as a family.

We took two trips to Cedar City to visit Grandma and Grandpa Codella and see how they were progressing on construction of their dream home in New Harmony. It has gone from a huge hole in the ground to a lovely home over the past 18 months. The construction site made for a great Easter Egg Hunt with the cousins.

We also stayed with Matt and Jamie while we were in southern Utah and helped break in the new (gigantic) pool Matt built in their backyard. What a blast!

We visited and were visited by many of our family members and good friends.

Thanks to each one of you for making our lives rich and full. We love you all!

Pete and Vickey Codella

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We are fortunate to live in northern Utah. There are many things we really like about our neighborhood and proximity to jobs and loved ones.

Something we didn’t know when we purchased our home here last summer is that we’re in the over-the-mountain-down-the-valley wind tunnel.

We have endured two very powerful windstorms here in the past five days. You can watch some video footage I shot of the storm on Thursday on YouTube.

On Thursday last week about half of our neighbors lost their shingles and fences. Some lost windows and large play sets with play houses, swings and slides. Windows shattered. Play sets vanished into quick air.

My wife saw a canoe in a pine tree just down the street. A friend of mine this weekend was able to remove his kids’ large trampoline out of the top if his neighbor’s tree. These things just don’t normally happen.

The weather pros said we had 106 mile-per-hour winds in our area. And the wind blew from 2 to 10 a.m.

Yesterday we only had a one-hour sacrament meeting at church. The men spent the rest of the day out in the neighborhood cleaning up and hauling debris to the dump or one of several makeshift dumping grounds.

I’ve lived through a tornado and hurricane in Houston, Texas in 1983. What we endured as a family a few days ago was every bit as dangerous and crazy as a hurricane or tornado.

And the school district didn’t even close school on Thursday. They did on Friday, however. It’s a good thing because most in this community didn’t have power Thursday or Friday.

I do have something to be grateful for, however. The wind bent our 2-car garage door into our garage, folding and pushing it up against the back of our truck. So, after filing an insurance claim at 6 a.m. on Thursday for at least a half-dozen needed property repairs, we got a new 2-car garage door on Saturday.

Can I tell you how much I love this new garage door? I never knew I could love a garage door, but it’s true!

It’s so quiet that it no longer signals to those of us inside the house that someone has arrived. Not even our dog can hear it, get excited or bark. He doesn’t even know the car is here until people walk in the door to the garage.

The opener on the wall by our door came with a motion sensor AND tells you the temperature of the garage. How cool is that? I love that whenever I walk out the door, the lights turn on automatically.

And we now have a transmitter in our room that tells us whether or not the garage door is down. If not, we can just push a button and close it from the comfort and warmth of our bedroom.

I love that the garage door is now insulated and wrapped twice in steel to prevent another buckling from a crazy windstorm.

I love the smell of our new garage door. I love the panel of windows at the top and the natural daylight they let into the garage.

I just feel so giddy and happy and safe every time I go into our garage.

So, thanks to the December 1st windstorm and our homeowner’s insurance, along with some unexpected cash out-of-pocket at Christmastime.

At least I can now say, “I love our garage door!”

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My dad, Peter Codella, at his new home building lot in New Harmony, Utah on April 23, 2011.

I wrote a couple articles for Father’s Day this year.

You can check them out at Modern Mormon Men and Today’s Mama.

I’m so grateful for the example of fathers in my life, thankful for all they’ve done and made possible for me in my life, and in the lives of my family members.

Love ya, dad and dad-in-law!

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On May 25 I accompanied Dominic and his kindergarten class on a field trip to Hogle Zoo.

We left the school at 9 a.m. and stayed at the zoo till 1. Everyone brought a sack lunch for food.

Each parent was assigned a few kids to chaperone. Dominic and I explored with his friend, Atiba. I think we walked past all the animals at least three times. And I think I was calling out one of the boys’ names at least every other minute. We had a challenging time sticking together – so many fun things to see and explore.

Dominic loved seeing all the animals and pretty much knew the names of each of them. He was a little afraid of the large animatronic dinosaur, and Atiba was scared of the snakes and spiders, but other than that they were completely enthralled.

If you’d like to check out the photo album I’ve shared on Picasa, you can see all the photos here.

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You may have noticed the long hiatus from publishing on my family blog. It’s not due to a lack of things to write about as much as it is the ease with which I can update family and friends on our happenings using Facebook.

Isn’t it interesting how status updates and microblogging like Twitter, even blogs like Posterous, have made blogging so simple and easy?

As part of my commitment to better preserve our family experiences, I’m one of the new contributing writers on the blog Modern Mormon Men. I look forward to sharing on that site what it means to live in this day and age, be a Mormon, husband and father.

I hope you’ll join the conversation with me on Modern Mormon Men, and thanks to my friend, Ken Craig, for hooking me up with the opportunity to contribute there.

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For our annual update we’ll get right to it with the year’s highlights:

• Vickey received her master’s degree in education in May
• We purchased and moved into a home in Bountiful, Utah in June
• Eliana started third grade and Dominic began kindergarten in August
• Pete had deviated septum (July) and hernia surgery (April) and got braces (June)
• Eliana had her tonsils removed during April’s school spring break
• Vickey’s three siblings each got married and purchased new homes this summer
• Pete and Vickey celebrated their 11th anniversary with a trip to San Jose in June
• Pete’s dad retired, his parents moved from upstate New York (where they lived since ‘83) to Cedar City, and they’re building a home in New Harmony, Utah

Dominic

Dominic is five this Christmas. He’s very interested in Santa. He’s slowly learning how to be a good student and friend in kindergarten. He loves playing video games. This fall he practiced and competed in wrestling through a program with the high school wrestling team. Now the rest of the family are beneficiaries of his recently acquired wrestling moves. Dominic is all boy and keeps things active and interesting for our family.

Eliana

It’s hard to believe Ellie is nine now. She’s an excellent student (and dare we say teacher’s pet?). She’s a good little reader and is known as a friend to everyone in her class both at school and church. Like her mom, she’s very considerate and mindful of others. Eliana has made some good new friends in our neighborhood and this fall even got to make a trip on her own to Henderson to visit her BFF, Olympia (who also spent a week with us in Bountiful this summer).

Vickey

Vickey continues to work as a special education teacher and department chair at South Davis Junior High School. She’s glad to have received her master’s degree and have her schoolwork behind her. She worked all summer to get us unpacked and organized in a place of our own. She teaches the six year-olds at church in primary.

Pete

Pete’s public relations consulting practice continues to grow. He’s also teaching classes on social media for University of California, Irvine online and in-person in the continuing education division of the University of Utah. His speaking and consulting this year has taken him to New York, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada and California, as well as around Utah. He works with the 13-14 year-old guys at church and enjoys being involved in scouting again. He also sings with the ward choir and participated in a singing exchange in October with a local Episcopal church choir.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

At this time of year we’re happy to focus on the birth of the Savior and give thanks for His gift of immortality and the opportunity we have to return to a loving Heavenly Father.

We’re so grateful for all we have – mostly family, friends, faith and a blessed, comfortable life.

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and most wonderful New Year!

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We’ve had trouble this fall with Dominic getting warnings and sent to the think tank (time out) in his kindergarten class. The kid just likes to talk and has lots of energy – and no patience. So, he’s learning to respect others when they’re talking and his teacher when she’s teaching. (She’s so patient!)

Last month after several consecutive trips to the think tank we decided to try incentivizing him with a bowling trip. He had to earn seven stars, one for each day he didn’t get sent to the think tank. It took him a few weeks, but he did it.

Below is a short video of our trip today to Orchard Lanes in North Las Vegas (or watch it on YouTube here).

Dominic has agreed on his next reward — a trip to the South Davis Recreation Center to go swimming after he earns 10 stars. We’ll see how long that takes.

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One of our new favorite Thanksgiving recipes is this cranberry relish. Vickey found it in a Thanksgiving Taste of Home magazine. It was delicious yesterday on our Thanksgiving turkey.

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups sugar
½ cup water
1 package (12 ounces) fresh or frozen cranberries
2 large tart apples, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and water to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 3 minutes.

Stir in cranberries, apples, onion, raisins, brown sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, salt, allspice and cloves.

Return to a boil. Reduce heat: simmer, uncovered for 25-30 minutes or until desired thickness, stirring occasionally.

Just before serving, stir in toasted walnuts.

Serve warm or cold.

Other Ideas

This makes a good appetizer when spooned over room-temperature cream cheese and served with crackers.

You can also mix the chutney with cream cheese for a day-after-Thanksgiving turkey sandwich spread. Or, thin the spread with sour cream or yogurt to use as a dip.

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When I was a teenager my grandpa, Angelo Codella, taught me how to make a cheesecake. I’ve always had a sweet tooth and for some reason the experience of baking with my grandpa and the simply amazing taste of cheesecake has solidified it as one of my favorite desserts. Yes, I do enjoy eating at The Cheesecake Factory!

I recently ran across this recipe for what’s known as New York City’s best cheesecake. It does taste just like the real thing. I used to bring Junior’s cheesecakes home with me when I would drive upstate to my parents’ place for the weekend while I was working at Merrill Lynch in New York City’s World Financial Center.

So, for those of you on Facebook who have asked me to share, here’s the recipe.

Junior’s Famous No. 1 Cheesecake

Sponge Cake Layer

1/2 cup cake flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
3 extra-large eggs, separated
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 drops lemon extract
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter

Cream Cheese Filling

Four 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 350º. Generously butter a 9-inch springform pan.

To make the sponge cake layer, combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on high speed, beat the egg yolks for 3 minutes. Then, with the mixer still running, gradually add the 1/3 cup sugar and continue beating until thick light-yellow ribbons form in the bowl, about 5 minutes more. Beat in the vanilla and lemon extracts.

Sift the flour mixture over the yolk mixture and stir it in by hand until no more white flecks appear. Blend in the butter.

In a separate bowl, using clean, dry beaters, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together on high speed until frothy.

Gradually add the 2 tablespoons sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Stir about 1/3 cup of the whites into the batter; then gently fold in the remaining whites (don’t worry if a few white flecks remain).

Gently spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake just until the center of the cake springs back when lightly touched, about 10 minutes (watch it carefully, and bake longer in higher altitudes). Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack while you make the cream cheese filling. Do not remove the cake from the pan.

To make the cream cheese filling, place one package of the cream cheese, 1/3 cup of the sugar, and the cornstarch in a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture is creamy, about 3 minutes. Then beat in the remaining 3 packages of cream cheese.

Increase the mixer speed to high and beat in the remaining 1 1/3 cups sugar, then beat in the vanilla. Blend in the eggs, one at a time, beating the batter well after each addition. Blend in the cream. Mix the filling only until completely blended; don’t overmix the batter.

Gently spoon the cream cheese filling on top of the baked sponge cake layer. Wrap the bottom of the pan with foil. Set the springform pan in a large shallow pan and place in oven. Add enough water to the shallow pan to come up about 1 inch up the sides of the springform pan. Bake the cheesecake until the center barely jiggles when you shake the pan, about 1 hour (longer in higher altitudes).

Let the cake cook on a wire rack for 1 hour. Then cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate in the pan until it’s completely cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Serve by itself or with your favorite cheesecake topping.

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Last week Eliana’s school hosted a dance recital for the students who have participated in the after school dance program (that would be Ellie).

She was so excited to show us what she has been working on every Monday after school.

She even suggested one of the numbers, Popular, from the musical Wicked.

Here’s a video from the school performance.

And here’s a link to the video on YouTube.

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