Hooray for Olympicness

Last night we hosted our family Olympic Opening Ceremony Potluck which has kind of been a tradition of ours for the past few Olympics.  We need to get into a home so we can include more than family but it was still very fun.  We made it an international food potluck and it always amazes me how you can have a wide variety of foods representing various countries and it all seems to taste good together.  Each dish had their unique flavors but they were bound to touch when you cram your paper plate full of a little bit of everything.  But it worked.  I'm not going to turn this into some silly metaphor for life or mankind but I will say that never has the world looked so good than it did sitting on my plate last night.  Never had it tasted so good too.  This year we had flavors from China, India, Korea, Italy, Poland, and USA.  Pictured here are some of the things I'll post soon for the Chinese Food Olympic Event.

The opening ceremony was fabulous, very fun to watch but then maybe I'm being partial due to my heritage.  I would have loved to be there to watch it all!  Actually, my aunt D got us tickets for various Olympic events during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.  I got to see a men's prelim hockey game with my sister (hockey is very fun to watch).

I also got to see the dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony the night before and it was spectacular, even if they had stand-ins for the big stars (the guys faking Yo Yo Ma and Sting were hilarious) and we didn't get to see the big torch actually lit.  We didn't get to see all the athletes and we only got a portion of the fireworks but really, just being there was worth it!  But the Beijing opening ceremony just blew me away with the number of people involved, the costumes, the artistry, the images...

Something we don't hear about too much is the Paralympics and I thought those were a lot of fun and very inspiring.  I went to see two sledge hockey games and I'll tell you that it was just as exciting as the regular ice hockey game and it sure seemed just as brutal.  The players sit on a sled and they each play with 2 short sticks with one end a curved blade like regular ice hockey and the other end has some picks in it to use to push their sleds over the ice.  If you look real close you can see little sledge players on my sister's shoulder...

Ya, we really got into hockey that winter.  But it wouldn't be an Olympic good time without a groovy souvey and that was the first time the US had all the athletes' clothes designed by Roots and it was extremely popular (at least in Utah).  There was always a line outside the Roots store.  We felt the need to experience that.  I still have that hat actually. 

Ahhh, if it weren't for the Olympics I might not have had my first authentic German bratwurst.  If it weren't for the Olympics I might not have had the chance to go to Costa Rica - BYU gave us two weeks off for the Olympics and I had a friend who had family there so we went.  If it weren't for the Olympics my mom might not have taken a picture with Mitt Romney in Soldier Hollow (too bad I don't have a copy of that one right?).  If it weren't for the Olympics my dad might not have been subjected to hours of Curling at the Japanese newsroom headquarters.  As you can see, we have loads to be grateful for!