Farewell to a Very Good Year

Thursday, January 7, 2016 

Where has the time gone?  We thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas Eve party at Richard and Carolyn's. There was a big crowd with all of their kids and most of their grand kids.  I think one or two of Carolyn's kids were not there, but all of Richard's kids were there.

My brother Richard

It had been years since I had seen most of them and I really enjoyed it.  Scott and Lisa have adopted three kids. The first two boys are only seven months apart and they're about ten now, and then they got a beautiful little girl who is almost four I think, so they're close to the ages of Paul's kids.  Richard and Carolyn had gifts for everyone, including all of us.  I tried to talk Richard out of that, but no such luck.  I had made Death by Chocolate and then forgot to take it!  How do you forget something like that?  By the time we got home, we were all tired enough to go to bed--that was a good thing. We did have them open one gift each--the Christmas pajamas I had gotten them.  There wasn't a peep out of James, and I had figured he wouldn't be too impressed with gingerbread boy pajamas at his age, but he seemed to be fine with them.

We got up Christmas morning and I was surprised that Aimee was feeding the kids and hurrying them to get dressed.  I couldn't figure out why they had to be dressed to open presents and finally I realized she was getting them ready for church.  I didn't realize that Christmas is "a holy day of obligation" for Catholics, so in no time they were dressed and out the door.  They all looked really nice.

Katie, Jayden and James on Christmas morning

Paul was still asleep, and Robert and I just kind of waited for them to get home to open presents. When they returned, Aimee had them change back into their pajamas and then we opened gifts. Surprisingly, the kids all liked their clothes. James was thrilled with his Minecraft t-shirt and Katie, not surprisingly, loved her furry vest and the sparkly outfit. When they all put everything on later, everything fit and they seemed to love them.  I was so excited.  Jayden looked darling in his t-shirt with the snowman who had a mustache--they were all just cute.

 Paul had gotten Robert a bag of fake snowballs, so they all enjoyed an indoor "snowball" fight.

 He got us a telephone that we didn't think we needed, but ours has been acting a little strange, so we may need it after all.  He and Aimee got me a beautiful Brighton necklace and he surprised her with a necklace with charms on it for each of the kids.  She loved it.  He had also gotten one for Brenda and I knew she would love that.. He has a very thoughtful streak in him and often comes up with surprisingly sweet gifts. I think Robert loved the missionary statue I got us.

 It will be a wonderful keepsake of our mission. Later that afternoon they all went out to play in the snow and I was perfectly happy to stay inside. They found a hill behind the Capitol and had a great time on the tube Robert had gotten at DI--the tube was $3.00 and the hill was free--a much better price than the place I found on line that was about $15.00/person.

Saturday we went back to work and they put on their new outfits and went to the planetarium.  They saw something about black holes. We enjoyed being back at the library.

On Sunday we went to church and late that afternoon they left to find a hill for tubing.  They went back to the one behind the Capitol and had one last fling in the snow--tubing and making snow angels. They came in cold and wet, but laughing.  They'd all had a good time. That evening they had to start gathering their things. I wasn't sure they'd ever get it all together, but Aimee is good at all that and the next morning they only had a few things to finish up. They had to be at the airport at noon for a 2:00 flight, so we got everything loaded, stopped to gas up their rented car, and headed out.  Robert dropped me off to go in with the kids while Paul and Aimee returned the car.  When I met up with them, Aimee had gotten a text that their plane had been delayed coming into SLC and they wouldn't leave til 6:00.  I thought, "Six hours at an airport with three kids!"  But Aimee said it would be fine. She needed to find  something for her mom at a gift shop and they'd be o.k. We said our good by's and went to the library.  It had been a whirlwind week.  We were ready to get back to some kind of normal.

We were off on Tuesday, the 29th and scurried around here putting away the tree, the Christmas cards, the garland, doing laundry and generally trying to get back to the usual.  I felt like we had done a lot when we finally left to go grocery shopping, but when we came back, there were stacks and piles everywhere and I wasn't sure we had accomplished anything that morning!  We dug in again, finding places to put things.  It was pretty well done by that evening.

We worked Wednesday and Thursday.  I wondered if we'd have anyone on New Year's Eve, but we did.  Close to the end of the day I had a family of a mom and dad, a couple of older kids, the grandma and a married son and his wife.  I just took the mom and they mentioned they were going over to the Broadway Shows sing-along at 6:00 and I remembered that was one of the things I had really wanted to do.  It was so cold out that we had about decided to just go home after work and get inside, but we decided to do that one event.  It turned out to be so much fun. They had the words on a big screen up front, a lady playing the piano who was excellent, and a guy and a lady circulating through the audience with mics, leading the singing and putting the mic down for folks who could really sing. There were a bunch of those, many of whom who had been in different shows, and it was fun.  I was surprised at the songs I didn't know--newer ones I guess, but with the words in front, it was still easy to join in.  The family I had helped was sitting right in front of us and the young couple in the family really got into it--they must have both done shows in high school or college.

We were closed on New Year's Day, so we stayed home, watched the parade on TV, cooked and ate--pretty normal things. Then back to work on Saturday. It was so sad to think of the lights on Temple Square coming down and across the street at the Conference Center.

This is the huge tree we saw them start putting lights on in August

                                     

On Sunday, the 3rd, we hosted at the JSMB. It was the first week for the Second Branch to meet in our building, so there was some confusion, but it wasn't too bad.  There are now five units meeting in the JSMB, starting with the young sisters at 7:30. It's a busy place!

Tuesday I had a doctor appt. at the mission clinic to get a refill on the Evista prescription that I've been taking for years. I thought Dr. Long would write it for me, but the nurse said he couldn't do it because he hadn't seen me.  I had asked them to tell him that we're on a mission, but I'm not sure they did.  Anyway, I saw Dr. Ricks at the clinic and she wrote a new one for me.  When we went to WalMart to fill it, they only had a few on hand, so they gave me those and ordered more in. We went to the Distribution Center and I got Priesthood and RS manuals, a Sunday School BofM outline and looked at scriptures.  I decided I may get new ones with the gift card M & M gave us for Christmas. I'm still using the ones I had when I taught Seminary, and that was over 30 years ago! Finally, I decided we needed to go by DI to get some more books, even though I really thought it would be good to go one week without going to DI, but off we went.  I walked straight to the books--not looking at anything else, and Robert saw a scroll saw!  Like we really need one of those in the apartment!  It was only $20 and he decided he had to have it.  We've never finished any of the wooden temples we started cutting out months ago at Judy's. I said, "You can't cut them out in the apartment, there will be sawdust everywhere!"  He told me to buy a shower curtain or sheet or something, so I bought a sheet and off we went--crazy!

That Friday Jason Saulsbury called Robert and told him they were coming up here to go job hunting. Robert told them to stay here, so they came in Sunday morning, bringing Robert a bag of boudain balls.

 He was thrilled of course; me not so much.  I was glad they got here in time to go to church with us.  It's just such an amazing experience to go to church in that incredible building.  He told us about the time he and Phillip went to church there and got to pass the Sacrament--they've always treasured that experience.  As it happened, Robert was supposed to pass it that day and he let Jason take his place. I thought that was neat.

On Monday they went up to Logan

We came home and changed and we drove up to the cemetery so they could see the graves of many of the pioneers and prophets.  It was getting dark, so we didn't get out, but they enjoyed seeing it.  Then we drove up above the cemetery and saw the city at night with the lights on and it's so beautiful.

On Tuesday the 12th, we were scheduled for an appointment with the mission presidency at 12:15. We had talked for months about possibly extending our mission through the summer so we could be here to help during the busy season.  We felt the two determining factors on our part would be if Jessica could stay in the house and if Aunt Gladys is doing o.k. So I had texted Jessica several weeks ago and she said they could stay through the summer, or they could get an apartment if necessary, either one was fine.  Then Robert called and talked to Arthur and Josephine both.  The bottom line is that Aunt Gladys misses him and would like to have him home, but there's not a whole lot we could do for her. He could take some of the pressure off of Arthur, but Aunt Gladys seems to be doing reasonably well.  So we told President Larson we would like to stay through the summer, if that wouldn't make a problem for others with housing.  He said, we're here first and whatever we want to do, other things will be worked out around it.  We were thrilled with that and told him we would like to stay through August.  It has to be o.k.'d through our stake president at home and the mission committee, but it should all be in line for us to stay.

We decided to go to mission conference at 2:00 so that we'd have all of Wed. off and we could go to the temple.  At conference they announced a new reading plan.  We did the BofM three times in three months last August, then the General Conference talks, which I loved, and now we're going to do the Doctrine and Covenants three times.  It'll be ten pages a day instead of 18, so it won't be quite as intense.

Wednesday morning Jason and Gayle left. They feel like they have a plan of what they want to do, so they were ready to do home and start on it. He's going to get his CDL in Texas and then come up here to find a job. They really feel like they want to move up here somewhere, so I hope it all works out for them. We decided to go to Mt. Timpanogos Temple and we headed south.  It was very lovely, but so far, Payson is my favorite, and the view coming out of the Jordan River Temple is tops, I think. When we came out, Robert wanted to find a Hobby Lobby and buy Elder Disque some wheels for the toys he makes and donates to the Primary Children's Hospital at Christmas. He makes them all year long, then donates them at Christmas. We found a store and also bought a piece of soft wood to cut out three more temples. Robert had to find blades for the saw and when they came in, the pine was a little hard for the saw to cut through, so he's going to try this.

By then I was starving. We had had a late breakfast, no lunch and I was ready to eat. We saw a Rodizio Brazilian restaurant and I decided that sounded good.  We've eaten at them twice--with Downers and Stutts. It is so good. That grilled pineapple is luscious and the bites of all the different meats is just yummy.  I was definitely full when we left there.

At the library we have a new training we're doing. Since it is slower in the winter, they have made up packets covering different ways to research and we are working through them, which I think is a good idea, although I wonder if they rather hurriedly put these first ones together because I don't think the instructions are always clear.  But already, on the first one, I've done something I hadn't done before, so they may be very helpful.

It has snowed about once a week since the first of December.  Sometimes it's just a little, that hardly sticks to the ground, and sometimes it's more and turns everything into a fairyland again.  It's beautiful.

Our walk to the library