Santa Didn't Bring Any Snowshoes

We lost power in the afternoon and the power stayed off for close to five hours. I had a ham in the oven and rolls rising. The oven turned off, even though it's gas (probably an electric ignition?). I suppose we could have manually turned on the gas in the oven w/a match, but didn't want to try, so ended up cooking some canned soup on the stove top. I have to say that having the power off was the best part of the day, at least for me. It brought the family, for the most part, together. The boys and I played Uno for a couple hours by candlelight. It was fun and everyone was laughing. Guess who does not do well during a power outage? Rafael. He doesn't like to play games, so didn't join us. He doesn't like to read, which is what I later did. He gets really antsy when he can't watch TV, which is what he does all day, so he definitely would not do well in a cabin.

We got snow for Christmas, lots of snow, the kind of snow that keeps you from going anywhere. It's a good thing it was Christmas and we were planning on staying in. Here's a shot of Jared building a bit of a snow fort from the pile of snow shoveled off the driveway, and that's Victor in the red coat throwing a snowball at me.
All in all, it was a truly memorable, white Christmas. I loved it!!

Christmas Eve

We're busy getting ready for an evening w/the family. Jared made gingerbread men and did a terrific job of decorating. It's nice when you can turn your son loose in the kitchen and go back to work (yes, I'm trying to get some jobs typed). V's friend came over and gave him a new beanie just when I was snapping these kitchen shots. We've had lots of neighborhood gifts coming this past week and especially today, plus we've been out delivering J's rice crispy treats to his friends. I also had some RS angels that have been sitting on my counter for the past two weeks. Jared helped me get those delivered and off my shoulder (huge sigh of relief).

Give R a call. He's feeling a little down, I can tell.

We're going to have what has evolved from a Bethlehem dinner into a fingerfood dinner tonight We've usually done this on New Year's Eve, as we're generally out of town on Christmas Eve.

Santa has been really good to me this year and has brought me a head cold. I think I'll soak in a hot tub w/a good book (am reading Host by Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame) and get to bed early tonight.

Gotta Get a Picture For the Christmas Card

Weeks ago: Look through the pictures taken through the year. Yikes. There is not one picture with all five of us looking anywhere in the same direction. Gotta get a picture for the Christmas card. Mention such to family. Get funny look, like "good luck trying to get us together." Hmmm.

Last Sunday: Tried to get everyone together for a picture before church, but w/meetings and teenagers who sleep, sleep, sleep....then hubby who changes clothes immediately upon getting home, and visits, and ..... no picture taken.

Last Wednesday: Getting desperate and am no longer suggesting times, but giving orders. Picked up T from work at 6 p.m. Hurry and get cleaned up 'cause we're going to take a picture. Push him towards the shower (he works at a car/tire store and he comes home embedded in rubber and grease). Tell R to grab the camera tripod and get it set up. Too much trouble to coordinate clothing, so figure that we'll set the camera for black and white and that'll just have to suffice. R can't remember how to do the black and white setting, so I find the manual and read the instructions. What? It didn't work?

Boys: "Mom, we have to leave for mutual now."

M: "Wait, just one more picture. Go ahead and take it. Forget about the black and white setting. We just need ONE picture."

Husband looks at the screen, the itsy, bitsy screen, and said we got the picture. Good. Deed done. Husband and two boys head off to mutual. I take our ancient (only three years old) digital camera w/the itsy, bitsy screen, remove the memory card, pop the same into computer and bring up the picture. Yikes. Son #3 has eyes shut. How can this be? You closed your eyes on purpose? Are you crazy? Note: M still has camera manual in hand in picture. This same manual gets thrown at son #3 for purposely closing his eyes. By the time sons #1 and #2 come in from BB practice later that night, son #3 and R are in bed, so do I go ahead and use this picture or delay another day?

Thursday: Everyone is home for a few minutes. Quick, grab the camera and let's take a picture.

R: Okay everyone put on a black shirt.

M: Forget about a black shirt. I'm pretty sure I can choose the black and white options at the store when I develop the pictures.

R is very adamant about wearing black.

M: "I don't have a black shirt."

R: "What about the one you wore yesterday?"

M: "It's in the laundry."

R: "Go get it on."

M: "But my hair is pulled up and I look 'frumpy."

R: "Go change your shirt and forget about the hair."

Boys: "We have to leave NOW for BB."

Bottom line: We took one picture, only one, w/mom in a dirty, black shirt and boys needing to be out the door.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

And Still Another View From My Desk

It's 8:30 in the morning, a gray winter day, a very light snow falling when picture was taken, but in the few minutes when I snapped the picture and am keying in this message, the snow has turned to big flakes and is really starting to come down. It is the perfect day to stay inside before a fire, curl up with a good book and drink hot chocolate, that is in my "wish-it-could-be-so day." However, my reality world says to hurry and get a shower, as I have a presidency meeting and just found out that the teacher Sunday is on death bed watch w/her father. She's a lovely person and we would do anything for her, so now we need to rethink Sunday's lesson, plus hammer out the 2009 budget and schedule, etc. I just made an appt. for Tony to see the doc this afternoon, as he has a fluke day home--no work or school--and has had a weird arm rash for a while. Plus I have errands to run and work to do....so no fire and book today. Dang.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

I Sit and I Ponder the Beauties

Okay, the last post had a beautiful sunrise picture and I was sitting and working while looking out my window and I soooo love seeing the blue sky against the snow-covered mountains. They're majestic. I'll have to post a picture some day when it's so gray outside that you can't even see the mountains; that is called an inversion--really ugly, contributes to depression. The sunshine definitely contributes to elevated attitude.

It's mid afternoon and 30 degrees outside. The shine on the street is not melted snow; it's ice. We will be down to about 15 degrees tonight. Brrrr. Go ahead and laugh you palm-tree residents!!

Ask my boys what happens when you take the car and go play on the snow-covered streets before the plow goes through. Fortunately, the play resulted in only a broken rim.

Welcome To A New Day

It's a gorgeous morning, great way to start a new day, a new week. Have been working here at the desk and keeping my eye on the sunrise. I feel good, happy, rested this morning, so this glorious sunrise is a total bonus. My desk is piled high with papers and I'm overdue to pay bills, so I need to get busy and be productive.

And this is why you don't wear flip flops in Utah in December

We made it through the lottery for tickets for the Christmas program. Way worth braving the winter storm on the way home. On the right is the nativity floating on the reflection pond before the temple. On the way back to the car, I grabbed a quick shot of the Beehive House. It was bitterly cold w/a bit of wind to whip up the snow. Brrrr. The boys were STARVING (well, so was I), so we ended up going to Hires (a local favorite) for a burger, getting home at midnight. I feel that Christmas is officially right around the corner--nothing like going to Temple Square shoulder to shoulder w/others looking at the twinkling lights, oohing and aahing, hearing the beautiful music to put one in the season's mood, plus a little white on the ground doesn't hurt either.

Uncle Jackson W. Moffitt

My Uncle Jack died, hence my parents' visit from Arizona for yesterday's funeral. He was married to my mom's older sister, Valaine. He was a favorite of mine. His life had been greatly decreased these past years w/Parkinson's disease, but I have great memories of him...tall (6 feet 5 inches), sharp intellect, generous, encouraging, quietly unassuming, enormously proud of his four sons and their families. Everyone loved him. He grew up in Orangeville, Utah, and was an only child; his mother never married--such scandal then. He served in the Army Engineers in the Philippines and New Guinea. He later became a mining engineer....loved the outdoors....known for his beautiful and immaculately-laid out beds (as only an exacting engineer could be). I'm so glad that he has passed on, but look forward to getting a hug from him in the future. He was laid to rest in a cemetery high on the east bench with full military honors during a heavy snowstorm. It was so cold, but I was greatly impressed by the honor guard. They were in dress uniforms w/o winter coats and stood at attention from the moment the first car arrived until the ceremony was completed, never wincing at the cold snow landing on their faces.

December 7 = My Parents' 52nd Anniversary

Late Sunday afternoon, we had my niece and nephew come join us for dinner to celebrate my parents' 52nd anniversary. Jeana and her husband Vaughn, plus their little girl, Mylie. Also, Nathan and his wife Rozie, plus their three boys, Jonathan, Sam and Luke. Dinner was at 4 p.m. to accommodate church schedules. Nathan came separately from work (Air Force), grabbed a shower and some borrowed scrubs from R, as he had been sprayed with tear gas (training exercise). It was fun to visit, and then we sent everyone home, as we went to a viewing.

Joe and Maxine

My parents made an unplanned trip north, arriving Saturday. They had invited us, my brother, Joe (he's my little brother by two years, but is a big guy), and his wife, Maxine, to join them for dinner at the Olive Garden, my mom's favorite restaurant. We had a 5 p.m. tithing settlement and in the meantime Joe went over to get on the waiting list (2 hours), so we ended up back at my house w/some takeout. Joe and Maxine have been living in Colorado, both working in the oil fields, but they're now temporarily unemployed. Joe just recently had rotator cuff shoulder. They went back to Colorado Sunday to pick up their trailers, but may be heading soon to another work location. R, V and J had been camping at Crystal Hot Springs since the night before (two hours north of us) w/the YM from our ward. It was a really warm weekend, really nice weather, so they stayed and swam Saturday morning even though a lot of the boys came back hours earlier. They got back in time to unpack and shower before tithing settlement.

My Son, the Tire Guy

This is my son, Tony, my eldest, 18, a senior. He works part time at American Car Care just down the road. He noticed that this tire was a bit low and thought there might be a slow leak, so he had me bring it in where he took it off, checked for any leaks and certified that it's now good to go. This is a great job for him as he's able to work around his school schedule. He's off by 6 p.m. on week days, 4 p.m. on Saturday, and Sunday is closed (his boss is a stake president).

I've been decorating for the season

Jared and I took one of my friends to the Festival of the Trees which is a huge production here in the valley. Jared was the photographer and so I just had to show you a couple of my favorite unique trees--obviously the golf tree, since it has such an appeal to so many of my guys, plus this glass tree. Alan and Karen Ashton, think owners of Thanksgiving Point, original owner of WordPerfect, commissioned a local artist to create this hand-blown glass tree, plus the glass boxes to the side which look like wrapped Christmas presents, plus artificial trees with hand-blown glass ornaments.... There are 800 trees, half full size, plus gingerbread houses, door ornaments, handmade gifts, etc., etc. Because of the volunteerism, every penny goes to benefit Primary Children's Hospital, last year bringing in $1,600,000. Unbelievable!! My counselor and her family did a missionary tree; that's the main reason I went. We're thinking of doing a tree next year, not the Gonzalez family, but the RS. Anyway, I'm really tired and have LOTS of typing so have to get up early. Bye.

Did some cleaning--but dang not my house

Went on an assignment. Was told we'd be cleaning the Conference Center, but instead ended up over at the old Tabernacle. Spent a few hours mopping (the entire balcony is wood and only the aisles on the main floor are carpeted) and dusting. There was an organ tuner working on the pipes, plus the spotlights were down getting ready for the upcoming Christmas programs, also the Christmas deco was being put up. Every once in a while we'd be asked to stop and a missionary would give the acoustic demonstration to a tour (the building is amazing--you can hear a pin drop clear in the back). Anyway, we cleaned and got it ready for Elder Wirthlin's funeral. I keep hearing his voice from last conference "come what may and love it." That's my motto for the day. We have an enrichment meeting tonight, and my leader called me on my way to this assignment saying that the two turkeys put in the church's fridge last Wednesday were still 75% frozen, so she ended up going out and purchasing two fresh turkeys, as our turkey cooker didn't have time to do a quick thaw. Remember: Come what may and love it.

Day of Thanksgiving--for food!!

Oh glorious Thanksgiving--a day of one of the seven sins--gluttony. Victor started the day off w/the annual Turkey Bowl. Fortunately, he survived w/o any battle wounds. I spent the day cooking. One good thing about having dinner w/the immediate family is lots of leftovers, but the bad thing is you get to do all the food prep yourself, which means starting the day before w/the pies and relish. This year I tried something new, soaking the turkey in a brine solution. It's supposed to promote juiciness and I have to say it was a success. We went as a family in the late afternoon to the new James Bond film Quantum Solace, good but not as good as the previous Casino Royale.

The next morning I hit the stores for Black Friday starting at 4 a.m. Yes, I know it's crazy, but it's kind of a high. Tony pretty much spent the night keeping his buddy, Derek, company. Derek was #1 in line at Office Depot for a heavily discounted laptop. In order to get that cherished laptop, Derek camped out for 12 hours.