Dear Kids,
      In my last letter, I mistakenly put Luke’s baby blessing as December 15th. Somehow my finger slipped an extra 1 in there, because it’s on the 5th, and I knew it. So it’s a week from tomorrow. Isaac’s and Buttercup’s (oops, I mean Anna’s) blessings will probably be together, on January 2nd in Nora and James’s ward. I think their new schedule is 11 to 2. More events: the Messiah in Heber, where Tom will sing and Heather will play the clarinet, is Sunday night, the 12th. The big party at Nora’s, where the cousins exchange presents, is Friday night, the 17th. If there are any more events, I’ll try to post them, and get the dates accurate. Oh, make sure you look at the cousins’ exchange list, which is just under this letter on my blog. I put it in as an extra post. I know there’s also a schedule of which of you kids give to each other, but I’m out of the loop on that one.
      So, on to the great events of the week. You’ve all heard about Anna’s exciting arrival into the world, just as the blizzard was pulling out of the area. (There were about 18 other babies born at the Death Star the same night, same reason.) Donna had come to Salt Lake the day before to put money down on their house in Midway, and to help with my piano class. She had also planned to stay the night here, because we all knew the storm was coming in. I don’t think she planned to go into labor. Early in the evening she got pretty uncomfortable, and even Cary Grant movies didn’t distract her much. We were both watching weather.com to see how the storm was doing, and commuterlink to see how the roads were. Both were bad, but it stopped snowing about 11 pm, so we headed to the hospital. (IHC in Murray, not Park City, like they had planned.) Bevan was back at the cabin, sleeping comfortably in bed, and Donna didn’t call him until 3 am, when we could see that traffic was going down Parley’s again. He got there in plenty of time for the delivery at 7:25. It was very exciting. I wasn’t expecting Anna to have dark hair!! Of course she’s very pretty. Beverly and Lloyd came right to the hospital after Bevan called them, and they were absolutely delighted with her.
      When I got home from the hospital, I had to quickly pack up our stuff for Thanksgiving at the cabin. Luckily I had done most of my cooking the day before. When Dad and Paul and I got there, a full-scale party was in progress, with just Nora’s and Tom’s families. Vanessa and Trent and their kids arrived the next day, in time for dinner, and they stayed the night. John’s family came on Friday, just as Donna and Bevan were arriving home with the baby. It was all very exciting. We missed everybody who wasn’t there, however. Allen was on call, and they couldn’t go that far from home. I just read in the news about a family in Florida that always has about 45 people for Thanksgiving, and I thought, that’s news??? At Grandma and Grandpa Allen’s, there were always at least 50 people, minimum. Remember those fun times?
      Life is good. I love you all! Mom