Dear Kids,
          Dad and I had a great time at the family party last night. I love ice skating, and it was fun to watch all of you kids and also the grandkids, having their own kind of fun on the ice. Thanks, Nora, for all your planning, and thanks to everyone for all the good food. Thanks especially for the gifts you gave Dad and me: the barbecue and the gift card to HCT. I plan to keep the barbecue on the new deck just outside the greenhouse, all set up for anybody who needs to use it. Thanks again!
          We were especially excited to congratulate Paul and Stefanie and to admire the ring! It’s absolutely beautiful. If you haven’t heard yet, the wedding is April 13th in the Logan Temple at noon. There will probably be a wedding luncheon right after, and a reception in Logan that night. We’ll keep you posted when we know more. I’m thinking of having Mike Rogers do one final picture of our entire family, probably the afternoon (or evening) before. I asked him last time how many people he could fit into a family picture, if we came to his studio. He said about 50. We’re getting close to that. He said, after that, you just go to a park and have somebody take the picture. So this will probably be our list visit to Mike Rogers, if we decide to do it. Let me know what you think. Tom will be the wedding photographer, of course, and he will probably line us all up outside the temple for a group picture.
          Now, back to Christmas, I can hardly believe tomorrow night is Christmas Eve. Let me know if you want to come to the hike at Memorial Hill. We’ll probably go to somebody’s house afterwards for hot chocolate. Dad and I will be visiting some of you on Tuesday, and then Wednesday is the sledding party. I’ll do sloppy jo’s, potato chips, etc., so just bring your leftover Christmas goodies and other food. We should have really good snow. There’s a 70% chance for a big storm tomorrow.
          The next big party after that is Dad’s retirement bash, January 4th, 6:30 pm, at the Golden Corral on 35th South. I reserved the entire party area, and Dad’s retirement bonus will pay for everybody’s dinner. Try to think of some little anecdote you can share about Dad driving his bus. It will be like testimony meeting.
          The only other news involves Oreo and Tomcat. I thought the problems were resolved, but last night, when it was time for the catfood machine to go off, Tomcat popped in through the kitty window and dashed over to eat the food. Oreo sat at the door of his kitty house, guarding it. I chased Tomcat away, but Oreo still preferred to guard his house rather than to eat.
          Merry Christmas to everybody! Love, Mom