Dear Kids,
         First off, Anna’s baptism will be next Saturday morning (December 1) at 10:30 am at Donna’s church in Midway.  The address is 250 East 200 South.  (It’s the same building where Dallin, Drew, and Tommy have all been blessed.)  The after-party will be at John’s house, and if you want to help with the food, call Donna for an assignment.  This will be one more great family event, followed the next Saturday (December 8) by Isaac’s baptism at Nora’s church.  I’ll have details on that in my next letter.
         Our Thanksgiving was a blast, and for those of you who went elsewhere, I hope you had a great time, too.  This is the first Thanksgiving that we’ve eaten at our house, and not at the cabin, which is totally emptied out, with no utilities, and cold as a refrigerator.  Vanessa’s family normally stays there, but they stayed at our house instead.  That was really fun, and I appreciated Vanessa’s help in planning where to seat everybody for Thanksgiving dinner.  I had thought some people could sit at the table, and the rest could just hold plates on their laps, but Vanessa was adamant that everybody needed a place to sit at a table, just like at Grandma Allen’s.  So she pushed the sofas and coffee table to the side of the room, and turned the dining table 90 degrees, and made room for two banquet tables from the cabin. That made places for 24, and since we were expecting 25, it worked out fine.  The food was fabulous, since everybody made their specialty, and Donna did the turkey.  (I knew it would max me out just making the pies.)  Thanks to everybody who helped out!  It was a wonderful day.
         The only mishap came in the evening; Nora lost her car key when she and Donna and Vanessa were over at the cabin hiking the loop.  It was hopeless, since the key had obviously fallen into the snow, but they searched in the dark anyway, with their headlamps.  Finally they had to give up.  Nora and James drove our car home, and Nora brought it back the next morning, after stopping off at the outlet stores.
         Vanessa’s family was here for two days and three nights, and her kids held Scout and Sonia nearly nonstop.  So now we have two very spoiled young kitties who don’t know what to do with themselves if they aren’t being held.  They mostly fight with each other, and when they’re inside, they rip away at the carpet.  Naturally I toss them out immediately.  Tina doesn’t run from them any more.  She just growls at Scout, and he growls back, and they take swipes at each other.  Sonia keeps her distance, with her back up and her tail puffed.  It’s very entertaining.
         Dad and I will be sending out Christmas money this week.  Everybody seems to like my new plan, so I don’t even have to feel guilty for not shopping.
         Lots of love, Mom