Dear Kids,

The Messiah is tonight!  I realize Nora and Paige are just getting back from the East Coast (and Vanessa and one or two of her girls, too) but the rest of us can party.  The before-party will be at 5:30.  We have to apologize to Kim for dumping on her, since she might not even be there, but if all our parties waited for a convenient time, we’d never have any.  The Messiah itself is at 7 at Tom’s church.  

Next Saturday is the skating and gift party at Nora’s house: Skating at 2, dinner at 4, and gifts at 5.  How I wish I could still skate!  Unfortunately that part of my life is over, but I’ll think about how much fun the rest of you are having.  Fortunately I can still enjoy book club, and that will be next Sunday at 5 here at our house.  We’re reading A Christmas Carol.  There’s still time if you haven’t gotten to it yet.  It’s a wonderful story.

I twisted Tom’s arm so he’d agree to make us some pulled pork for our sledding party the day after Christmas.  Donna mentioned making mac and cheese, and if the rest of us bring our Christmas leftovers, we’ll have plenty of food.  Heck, we always do.  There’s plenty of snow at the cabin, with the promise of still more.

Yesterday Dad and I drove down to Salt Lake to go to a memorial service for John Graham, a great friend of ours who died a couple of weeks ago.  (He’s the father of Chandra, and grandfather to Carson and Natalie, our honorary grandkids.)  It was nice seeing nearly all of the Graham family.  We’ve been friends since 1977.  (John and Nora used to play with Chandra when we lived on Lake Park Drive.)  After visiting with all of them, we drove out to West Valley to the library since I had some books in.  And since we were so close, we drove by the site of Westlake Jr. High.  You remember it was pretty well destroyed by the earthquake there a few years back.  They totally demolished the old school and now they’re building a brand new junior high which is supposed to be a STEM school.  (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.)  I guess it’s supposed to be a magnet for really smart kids, but will ambitious  parents really take their kids to West Valley to go to school?  I guess we’ll have to see.  Anyway, the building is going to be really nice, but it may not have the personality of the old school.  It definitely won’t have Miss Strassburg and her pals.  Boy, those were some great musicals you kids were in!

I hope you’re all enjoying this Christmas season.  It’s the most glorious time of the year.

Lots of Love, Mom