Dear Kids,
          There never was such a Christmas! Dad and I have really enjoyed all the get-togethers and dinners and presents and food at everybody’s houses. We really enjoyed having Paul and Stefanie last weekend, and Sharon and Seth and their kids on Christmas Eve and part of Christmas Day. Santa found them here! It was fun having little kids around, opening presents. Adults simply don’t get that excited. Oh, but speaking of excitement, I’m really happy about the Willie Holdman picture! Thanks to all of you who went in on it! It will be perfect on the wall next to my piano. Right now it’s still at Donna’s house, because I haven’t wanted to bring it home in the bed of the truck, but as soon as we can get it here, I’m putting it up. That will inspire me to finish the rest of that room.
          Now that the Christmas fun is over, I have my usual January urge to tear up the house and remodel something. (Remember the great remodel? As soon as the Christmas tree was down, Allen kicked out the wall.) So, Dad and I ordered cabinets for our office, and a new vanity for my side of the master bathroom. Our builder really skimped on our vanities, and each one is just a little too small for the spot that it’s in. So I ordered a really big one for my side of the master bathroom, and we’re moving all the rest of them down the line, ending up in the basement bathroom we haven’t built yet. Yesterday John helped us with the plumbing for the first vanity that we moved. He and Dad only had to make two trips to Ace Hardware, and they were done in record time. I hope the rest of the project goes as well. We’re also hoping to have the framing on our basement started pretty soon, but Scott True is still working on John’s basement, plus, he took a week off for Christmas. But of course there’s always plenty else to do.
          Dad and I had a party with my brothers and sisters at Bonnie and Curt’s new house last night. The house is indescribably elegant. You just have to see it. The yard, which Donna designed, is covered with snow, but Bonnie is really proud of the way it turned out. We’ll have to go back in the spring and see it. The dinner was great. Most of my brothers and sisters were there, except Charley, who got sick on the way, and Jane and Mark, who skyped with us from a restaurant in Massachusetts. We ate a lot and talked a lot. There are new babies on the way! Some of the family think they can catch up with our number of grandchildren, but I don’t think it can happen. Let them try!
          The new year is coming! Can it be as good as 2014? Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          Yesterday I drove down to Utah Valley to finish my Christmas shopping. I know there are hundreds of thousands of people in that valley, and at first I thought they were all at Walmart. Then it seemed like they were all at Cabelas. And then, when I got to Costco, there they all were again! I ran into John, just as I was looking for a present for Jacob. He got it for me. I ran into Laurie Jacobson, who works there! I ran into many hundreds of other people I didn’t know, but at least I finished my shopping! It’s a great relief.
          Last night was our first performance of the Messiah, and I’m looking forward to doing it again tonight. For most of the practices I’ve been sitting next to a lady who knows every word and every note perfectly, and she was helping me get it right. Then, yesterday morning at the dress rehearsal, they started moving us around. Since I’m tall I ended up on the back row. (My good angel is short and ended up in front.) But since they put me in the center of the back row, I’m next to Tom now! That’s a big help, because the altos nearly always come in afer the tenors, and Tom is right on with the tenor part. He’s been sick, though, and he had a stash of cough drops in the leg pocket of his cargo pants, and he kept pulling them out. (Hey, Napoleon, gimme some of your tots!) But he was able to sing really well at the performance. The whole thing went pretty well. It would be nice if we had a better orchestra and better direction, but if it were a first-rate production, we would have had to try out, and I wouldn’t be in it. So it’s all good.
          Tuesday morning I had the surgery for trigger finger on my right hand, 4th finger. I just had the middle finger done in February, so I knew what to expect. What I didn’t expect was violent nausea that afternoon, with chills, fever, and a murderous headache. I figured out later that I had probably come down with the flu at the same time. It wasn’t fun, but I’m better now.
          Once more, here’s our Christmas schedule:

1. Monday, December 22, is the cousins’ gift party at Nora’s house.,

2. Wednesday, the 24th, Sharon and Seth will be hosting a Christmas Eve supper at our house. Afterwards we’ll hike Memorial Hill in Midway, and then have hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls at Donna’s house.

3. For Christmas Day, Dad and I don’t have a plan yet. Does anybody want to invite us to Christmas dinner? I’ll bring whatever you want. Or, does anybody want to come to our house for Christmas dinner?

4. Friday, December 26, will be the sledding party at the cabin. I’ll be making sloppy jo’s, and you can bring your Christmas leftovers.
          Life is good! There’s a little snow on the ground now, and Christmas is coming.
          Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          We really enjoyed Ali’s baptism yesterday, and the fun time afterwards at Tom and Kim’s house. We all admired the bedrooms Tom has finished in their basement. (Bentley moved into his the minute it was done!) Dad and I have been following Tom’s project for almost a year now, and I was totally inspired to finish our basement myself, every inch of it. But then I saw John’s basement, which has been finished in practically no time, with the help of paid experts. John brought his friend Scott True over to our house to look at our basement. Scott said he could frame it in two days. Not two years. Or 20. I was dumbfounded. I think we’ll hire him!
          Meanwhile, we’ve been moving all the stuff out of our basement, back into our garage, where it started out a year ago. Bevan and Dad moved a lot of the heavy things on Monday, and then on Friday the missionaries came over and moved the rest, for a service project. I found even more things that we need to give away. First, we have all those snowboards and boots. Now that we live so far from Brighton, I don’t think we’ll ever be having those big snowboarding parties again. So I’m offering the boots and boards to all you kids, one of each per family, for the first go-around. (I’ll just keep the two boards and two pairs of boots that Dad and I might use, if we go again.) You’ll have to come to our house to pick them out.  There are too many for us to take them on the road.
          I asked Nora about the cousins’ gift exchange party, and she said they’ve moved it back to Monday, the 22nd. There just isn’t another day that works. Call her for details!
          Sharon and Seth and their kids will be arriving a week from Wednesday. We’re very excited to see them!
          The Messiah is coming up in just one week. I’ve worked really hard to learn the Amen chorus, although I still think Handel was nuts to write it. Sunday night there will be an after-party at Tom’s house, with hot chocolate. Thanks, Kim.
          So, as you can see, life is good! Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          It snows, and it blows away. And it snows again. And blows away again. This is shaping up like last year. But it’s OK. We won’t have to shovel much. And if we want to play in the snow, the cabin is only 5 minutes away.
          Things are shaping up nicely for Thanksgiving. Dad and I bought our turkey at Winco last Wednesday, where it was 57 cents a pound, if you spend $50 on other groceries. That’s easy these days. Let’s see . . . a 10-pound chub of hamburger for $30. Three bricks of cheese, $20 more. You’re there. I bought lard for the pie crusts, and pumpkin, and bread for the stuffing. It’s all pretty easy, after so many years of doing Thanksgiving.
          John is getting ready to lay some tile in his basement, so Dad and I went there on Friday to take our wet saw and dish out advice. We were astounded that all the rooms are sheetrocked. I think it happened in just a couple of days, because John hired people to do it. How’s that? You can hire people? We’ve been following Tom’s basement project for several months now, and we admired his great sheetrocking job, and I was all excited to do our own basement. I still am, but maybe we’re getting too old to hoist up sheetrock. It’s been more than 30 years since I did any of that.
          Three weeks till the Messiah. I’ve been trying to learn the "Amen" chorus, since we didn’t do it last year. It’s impossible. Handel should have quit while he was ahead.
          I’m doing sharing time in Primary today, the one about forgiveness where you tie a bag of rocks to somebody’s ankle and have them walk around like that. It’s supposed to represent carrying grudges. Luckily we have plenty of rocks, and I gathered up some outside yesterday morning before it started snowing. I have two small bags, so I can use two kids for that. It makes me wonder why any of us carry around our bags of rocks. Maybe I’ll try to drop some of mine, now that we’re celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas.
          I love you all! Mom

Dear Kids,
          Dad and I always eat our meals upstairs, at the library table, where we can look out at the field across the street, and down into the Provo River valley. Right now there’s a little bit of snow and a lot of brown dirt and trees. A deer just ran by, all by herself. She must have been looking for the herd. A couple of nights ago they were all out there, 15 or so, when Dad and I got home from Salt Lake. One of our neighbors is absolutely obsessed with deer, and he’s always out driving around at night, looking for them, shining his headlights on them when he sees them. There was a big buck one night, just standing out there, letting everybody admire him. Mostly it’s the silly little does, though.
          Thanksgiving is practically upon us, so it’s time to look ahead to Christmas. Here’s what we have on the docket so far: 
          1. Dec. 13 and 14, a Saturday and Sunday night, Dad and Tom and I will be in the Messiah in Heber. Saturday night it’s held in the Timpanogos Valley Theater, and last year there were refreshments afterwards. Sunday night it’s in Tom’s church, and we might have an after-party somewhere, if any of you want to come.
          2. Monday, December 22, tentatively, is the cousins’ gift party at Nora’s house. More details will be forthcoming.
          3. Wednesday, the 24th, Sharon and Seth will be hosting a Christmas Eve supper at our house. Afterwards we’ll hike Memorial Hill in Midway, and then have hot chocolate at Donna’s house. She might even make cinnamon rolls.
          4. Christmas Day . . . I don’t have a plan yet. Does anybody want to host a Christmas Dinner that other people can go in on? If no one else wants to, I will, here at our house.
          5. Friday, December 26, will be the sledding party at the cabin. I’ll probably make sloppy jo’s, and you can bring your leftover Christmas goodies and whatever else you want people to eat up.
          So that’s the schedule so far. It will all be lots of fun.
          Last night Dad and I went with John and Heather to watch Julie in "The King and I" at Wasatch High. Julie was a servant girl, so she just stood there, except for the scene where they’re all down praying to Buddah. It was a very good production. After all the years of watching you kids in musicals, we’re now excited to watch all the grandkids. (We already saw Ellie in "Sussical," a couple of years back.) Life gets better and better!
          Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          We’re still having nice weather here! Friday afternoon Dad and I drove down to Rock Cliff, the nature preserve where Nora did her triathalon in 2008. The nature center was closed, but what I really wanted was to find the trail that we’d seen so often from the highway. It’s there, and it has a name: the Jordanelle Perimeter Trail. It takes off from the parking lot and goes for 13 miles around the reservoir, ending over at Keatley. Dad and I set off hiking, and we were the only people on the trail. The sun was warm and the sky was blue and the water was sparkly. What are the chances you can do a hike like that in this area, almost the middle of November! We only went about two and a half miles, because it was late in the afternoon and we hadn’t brought any water. But next time we plan to go farther. By the way, it would make a nice family home evening hike for anybody in the area. On our way back, we finally ran into somebody, and it was Phares Gines, from our ward. Dad wondered what were the chances of running into a ward member there, and I said probably 100%, especially since we were still in our ward boundaries.
          We’re still working on our playground, way longer than we expected to. On Monday we put together our swing set, the one from the back yard of our house on Stillwater. Then Dad put together the airplane teeter-totter. (Like the one John has.) It matches our swing set! Dad assembled it on the driveway, and then we managed to carry it out to the playground and set it down there. I wish we could keep going, and put down our railroad ties and install the sand digger, but we’re supposed to have snow on Monday, and much colder temperatures after that. So our long pleasant fall weather is finally going to end.
          Last night Dad and I went to a baptism in the Spanish branch. It was sort of a last-minute thing, but very nice, anyway. It was a man, his wife, and their 8-year-old son. After the baptism I had to give a little speech welcoming the boy to primary. Then of course there was food! Lots of it! They don’t do it at home, like we do, but there in the Church. It’s lots of fun.
          Two and a half weeks till Thanksgiving! If I haven’t called you yet, I will. Or you can call me.
          Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,
          Winter keeps knocking at the door, but it hasn’t crept in yet. My phone tells me that it’s supposed to start snowing at 9am MDT, but there’s no MDT anywhere, because we went off daylight saving time at 2 am. So maybe winter is locked in the twilight zone, like MDT. We’ll find out at 9 am.
          Since we bought our Sienna almost four years ago, we’ve been annoyed by its constant honking. Every time you turn off the engine, it honks. When you lock the door, another honk. When you unlock it, another honk. If you look at it wrong, the burglar alarm goes off, and there’s no end to the honking. We finally decided we’d had enough, and we took it to the Toyota dealer to deal with it. A special automotive security system had been installed "aftermarket," and for a price, they were willing to take it out. We agreed, gladly. They pulled out a box that had innumerable wires dangling from it, and they charged us $120.00. It was worth every penny. Dad kept the box. If any of you want it for your Siennas, you’re welcome to it.
          I learned something interesting driving home from Food Town yesterday. How do you haul away a dead cow? (I’m sure Seth knows this.) You scoop up the cow with the bucket of your tractor, and then you drive it over to your pickup and dump it in. I don’t know where you take it from there. I’ll have to ask Seth. I’m sure there are places where they take dead cows.
          Three and a half weeks until Thanksgiving! Everybody who wants to come to the cabin is welcome. I’ll probably call each of you and find out your plans when the time gets closer, and make food assignments. I know for sure that I’ll be making the turkey, dressing, and pumpkin pies. 
          I hope you’re all doin’ great and lovin’ it! Mom