Dec. 20, 2015

This week has been a whirlwind!  We went to the Westfall building last Sunday night and our Stake put on a musical event that went along with Charles Dickens ‘Christmas Carole’.  The music was very difficult and the singers were great.  It was very good.  I don’t remember hearing Dickens in that much of a religious way before.  I guess someday I will need to read it and see what it really does say. 

Monday we had a good day.  Each day now we get tons of packages in for the missionaries.  We hold them until someone is going that way or they are coming to the office.  We are not holding everything until Christmas Eve (this week—can’t believe it!)   After work we went (us and the Spencer’s) over to the Smith Farm and they had a nice program there.  They had a short DVD, caroling and games.  We didn’t have the hot chocolate and cookies.  We left that for the ones coming.  It was a nice evening with a slow drizzle.  (umbrellas are great here)  Afterward we went over to the Hill Cumorah and saw their display of nativities.  It was nice, but we have seen so many more at the Visitors Center and Stake Center near the Temple in Idaho Falls.  Then we took Spencer’s to Nima’s to be initiated.  They liked their pizza pie!

This couple represented Father and Mother Smith in the log home

I found someone at the Hairzoo to cut my hair and took me in after work.  It was nice to get it shaped up a little bit.  She cut it quite short in the back, which was probably what I told her.  It does feel good to have it under control again.  (I really miss Becky and Jill)

We celebrated our 44^th anniversary with the Spencer’s on Wednesday at the Cheesecake Factory.  Guess what we shared??  Of course, Bang, Bang, Chicken and Shrimp.  We are such creatures of habit.  We always order what we know and like when we go out.  It was a special time and we enjoyed it.  

KISS, KISS

We went a day early because we had a Temple appointment with the Haggerty’s on Thursday evening.  Bill fell and didn’t feel like going to the Temple so Leslie came and we did a session with her.  It was very nice.  I did one of her family names and she asked me afterward if I had any trouble with the name.  I said, ‘no’ and she said that especially gave me that name because it was Bill’s aunt and that the aunt didn’t like her.  She had done her baptism a year earlier and she felt that the aunt wasn’t happy about it and kept making Leslie feel weird.  She waited a year to do the endowment to see if she felt differently about things.  LOL   I asked why the aunt didn’t like her and she said that she had divorced Bill a few years ago because they just couldn’t get along.  They were divorced 2 years and then their daughter-in-law invited them out to supper and they both came at the same time.  They worked out their differences and remarried.  Crazy, huh?

We went shopping on Friday after work to get things for the Christmas Eve party for the mission.  We are feeding 200+ people pulled pork tacos .  I think I will be happy to have that party over.  I don’t think it will be that hard, but it will be LOTS of work! 

We had a baptism for a young woman on Saturday in Batavia.  She has been taking the lessons for a while and decided to be baptized.  She is very pretty and her family came from Arabia.  She has 2 really cute little boys and her husband is nice, but decided not to join.  They were a great support, however.  The baptism was very nice.  After the talks the Branch President welcomed her into the branch and said that he normally gives new members a quad.  However, this time was different; because she was young and had good eyes and because she had some lessons with Brother Stephenson and the Elders –Brother Stephenson was going to give her his wife's small quad.  (his wife passed away in Sept.)   It was so touching—this little gal sobbed when he handed her those scriptures.  They meant so much to her.  I was so glad that we had been in attendance.  

Elder Detlor, Elder Longhurst, Yasmeen and Justin with the kids, Elder Gibby and Elder Scott

President Francis with Bill Haggerty after the baptism

After the meeting we went out to Albion and did home teaching there.  We also got more ingredients for the party and then went home. 

Well, I am going to report on our Christmas ‘giving’ present.  We ended up unwrapping everything (for us) so that we would know who to give things to.  Today was our last day before Christmas at the branch.  We had so many nice things to give away.  (that was such a great idea our kids had)  We had to think about each gift and if it would be gladly accepted and used by our intended recipient.  We gave out many gifts today and I think everyone loved it.  We had 2 CDs, 4 Christmas DVDs, 5 Nativity DVD, 6 ties/gloves, 7games, and so on.  It was fun!

We are reading the New Testament now each verse seems to have such a familiar ring.  I have loved reading about the life of our Savior, especially at this time of year.  We are so blessed to have this information and be able to learn more about Jesus and our Heavenly Father.  Isn’t it interesting that Jesus says that if we know Him, then we also know Heavenly Father.  (Not that they are the same person, but that they are unified in their looks and actions) 

We have received some cards from our Grant ward members and we love reading them and hearing about their lives.  We love and miss them!  I still can’t believe Julie Browning is 75!

Happy birthday Kelly Hart (last week); Happy Anniversary Chuck and Janet (last week; and good luck and quick recovery to Barbara Hart (for her knee replacement last week)

The wind caught my umbrella and popped it inside out