January 24, 2009

Dear Children,
The speed of activity has picked up greatly, having visited St. Louis and now I am home by now. I was excited to be able to go help Katie get settled in her new place in St. Louis. This was the first time I could respond to her need since I was recovering from surgery when she had her appendicitis operation last year. Grandma Maldonado went for me thank goodness. It was fun to be in Katie’s element. I hate leaving Dad to go help our children; I would love to have him along on all my adventures. He loves an adventure.
Katie had previously asked if I would drive with her to St. Louis with all of her belongings in the two days that she had available before her first day of work there. It sounded like a fun adventure until the realization that we would be driving across those frozen states with a short deadline. Thankfully, at Christmas time, Aaron offered to drive with her. What a great brother! I was relieved since I also felt comfort with having someone else driving with Katie who knows how to drive in the snowy conditions. That plan allowed me to suggest that I visit her when she found a permanent place in St. Louis. Although, just before leaving for her trip, she had to agree to the place she was hoping to preview so she had a place right from the start. The plan changed to meet Katie her first weekend out there.
Katie and Aaron couldn’t have made the trip from Provo to St, Louis sound simpler. They met in Salt Lake at 2:00 am, where Aaron left his car at Bill’s business so he had easy access to his car upon landing in Salt Lake on his return flight. They had mostly good roads and made it all the way to Kansas City where they had dinner and slept at their dad’s home. The next day they had made the four hour trip to St. Louis, unpacked all of Katie’s things stuffed into the car, went to lunch and had Aaron at the airport for an even earlier flight than imagined! When I acted amazed, Katie said, “It was easy!” I believe the original plan to have me accompany her would have slowed her down!
After the visit this Christmas, Dad and I commented how all our children were adults now and, in a way, equalized. There is no more pecking order or really younger/older sibling relationship. Dad and I appreciate how you are all working to strengthen your bounds of friendship, love and concern for one another. That means so much. It was a thrill to have Aaron generously give his time for this trip for Katie. Thank you.
Although I experienced some cold temperatures already in Oregon this year, I knew I was headed for a shock with the unusually cold weather in St. Louis since it had been hovering at zero degrees. Plus, Katie had already learned that, while the rest of her place was staying at fairly comfortable temperatures, her bedroom was freezing. The first thing we did when I arrived was buy a blanket (since I couldn’t fit one in my suitcase) and a space heater. That helped plus the temperatures, thankfully, started to rise into the thirties.
We spent lots of time organizing her room and kitchen things. We also did a lot of driving as we scoured the many thrift shops in the area for a cheap bookshelf and a pan big enough to make a pot of bean soup. She brought the bare minimums. Katie is bold; she just takes off in a “can do it” manner. Thankfully she has an iPhone since there is no internet access in her condo. She googles what she needs to find and away she goes! Of course, that does result at times in the long way around, missed turns, ending up in Illinois and unfortunately on occasion, driving through probably some of the wrong parts of town! Hopefully, Kristin Cook, her roommate that has lived in St. Louis for four years while attending the Optometry school, will impress upon Katie some big city safety tips. I don’t know what Kristin was thinking when she told me that St. Louis had just won out Detroit as the most dangerous town!
Katie lives in a pretty good location with fairly easy access to her work downtown, grocery stores and shopping, and just around the corner is a fun little eclectic street named Del Mar that looks like small town 50’s or 60’s style revived with some trendy shops and restaurants dotted among the old theater and root beer bottling company. While I was there they had their annual ice festival with street musicians and vendors and ice sculptures in front of some of the shops, even an ice slide on which the children could play.
Katie has to travel a distance to her ward meetings. The single branch covers a huge area, some traveling more than an hour. On the way to church Katie gets to pass the St. Louis Temple. We stopped there on the way home from church.
As we drive around I am continually in awe of the beautiful brick old homes here. The streets are lined with these majestic homes some even boarded up though. It is sad to see such a waste of beautiful architecture. And, everywhere we go the people here are either wearing Cardinal or Ram clothing. Katie calls it the “St. Louis pride”! Katie and I discussed that here is St. Louis she is no longer unique! Her roommate took one look at her room of Cardinal memorabilia and said she will fit in nicely.
Even though we did a lot of work, there was also time for fun. I toured the KSDK station and met a couple of the people with whom Katie works. We took the advice of one of her coworkers and had dinner at an Italian place on the “hill.” We were able to get tickets to the theater performance of “Legally Blond” and Katie was given tickets to a charity event hosted by the Cardinals manager, Tony LaRussa, for which her station was doing the announcing which featured Vince Gill (who brought his wife, Amy Grant), REO Speedwagon and Huey Lewis and News. The latter being the best of the night even though they are old men now!
Katie came home from work Monday evening excited to announce that we needed to go to the mall early the next morning. She learned at the station that the department stores would be giving away free fragrances and cosmetics to anyone who had purchased from those departments as part of a class action suit settlement. Then she realized, “Hey, we don’t have to rush in at the store’s opening; we are in downtown St. Louis! Everyone will be glued to their TV sets watching the inauguration events.” Sure enough, we took our time and the lines for free merchandise were relatively short. I came home with a beautiful smelling perfume from France called Boucheron. I hope Dad likes it. Working at the station is going to keep Katie on the inside knowledge track of interesting events in the city, not just merchandise give aways of course!
Her co-workers know all the best places to go. On Katie’s day off we did more tourist type activities. We, of course, went up on the Gateway Arch. It was a beautiful clear, but cold day so we had a great view of the city and didn’t have to share it with many other tourists! Joe arranged free tickets for us. One lady she worked with told Katie about “The Hill” filled with great Italian restaurants. It is the area of St Louis where the Italians first gathered. We went to Cunettos’. It reminded me of Bancheros in Hayward. I surely would like to get back there someday for old time’s sake. We were lucky enough to get reasonable tickets to go to the Broadway showing of Legally Blond. It was at the most beautiful and ornate Fox Theater in downtown. It was a fun show. Katie had seen it in New York and said the lead was better there. I thought it was great.
I realized that I was traveling through Las Vegas on the way home on Wednesday so I gave Morty a call since he has an airport security pass (I only had an hour there). He changed some plans and met me at my gate; it was so nice of him. We had a nice chat. He wanted to know all about Katie’s time in St. Louis and exactly where she lived. He has an incredible memory from being in St Louis back when Joe lived in the area and most recently, for Cardinal games. He knew the area where she lived and what was around her! It was nice to visit with him. He wouldn’t show his teeth in this picture since he chipped his front tooth recently! My favorite part of our visit was Morty’s genuine interest and concern for his sister; wondering how she was doing alone in St. Louis. I appreciate that. Our family can be a great source of uplift and support.
Elsewhere in our family’s lives: Wendi received her acceptance to BYU Idaho. She is very excited but still waiting to hear from BYU. She has some friends at both schools. Remember to save and send Meeja Campbell’s “Labels for Education” as she was thrilled to receive my envelope of labels. I received a delightful phone call as soon as she opened her letter. She is at a new school this term but, before leaving her old school (where Will, who is her age, still attends), she bargained with her teacher that she could still receive M&M’s or Skittles (through Will) for every label she sends in with him! Sunhee is ready to sign up for indoor soccer; she said that she loves indoor soccer. I told her that her aunts and uncles loved the fast pace of indoor soccer. Both Meeja and Sunhee excitedly told me about their upcoming Disneyland trip in April. Adrianne was able to get into a recreation class that she hoped to add to her schedule. This week she was going rock climbing for their activity! I think Heidi had that same class. Morty was excited for the prospect of an exciting football game next September 5 in the brand new Dallas Cowboy Stadium between BYU and Oklahoma. I hope that we can hold our own! He thinks that we all should try and go there. That does sound like a lot of fun! Also, David Tobler just learned that he will be hired as the reptile zookeeper for their zoo in Fresno. He is very excited of course! Also, I just learned from Dad that TJ is engaged to be married in the Timpanogas Temple in May.
Dad and I both received fun calls from Rebekah on Thursday morning. She and Jenna had accompanied Bill and Heidi to their ultrasound appointment to learn whether they are having a boy or girl. I will wait to mention anything so that they have a chance to get a hold of each one of you in the next couple of days. They are all very excited of course!
Dad’s work is still lean. He looks at the positive side and says he is in home project heaven! He had a job in Sherwood starting this week and another prospect on an old bid when he was too busy this fall. I hope there will be enough work to continue the home projects!!! I told Dad I need to go back a strict budget like when we had ten family members in the home! I am looking forward to working more out of our food storage, especially now that is organized so well. I love my new rotation system. Last week I called them to ask if their extra shelves (I needed one more) ever went on sale and they offered to send a free one if I wrote a review for the shelving system. It took me only a few minutes . . . yeah, and now I can complete my system!
I saw an interesting movie with Grandma on Friday called “The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons.” Grandma will be leaving this Tuesday for about a month stay in California where she will stay with Reshea and Aunt Carla in Clovis and then travel up to Antioch to be with Aunt Denise. She may even get to go to Uncle Tommy’s 90th birthday party in Fremont while visiting. I wish I could go but that is just too much traveling for me right now and it is on the weekend that I have been planning for months to go to the beach with six other ladies who served together in Young Women’s. We went last winter and it was so much fun. This year, Angie Bleazard, who is now living in Sacramento, will travel here to go with us.
I was able to be home to hear the Tuesday BYU Devotional last week by Jeffrey R. Holland. It was fantastic, worth finding a rebroadcast. I think the title was “Remember Lott’s Wife” as it was about having faith in the Lord that the future He has planned for us is better than the past with which may not be right for us but comfortable. His asked the students to make a New Year’s resolution to quit dwelling on past lives and mistakes and have faith and hope in the future with the Lord. He said, “Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow and forever.” He left the students with an apostolic blessing and promise of happiness if they would follow this request.
Before leaving for St. Louis I was also able to attend the first class of my new institute term on the Book of Revelations. It will be very interesting. Institute is great. You all should take advantage of it in your area if you can. At the beginning of class Brother Stark quoted from President Monson’s Sunday night fireside to the YSA. I never had a chance to ask any of you about it (our ward rebroadcast it for their Family Home Evening since it was during our church time). The prophet said, “Work will win, where wishy washy wishing won’t!” Great quote! Brother Stark also quoted from the section we studied last term in John where Christ asked the observers who wanted to stone the woman who had sinned, to cast the first stone if they were sinless. He used that idea to suggest a resolution idea to us to put a pebble in our shoe to remind us of something we want to improve upon in our life. I like that idea since I often think about something I want to work on in my life but then forget it easily later. A pebble is a great and constant reminder!
Did you see that Darrell Janson was quoted in a Church News article about the University of Florida at Gainesville Institute? He is the institute director there now. It could have been a November Church News; I had an old stack to read on the plane! I have more quotes from reading that many papers but I will reserve them until another time!
Today Dad and I did the latest downloads and installations onto our new GPS system so Dad can start using it in the van. I have another Sunbeam lesson to prepare for tomorrow (last minute substituting again) and we are going to the temple tonight. It is closing soon for some time for repairs. Grandma Bitter left a message that Natalie and Danny had their baby boy this morning! Scott loves receiving your letters. He had a nice visit with Dad while I was in Missouri. He loves to hear about Kyre.
I love you all. Love, Mom
Katie’s new address is:
Katie Luman
6761-A Ahern Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63130

January 12, 2009

Dear Children,

I am feeling much more relieved this morning. Aaron and Katie slept in Kansas City last night. They were good to keep us up to date on their travels to Missouri yesterday. Taking the route through Wyoming, they had decent road conditions through most of the day except some blowing snow conditions around Laramie. It sounded to me that they made good time; Aaron may even be able to fly back to Salt Lake tonight if he has time to help Katie get the car unloaded. Dad and I have been worried about this trip at this time of year. I think we all felt more secure that Aaron kindly offered to make this trip with Katie than me going with her as planned. I know Aaron is a better winter roads driver. I am excited to be able to go to St. Louis this weekend to help Katie get settled in when she has time to think about it.

Tomorrow Katie starts a full day of training with all the interns at KSDK TV in St. Louis. I read through all of Katie’s materials while she was here. It sounds like an incredible opportunity but very intense. She will learn a ton about the business.

We are all excited also for Nate’s first day at Zappos today. That will be a wonderful place for him where he can use both his smarts and creativity. He is going to do well there. It is not in his plans to stay at Zappos forever but it will be a great place to learn more about his career and make good impressions and connections. Morty said that Nate got a haircut so I hope that he found someone that could give him a good style.

I lost my sticky-note in Albertson’s on Saturday that had all my notes that I had been taking for the family news this week so I can’t quote any numbers from Bill. But, this week Bill excitedly shared news about the growth of his company. I think he said that they were up over 100% from the previous year! They are hiring another staff member for their office. It is nice that Bill can concentrate on his best part of the business instead of doing it all.

I don’t want to forget to let you all know that Meeja is saving “Box Tops for Education”. They are mostly on General Mills cereal and Campbell’s products. I just went through my storage and peeled off as many as I could find; a skill I learned from Grandpa Luman when I worked at Smith Western over 30 years ago (removing a label from a box without damaging the box). It has come in handy in all these years of clipping coupons and mailing in rebates! I wish I had remembered through the holidays to gather box tops since we went through quite a bit of food! I like that there is enough food gone that I can reorganize my freezer. When you get some box tops and labels to send her, here is her address:

Meeja Bitter

2886 Fir Court

Sweet Home, OR 97386

What I do remember from the week’s activity, without my sticky-note, is the movie that Grandma Maldonado and I went to see, Marley and Me. That is a MUST see for everyone. It was a great show, with a very good message plus, if you need a good cry, it will do the trick! But don’t let that stop you from going; it is really worth seeing. I wish I could gather you up and take you all!

We also had four missionaries come over for dinner this week; two of them are new to the area. It takes a lot of thinking to have them for dinner right now as, between the four of them; there are quite a few of food allergies. I would have never guessed that there is wheat flour in cream of chicken soup! I went ahead and made funeral potatoes but made one of the Elders a baked potato. For their message they showed us some of the updates on the mormon.org website. I haven’t looked at it for over a year probably. It is a very interesting website and a great tool.

Otherwise, things are much quieter here this week. Dad and I are eating too much of the left-behind cookie dough so we are also trying to exercise more. It has been suggested that we also start something new together in our lives this year. With our Christmas gifts this year, Dad is trying to learn the navigation system and I am trying to learn to use the iPod. Then, we will teach each other!

We didn’t have our normal Family Home Evening to set New Year’s goals this year with all the comings and goings over the holidays. On Christmas Eve Bill did encourage us to set a goal for the year as a gift to the Savior. Grandma Maldonado sent me a letter from an old family friend, Barbara LaPray Mason. I liked that their family has always chosen goals in the following areas: Spiritual, Educational or Intellectual, Cultural, Social, Service, Physical and Financial. She recognized from a talk given by Joe J. Christensen that their tradition was supported by the following scriptures. She said, “In the Sermon on the Mount, the Savior said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.” He later asked his disciples, “What manner of men ought ye to be?” He then answered his own question, “Even as I am.” There is only one verse of scripture that tells about the growth and development of the Savior between the age of 12 and the commencement of his formal ministry. “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” The Savior increased or developed in the following areas: 1. Intellectually (in wisdom and stature) 2. Physically (in stature) 3. Socially (in favor with man) 4. Spiritually (in favor with God).”

Bishop Pierson, in the singles ward, spoke yesterday about goal setting and gave another warning about the economic downturn, not expecting a fast recovery but possibly harder times ahead. He said that it was absolutely critical to pay their tithing and gain the protection and blessings promised. He challenged them to start paying their tithing now so they didn’t come to the end of the year and fall short.

I was called to substitute in Beaverton First Ward’s Sunbeam class this week. That was fun; I enlisted Dad’s help since it was only their second week out of Nursery and I thought I might have some criers. As intense as it is to teach Primary some days, that is where I feel most competent and comfortable (not yet in the YSA ward). Where else in church can you ask a child about the picture she drew of Heavenly Father and she go into explicit detail about the swirls drawn on her paper being the “poop” and “wet” going down the toilet!!!

We had a great report from Angie Moore after our Christmas visit with the grandchildren and Kyre. She said that Kyre was very happy at the Lane Family Christmas party on Christmas Eve. She said that she hadn’t seen Kyre that happy for over a year. In our visit yesterday, Scott was very happy to hear Kyre was happier. He said he received a letter from her just days before Christmas that really “knocked the wind out of his sail.” He tried to call her for the first time on Christmas day but Kyre was at Aunt Lynn’s home. She suggested to Dad that Scott try and call on Valentine’s Day. That thrilled to hear that Kyre might want a call and that could be doable since Valentine’s Day is on a Saturday so he could get to the phone.

Scott says that he is the happiest while flipping through pictures. He says it helps him live in the moment of the time the picture was taken. He especially liked the crying picture of the grandchildren at the photo shoot and the picture of Kyre opening her gift from Meeja and Sunhee. He loves studying each face in the picture. He said something quite interesting that I think is very important to all of us. He said that he loves getting letters from Sister McManus because she writes about her daily normal routine. He loves to read that because nothing is normal about prison life and he forgets what normal life is like. It is sort of a cultural shock for him to read about normal everyday life. Simple letters mean so much to Scott.

Jace Green was called to the Portugal Porto Mission and leaves April 1. Now that is a date that he will remember! Ann Chandler is out of town so we invited Tim to dinner last evening. We had an enjoyable visit. David is finishing up his duty with the military and will be an anesthesiologist in North Carolina (I think that is where he said they are moving). Have a great week ahead! This week Alina and Gregory will be celebrating a birthday! I love you, Love, Mom

January 4, 2009

Dear Children,

We walked out of church this evening to more snow believe it or not! It started while we were in our meetings and there was quite a blanket of snow covering everything including all the old piles of dirty snow that survived the intense rain we have had this week. We did have an expected snow shower the other night to break the monotony of rain. Even with all the snow and difficult driving Dad endured with icy windshields and broken chain problems, we still agree that snow is beautiful. It promotes a quiet and still feeling as we look outside from a warm home!

We are getting used to going to church again now with the weather calming down some! Two weeks in a row of no church can start a bad habit! Tonight we even stayed for Break the Fast dinner. The singles ward has so many vegetarians and vegans that even the stir fry is separated and there is a bowl of tofu or a bowl full of chicken to add to it. Church was great today; it is always nice to have a fresh start in a book of scriptures in Gospel Doctrines class (a time to reset the goal of doing my reading assignments for church)!

I like clean, fresh starts. As I wrote to Nate in a book that Santa slipped into his stocking about finding happiness in the daily routine of work and such, I noted that he had just passed the days of “fresh starts” every few months with the ending and beginning of each new semester. I realized, as I wrote, that there is a potential for great relief by coming to the end of a large college textbook. I remember that when I was in college and feeling overwhelmed by cracking open a textbook for the first class, thinking I would never get to the end of the book. Within a few short months you are studying the last chapters and either very glad or somewhat sad that the class is about to end for good! What a blessing a new beginning can be. Now Nate is at the beginning of his career where he will see the same people each day and do relatively the same work everyday with no semester to end to change all that. It is good that he is starting at such a great company to have a satisfying and rewarding work experience. Knowing that I am doing my your best work is my answer to having a rewarding work experience even when others do not notice your works. I think that is why I struggle with this “new” calling; I feel like Dad and I just aren’t doing our best.

Relief Society was also very good today. The teacher took a talk from an old BYU Today magazine! The lesson used the analogy of learning to speak a foreign language and knowing the language from a book but not being able to be proficient in it unless we practiced it a great deal and allowed it to become part of our nature . . .to becoming a “native speaker” in the Gospel. It was a very good lesson and emphasized the goal of becoming so proficient in the Gospel that nothing that comes from our mouth or thought in our minds that isn’t completely Christ-like.

The start of today was extremely different than any day in the last few weeks or maybe even months for that matter. We went to bed at a fairly reasonable time after spending Saturday putting away most of the Christmas things (not the dishes yet), finishing the last of Aaron’s sourdough pancake batter, and watching, in bed that night, a Feature Films Families called Down and Derby. The company called me over the holidays when I was in the middle of some kitchen project and asked if I would buy a couple of videos. I haven’t bought any for years and I do like to support their concept of clean family entertainment but we have no one left at home to entertain. When they said I could send it back if not completely satisfied I said yes just to get them off the phone and not spend any more time listening to their various movie descriptions. So, I wanted to watch this in a hurry so I could send it back immediately. But, we just might keep this one! I think you would all think it is pretty funny even though Dad was not like any of the Dads in the movie when it came down to the Pinewood Derby. It was a good thing that Dads were suppose to help their Cub Scouts since I may have become more like the Dads in the movie myself. I do remember that one year, it looked like so much fun to make one that I made myself a hot pink derby car with a lady holding a bag of groceries in the driver seat. I wonder whatever happened to that.

Anyway, (I guess that I am rambling Aaron) we slept in this morning. I mean, really slept in! I didn’t get out of bed until almost noon. We were both totally exhausted and just kept falling back to sleep (very easily I might add)! Good thing we are on the singles schedule of 2:30 church. Beaverton First ward now starts at 11:00.

This week rain has returned to Oregon and with the home empty of all the family, the pitter patter of the grandchildren is replaced by the pitter patter of raindrops on the skylights. We had a home bursting at the seams with family for a few days, twenty two in total; what could be better? We had a very enjoyable Christmas holiday and appreciate all of you making the effort to be here. Of course, some arrived with very detailed effort complicated by the snowstorms. Thank you to all those who helped with the creative out-of-the-box thinking to reroute our stranded travelers in Utah, the pioneers who braved the snow and ice and broken chains on the fourteen hour Seattle road trip, the siblings who generously donated clothing and diapers to the Brady family, the siblings who retrieved the lost luggage and of course, the siblings who braved the new storms to the south and digging the van out of deep snow ruts to get Kyre and children, the boys who rerouted themselves with perfect timing to avert yet another storm thus avoiding the delay of family fun and possible disappointment of missing the family photo. A big thank you goes to all of you who helped make this gathering happen. And really, whoever would have wanted to miss the above family bonding events?

The fact that Katie surprised me by coming home the Thursday before Christmas instead of on Saturday was a real blessing. Besides being extra help those days prior to everyone’s arrivals, her Saturday flight was one that was probably cancelled. When Heidi called after a snowstorm hit Utah and all the roads they had planned on which to travel here, she warned us that they might not be able to travel until closer to Christmas. We knew that meant they would miss most of Kyre and Albany grandchildren’s visit. We tried to figure out what we could do to save those plans. When Nate needed to reschedule his Saturday morning flight to Sunday, he discovered that Sunday afternoon flights had some spots available so we quickly secured those tickets for the Brady family also. But on Sunday when they all arrived at the airport, the flight was also cancelled. I waited on the phone to Southwest for what seemed forever as we tried to again salvage that family time together. Luckily, instead of waiting for the then available flights on Christmas Eve, Katie had the idea to reroute them to Seattle. As they sat on the runway for that flight to take off, there was thought that the newest storm hitting Seattle would thwart even those plans also. Luckily, they were the last flight to land in Seattle.

Again, much time on the phone informed us that there were no four wheel vehicles anywhere in the Seattle area to rent to make the snowy drive here so Dad chained up the van and took Adrianne with him which ended up being a 14 hour trek to Seattle to retrieve our stranded travelers!

Luckily, Shawn and Aubrey arrived early Saturday morning before the worst of the storm’s conditions but at a perfect time to play in the snow. Gregory and Shawn got lots of tractor time and sledding and sliding on the ice covered snow. Amazingly, Morty and Aaron were able to do some last minute flight changes allowing them to arrive earlier and on one of the few flights that made the Las Vegas to Portland flight on Tuesday.

Thank goodness Heidi, Bill, Shawn and Aubrey could make it down to see Scott for a nice visit on Monday morning even though the Sunday travel was so difficult. Adding the lost luggage to the mix had us scrambling in the early morning hours to gather appropriate clothing for Heidi and Bill to get into see Scott. Combining his visit with picking up Scott’s family made Scott very happy. It is always a pleasure to give Scott a hug goodbye while he knows that you will next hug one of his children or Kyre. He appreciates any kindness shown towards his children or Kyre. Thank you for regular notes sent to him and his family throughout the year. Even the travel to pick up Kyre and the children in Albany was frustrated with winter hazards with the weakened chains breaking (Dad couldn’t buy extra chain links early the morning after the Seattle fiasco) and unplowed deep snow on some of the roads that had to be traveled. But all the extra time, money and work was worth it to have us all together under the same roof for even a short time.

Of course Dad had plowed a huge snow mountain in the middle of the court but few of our own grandchildren played on it much as we had hoped since some came after just being sick so we kept them close and mostly inside. The snow cancelled our annual Zoolights visit. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to walk down those fist hills and the big bridge of the zoo if it was covered in ice as was reported.

We did get in a ton of game playing and had so many fun family times. Kyre and the children had an early Christmas here which was fun. It made for a huge pile of presents under the tree leaving not much room for people! The gingerbread houses made after family home evening were orchestrated by Aubrey and quite excellent I might say. There was so much candy on them that they provided too much temptation for small hands the rest of the holiday! I meant to “share the joy” by sending one of the gingerbread houses back with Kyre!

The night of gingerbread house making didn’t interest Shawn and Nate enough; they had to add their own fun by jogging in the deep snow with shorts. I got several pictures of them jumping on the tramp and making snow angels. When they came inside, Nate had ice crystals hanging on this chest hair!

Our tradition of ice skating remained in tact despite the storms and luckily, not many people were anxious to crowd the ice arena that day since there was so much ice outside! Most everyone has fun ice skating.

Before heading to Albany to take Kyre and the children home Christmas Eve afternoon we attempted a family picture that we had rearranged work and flight schedules in order to accomplish. Kathi Knowles, a photographer in the ward, was kind enough to give us some of her time right as her son was arriving from the airport that morning. We had planned a great outdoor shot by the waterfall by Grandma’s condo but it not only was wet but covered with too much snow. We had to settle for an indoor shot with a wide angle lens on the camera since Kathi couldn’t get far enough away from our large group. She was disappointed that she couldn’t get a better shot of the group and has offered to do the shoot again someday when we can all get together. This is very generous of her since her time was donated to the Camp Auction and that is how we came to buy her services. All in all I think it went as well as could be expected with the snowy conditions to even get to the building and having three children under the age of two. This family pose is one that is in the final running but my favorite pose is of the grandchildren at the very end when everyone was ready to go to lunch and Klaire was the only toddler happy since she had a familiar lap on which to sit (and her stuffed animal right next to her)! But the moment in time is what is so precious to have all the grandchildren together; even with Alina smiling as Jenna screams louder in her ear than she thought possible!

We learned later that afternoon that Dad being with us on Christmas Eve was in jeopardy due to the road conditions coming back from taking Kyre and the children home to Albany. It took extra hours just crawling through traffic as the freeway was closed several times as the snow plows tried to make conditions better. I don’t know that we have had snow this deep for this period of a time. The ruts in the roads were impassable at points. Dad made it back just as we sat down to eat thank goodness.

We had a great Christmas Eve program with stories and music. The best part was when Rebekah was asked to tell the Christmas story and she directed us to “act” out the story with an impromptu play of sorts, she being the angel and her mother being the narrator if I recall that correctly. Oh course, Aubrey was chosen to be Mary (great with child) being led by Joseph (Shawn) and the donkey (Nate). We ended with Dad dedicating our home (something we have wanted to do for years) since we were all finally home together. It was a wonderful evening; no one wanted to leave the living room so Santa of course couldn’t make his visit until the wee hours of the morning. Luckily, he did not give up and we woke to a grand display of gifts on Christmas morning.

The length of time for all the present opening was like the days when we all were living under the same roof and it took all day. It was like getting a call from a missionary to be able to take a break and talk to Scott on Christmas! He actually is serving the Lord where he is; he is a great example for goodness and I know he makes a difference. He told Adrianne on her last visit of the vacation, that he enjoyed the food during the holidays and they were even treated to steak on New Year’s. He also loved his visits with each one of you.

Of the gifts, there were several handmade gifts, hard to find items and specially ordered surprise items that were exciting to see opened and of course it was fun to watch the grandchildren open some of their playful gifts. Dad and I received some grand gifts from all of you; our technology brain cells will get some work outs while learning how to use the iPod Touch and the navigation system! We stopped for our traditional Christmas breakfast after everyone saw what Santa brought and opened their stockings. It seemed we were opening gifts until it was time to fix dinner which had to be prompt since half the family was going to the Portland Trailblazer game that evening. They had a hard time getting the van out of the neighborhood so Dad drove the tractor down to plow the corner that was the worse area before they drove home! The whole neighborhood was grateful for Dad’s plowing services. That effort allowed our neighbor to maneuver out to the main streets during the storm; he received candy gifts galore.

The night after Christmas was a delightful and elegant dinner out at the Heathman Hotel to celebrate Nate’s graduation. He is going to walk in April so that is why no one received any announcements.

The rest of the holiday was spent playing together, playing new games and old, building snow tunnels, after Christmas returns and shopping, roasting marshmallows in Dad’s new fire pit and eating, eating and more eating. You must eat snacks while playing games so I think we went through about six or seven cheese balls, a family favorite. After all the cream cheese that I stocked up on before the holidays, I had to actually send Bill out for more!

These are just a sampling of the pictures from Christmas. I am still in the process of labeling and editing all the pictures from the holidays. As soon as I can get my Costco.com photo site working again (I have to call customer service again), I will send you my file on their website so you can see the rest of the pictures. Did anyone get a picture of Shawn and Aubrey with the Christmas tree quilt? I would love one of those if so.

We are thankful that everyone arrived at their homes safely. The Brady family was the first to leave. Since they couldn’t drive their car here due to the storms, they drove our Taurus home. We had decided not to sell it this fall since we knew that we could use an extra car over the holidays. Now that it is in Utah, Katie could decide whether she will take that car or her Honda to St. Louis. I think it is a stronger car for brutal weather and for the trip this weekend! Katie spent New Year’s Eve with Reshea and her family, even Aunt Carla and Uncle Scott, in Pismo Beach. I bet their evening was more exciting than ours! Nate went to dinner with a friend but came home early. Adrianne went to the dance with friends and Dad and I worked at the dance.

In Utah the Brady’s decided to have toasts for several events so when it was Rebekah’s turn her toast was, “I love my family and know the Church is true.” and Jenna’s was, “Toast!” Adrianne spent her last days here visiting with all her barn friends. Nate decided to drive with Arik Johnstone. That was nice for Arik since he only drove out here due to his flight getting cancelled and not being able to rebook until after Christmas, so he didn’t have a rider planned. It was nice for us since that helped us get the last of the boxes, luggage and strollers to their rightful owners in the different states with only having to pay one extra baggage fee! It is a good thing that Dad and I never had the time to clean out the attic in November as we had hoped. We planned to do that so that we could send boxes home with everyone but there wouldn’t have been room anyway. I was nervous about Nate’s drive since the roads were getting bad again but he said it was a very dry snow on the roads.

Dad is having a hard time thinking about work after this huge break. He is so lucky to have finished the large Vancouver job before the storms. We knew the months ahead would be bleak since there is no work lined up. This severe winter weather also contributes to people not thinking about concrete work which won’t help. I told Dad that we needed to sit down in the days ahead and put ourselves on a strict budget. His reply was, “Does that mean we are going to be vacationing for awhile?” He has really like this break, being forced not to think about work!

Thank you again to all of you for the extra efforts and for the sacrifices made to come together as a family. One of the girls in our ward who went home to Hawaii mentioned in her testimony at church a woman (actually Sister Kim, Jenn Jones Kim’s mother-in-law and Jeff, Jeremy and Kyle’s mission president’s wife) in her ward who passed away suddenly just days before Christmas. At times like this we realize that we never know when the last time we will have the chance to express love to those around us. In a family, we are sadly very aware of each other’s faults and shortcoming and yet happily, willing to love unconditionally and willing to lift and love whenever and wherever necessary. Thank you for the kindness that you show to Dad and me and to your siblings. Seeing you love one another brings us the most joy. This has been a year of healing and rebuilding for our family. Dad and I hope that you are filling your reserves and feeling more rejuvenated after this Christmas season.

Have a great start to this new year! I love you. Love, Mom