Sunday - Dec. 3, 1978

Dearest Ron, Ann & Suzanne, Rick & Jean, Bob & Claire and Roy,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE!!!! We have thought about you all day long and it's a good thing it has been a busy day or we would have been really lonesome thinking about the blessing of Susanna with all our Utah family being together - we would have loved to be with you. We hope everything was just perfect and we also hope you'll write and tell us about it - it was so sweet of you to call last night Annie and tell us about your plans for dinner and everything - I hope your chicken and dressing was great and I'm sure it was.

We had two babies blessed in our Ward and you could never guess who the parents are of one of them - Kay Starnes Covington and her husband!!!! Wendy Halpin's baby was also blessed. When I walked into church this morning I ran into Oil Starnea and I was so surprised - he really looks good and seems better in every way. He told me that his mother and Kay and Russ would be there for Fast Meeting to have Kay's baby boy blessed - they asked Daddy to bless him and he did a good job. I visited with them for quite a while and Kay looks just the same - her husband is a pharmaceutical salesman and they have bought a home in Walnut Valley - that's right by Pleasant Valley and Echo Valley and they named the baby Russell Gilber I think. She wanted your address but I couldn't think of it Jeannie so she said she would call me - hers is, 925 Shackleford Road, L. R. 72207. Jean wanted me to especially tell Ann hello for her - she said you were one of her very favorite people. She looks just the same - we had heard that she re-married but Gill said today that he didn't think it worked out. Ken is in Kentucky and her two children - Sally is in Houston and works is Gymnastics and is doing something else too but I can't remember what it is.

We loved your letter Bob - your Thanksgiving sounded wonderful and we're so thrilled you have your Christmas tree up - I'll bet the neighbors in Lehi wished you were going to be permanent residents there - you have added so much. We're anxious for your draperies to come - that will make that home so much more comfortable for you. We wish you were coming for Christmas too - sometimes I think we're too practical. Don't worry about the Mill 7 Mix - that's the family's Christmas present anyway and we won't use it until then. We did received the part they sent from Brigham City - it didn't come until Friday!!!! We still can't believe it was so cheap to have sent - may be we won't even get it for Christmas - Ha!!!!

Jeannie and Rick - do you have your draperies finished??? We would love to see them. How are you coming with training Hershey??? That's a job and half!!!! I felt that I had been put upon over the Thank giving week - end so I decided to give myself a vacation last Monday and Tuesday - I told Daddy and Johnny that I would be on telephone schedule - four rings and then stop and then four more (in case you ever need it) and I didn't answer the doorbell - there wasn't a car in the driveway because the Lincoln was in Searcy getting fixed. Well, I was upstairs cleaning out personal drawers and really enjoying myself - I had on old, old wrinkled blue jeans and a blouse that is much too small for me and it was cool up there so I put on that jacket white sweater - really, I looked like I had worked at trying to dress funny, - no makeup or anything. Well, the doorbell rang and I couldn't see a car in the front of the house so I thought it was the UPS truck in the driveway and it would be my Mill & Mix - it was Benson. He had come to see if you were coming home for Christmas - we had a good visit and he got your address so he could send you a Christmas card - they are having picture cards made of their two little girls. He has lost a lot of weight - says he weighs 165, down from 205, and looks good - Ted is going quite seriously with a girl from Helena, Ark. And her name is Princess King - their pictures were in the paper a couple weeks ago at a social function - Matt is at Westminster and will go in business with Benson and his father - I guess his father came out of retirement to get the business started again.

Roy - we haven't heard from you this week - I'll bet you are really busy studying - we hope you'll write and tell us all about Thanksgiving and everything. Johnny has started "practicing" sleeping up in his bedroom so you can have your room all to yourself when you get home --he has really loved that room. They did have the gun loading apparatus set up in there but they have moved that into the den so it's becoming more like your room again. Daddy and I had lunch at the Taco Kid last week but Don wasn't there - we met his brother though and he's a lot like Don - they were really busy.
I forgot to tell you in last week's letter that we have sold Winky - we had intended to take her out to the Animal shelter to see if they could find a home for her. Well - someone called to see if we had a female puppy and I said no but we had an adult female we would like to sale - they came and got her right quick - I didn't tell them she was "untrainable" and barked all the time. We're going to put our ad back in the paper and try to sell these last two little puppies - we have had a lot of calls for females but no males - I'm sure we'll sell them because they're just darling - I wish you could have one Claire and Bob!!!!

We had our annual Garden Club Christmas party this afternoon - it was at Maggie Cochran's home right down Ronwood - it was nice - made a cheese ball and used the recipe in Frances' new cook book - I believe I put a little too much onion in it but I made it this morning and it was Fast meeting and I couldn't taste it - especially with onion in it.

We went to the Dinner Theatre last night at the Stake Center - it was really, really nice - they served spaghetti, garlic bread and salad and cake - can you imagine 400 people attended!!!! The play was very good - we had to leave early because John was at Cotillion and we didn't want him to be alone that long. They had put a great deal of effort into it.

We have really worried about Becky. Her folks, the Wilson's, sold her that she was not welcome in their home for another year because when she had left for her Mission they had said she couldn't come back for 18 months - they are so rigid!!!! They put her on a bus Tuesday morning and she went to Utah - they finally heard from her on Friday and she was in the YMCA. She had told me that the Wrights or Coulters would be happy to have her live with them but I guess that didn't work out. I really get sick all over when I think of her out there all alone but may be that's what she needs - Villa Wilson is a professional social worker and she should know how to treat her.

Roy and Marine Bass have been here this week-end - they had an open house for them at the home of the Littleton (That's Dan's grandmother, Roy) but they didn't invite the neighbors - I was really surprised but we couldn't have gone anyway. I talked to Dot Morsy and she went and said it was nice - she said John Robert was there and really looked lost and he was the only one of the family. Donald will be moving out by the first of the year and john Robert is moving in - he has leased an office in a new Woolco shopping mall just off John Barrow road so I guess he will graduate.

I gave my talk at the Mother-Daughter luncheon yesterday - it was supposed to be on Sweet Memories so I had fun telling about some of the fun things that happened to Ann and Jean and me when you were younger. It was a beautiful luncheon and I'm glad it's over. I helped serve at the Stake Priesthood Preview dinner - they served Chicken Tetrazzini (sp. ?) and that seven layer green salad, homemade bread and apple pumpkin pie - it was just delicious and the next time I have to serve a big crowd that's what I'm going to make.

How was your trip to lows, Ron? You are in such an interesting profession and we hope the pressure is off for a little while. Daddy always says that the pressure is never off unless you're hunting or fishing so you just have to learn to live with it. I'm sure it's that way with your job too Rick. Anyway, we surely hope things work out for you - it is a really competitive world!!!!

Claire - Bob said you wanted the white fudge recipe - I got it from Wendy Halpin today so I'll make copies for Ann and Jean too and include them in this letter. She made it for our Relief Society Opening Social and it is just delicious and a nice change from chocolate besides the expense of chocolate. I have wondered what you finally decided on for your homemaking class in Lehi - it's so hard to please everyone. We're going to make stained glass Christmas ornaments in our Homemaking Class - we're also going to have a cookie exchange everyone is to bring 36 cookies and then exchange them so they take 36 different kinds home.

Roy - Johnny can hardly wait for you to go duck hunting with him - he's so afraid you'll "chicken out" when you get home. He and Daddy got twelve last week - Johnny loves it as much as Daddy does so I'm sunk!!!! Daddy says this is the first year he has really been prepared for it - he has the boat, the ammunition, the partner and everything and he's loving it!!!!

WE SURELY DO LOVE EACH ONE OF YOU AND HOPE YOU'LL BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO!!!!
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