January 6, 1997

Dearest John & Julianna; Roy, Patrice, Emily, Timothy & Jesse; Bob, Claire, Michael, Laura, Brett & Katie; Rick, Jean, Ricky, Barbara Jean, Mary Ann & Sarah; Ron, Ann, Susanna, Jessie, Russell, Lee Anna & Jimmy:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I hope each one of us will try to improve our life in some way - I know my weaknesses more than I ever have and it's always good to have a new beginning each year. I have made resolutions and I hope I will be able to keep them longer than I did last year.

I am SO glad to have a full screen on this computer. When I checked my email this morning I had a message from Bob and also Steve Frisby but I could only get half their messages. I pushed all kinds of buttons but I couldn't enlarge it. I have had many people tell me to "not be afraid" of the computer but when I experiment I always get in trouble.

I believe Bob asked me in his message if I would try to send my letter email today. I had planned to do that but as I told him - "Old habits die hard" and I have been doing it the old fashioned way for SO long it is hard for me to change. Sometimes I add little personal notes to my letters and I couldn't do that with email. I will change around and do some email and some snail mail for awhile - okay??? I have reserved about an hour each week to visit with my children through letters and I feel like something isn't quite right if I don't do that and for some dumb reason I have to address envelopes and stamp them!!!

I am SO excited. They have these "continuing education" classes all over Utah County and one of them is for the Personal Ancestral File Genealogy program and it will also cover the LDS Ancestral Quest. the one listed in the paper was going to be taught at Lehi High School and I was already to register for it. WELL - yesterday in church some of my sweetest friends had their daughter with them and when they introduced her I recognized the name as the teacher of the class I want to take. I talked to her after church and she told me about a better place to take the class - in American Fork where she will teach with better equipment and more of the things I need. It doesn't start until February but I believe it will be just what I need. I may even learn how to enlarge the computer screen - Ha!!! Steve Frisby and I have been sending email messages - he sent me one for my birthday and I sent him one for his birthday - he and his son are my wonderful home teachers. He was talking to me about email yesterday when the Family History specialist in our ward came by and he turned to me and said, "Sister Mellor if you can send email messages you can do genealogy on the computer" - that was encouraging.

Weinerts - are you home??? I called you on Saturday night and got your answering message. I am SO glad you have one of those - I couldn't live without mine. I told you to not call me back so I didn't want you to. I hope you had a WONDERFUL time in Florida- I'm anxious to hear all about it. I keep thinking of my birthday party in your lovely, lovely home and all the work you did to make it so special. My corsage is still SO pretty - in fact, I believe I could just throw away the live flowers and save it for another special occasion. There are two recipes I need - the one for wassail and the one for your truffles.

Claire - are you feeling good??? I surely hope your "condition" has improved and that you are "up and at 'em". I know you and all the young mothers are happy to have school start today - I always used to look forward to that after Christmas.

Roy Mellors - I LOVE THE PICTURE YOU SENT!!! I am THRILLED with new pictures of all my grandchildren and that one was "LONG OVERDUE" - Ha!!! It is a black and white and very, very good of all your children - I want to snatch that little Jesse out of the picture and hug him. He is still at the "hugging age" - Timothy and Emily and my other grandchildren have grown out of it.

John and Julianna - I LOVED having you drop in the other night Julianna even though you found me in a bigger mess than usual. I hope you are feeling better - Ann told me last night that she had talked to you and you were ill with a flu bug. It was about 7 o'clock and John was still at work - he REALLY works a lot and when he isn't at his office his office is with him by way of the phone.

Woolleys - thank you SO much for coming over last night. I know how very busy you are and it is wonderful that you will take your time to come over. SUSANNA - I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU FOR BEING ACCEPTED TO BYU - that is WONDERFUL. She is going to start Summer Semester and already has her housing and everything. I don't like to think of my grandchildren growing up and going to college but at least she won't be very far away. Jimmy had prepared the Family Home Evening Lesson for last night and he is SO cute - he had us write down our New Year's Resolutions and then share them with everyone. When it came for Ron's turn he said "My New Year's Resolution is to not share my resolutions with anyone" - Ha!!! They are concerned about Grandma Bev's health - she has developed a bad cough and x-rays of her lungs showed some dark spots but the biopsies didn't reveal anything serious - they don't know what they are.

I had such a nice surprise last Thursday. I received a big box from Judy and Del Ayotte - Judy was my brother Dee's wife and she has remarried. They moved to Oregon last week and in cleaning out their home they found some memorabilia that belonged to me. I have had SO much fun going through old pictures. I found some of a "young" Del Holmgren that I want to show my grandchildren to let them know how cute he was to be my boyfriend because he isn't the most handsome of older men - Ha!!! There is also a picture of my brother Bob's girlfriend from Indiana. She used to come stay with us after he was killed and I am happy to have those pictures. They also sent me a WONDERFUL picture of my Father - it would probably be about 80 years old but is in pretty good condition. I took it to Inkleys to have copies made - one for Roy because Timothy has Forrest in his name and one for John because he has Forrest in his name. I will also try to have the original one framed for Bob - they can't do it at Inkleys because it is "concave" and they don't have that kind of glass but I believe I can find it in Salt Lake somewhere. I am a little uncomfortable about letting my brother Don know that I have it.

I want to tell about this next thing for my journal. In October my florescent light went out in my garage. It is too high for me to reach it but I knew I would have "manpower" on Christmas day so I used a flashlight for two months when I would go out at night to put Hans and Frauie in. WELL - I got new bulbs and John and Ron put them in and it still wouldn't work. We started to make our traditional candy mints later in the day and when I went to get the marble slab from the other end of the garage the lights suddenly went on. I couldn't believe it and ran in the house to tell John and Ron and Ron said "Is there another switch at that end of the garage?" We looked and would you believe - the marble slab was holding a board against the light switch that prevented it from going on. If we had not made mints that day I would have had an electrician out to see what was wrong. Can I call that a "miracle" - Ha!!!

Ellen Mae and Margaret Jost have invited me to go to Palm Springs with them again this year. We will go probably January 24th and will be gone until the 29th or 30th. We will drive down with Ellen Mae and Mel and then Margaret and I will fly home. Carol Dunford may go with us but she is going to have surgery sometime soon and she isn't sure if she will be able to go. We had such a good time last year and I am looking forward to it. It will probably snow again while I am gone!!!

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