Weekly Report December 11, 2000
Dearest Family,
I just came home from visiting teaching - it seems
so funny that it takes me two hours to visit three sisters and they are very
close by. One of those sisters has ill children so we didn't even go into
her home. My companion likes to visit with me so that takes a lot of time.
Chris Jordin and I used to take the entire day to visit in Little Rock but
we would go way out into the country. I was worried about driving on icy
roads but they were clear and the sun came out so I didn't have any problems.
JOHN - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LETTERS FROM
ISRAEL. I have been SO happy to find letters AND a picture from John the
last couple days. He took a picture out the window of his hotel room of
the beach and ocean - he had been out jogging that morning. He is surely
having a GREAT experience and I am anxious to have him tell us all about it.
I am anxious to hear about the preparations for Christmas there - I know
they are mostly Jewish but even though most of the people in Thailand were
Buddhist there were many Christmas decorations in the stores and everyone
celebrated New Years. It is WONDERFUL to hear from John even though he is
SO far away!!!
PATRICE - Thank you for your letter too. I'm
glad you received your package and it's fun for me to hear about your Christmas
decorations inside your home and outside - where do you have your tree? I
know the children are making lots of decorations for it - do they still make
those construction paper chains? I was in the Joseph Smith Memorial
Building one day last week and they have this ENORMOUS tree in the lobby and it
is decorated SO lavishly with huge "balls" and lots of ornamental
birds including beautiful plumes. I couldn't help but think about the
trees in the "olden" days that were decorated with strings of popcorn
and cranberries and those chains. I still prefer those decorations - Ha!!!
ANNIE - Thank you for your letter too. I know
you are super busy - when is your last day of teaching and when are the children
out of school?
BOB AND CLAIRE - Thank you for your invitation to
your Christmas program last night. They had a WONDERFUL musical Christmas
program in their stake last night and Ellen Mae and Mel took Margaret and me to
it. I don't believe I have ever been to a nicer program and I was SO proud
of Laura. She accompanied their choir and did such a good job. They
had each ward in their stake participate - choirs, violin quartets, guitar
duets, viola solo, trumpet solo, brass quintet with; trumpets, trombone, French
horn, tuba and it ended with a flute accompaniment of Silent Night, Holy Night.
Their Stake President narrated the program in various places. Their
chapel was beautifully decorated and I just LOVED it. It was good to see
Alice and Bob Ezell too - Bob has surely recuperated quickly from his knee
surgery - they look GREAT.
JEANNIE - Thank you for inviting me to go to the
Davis High School basketball game on Wednesday night. SARAH is a beautiful
dancer and her D'Ettes presented a GREAT program that night - I'm SO proud of
Sarah for being able to do what she did in their dance. They held long
batons and she did it without dropping it. I know I could never have done
that. It's hard for me to believe that my "little" granddaughter
is old and big enough to participate in things like that.
I also went to a "Triple E" party on
Friday morning - I believe that stands for endurance, enthusiasm, and energy but
I'm not sure. It is a social organization just for adult single women.
We all met at the church at 9 a.m. and then went in two vans to Salt Lake
where we went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see the new movie,
"The Testament" and then we went to the "Food Court" at ZCMI
for lunch. Many of the women who belong live in the trailer courts just
north from where I live and many of them have health problems. They
struggle with finances and the lady who was in charge of planning the party had
$5 for each one in a little Christmas folder - they are very sweet women.
I also went to Katie's piano recital and I simply
can't believe how good she is and all the others who played. She and Laura
have an excellent piano teacher who demands a great deal from her students and
SHE GETS IT. Katie was the first one on the program and that would have
been hard on me but she said she liked to be first and she did not make one
mistake.
I went to our Ward Christmas party on Saturday
night. I have decided to support everything I can in this ward to see if I
will not be so ornery and judgmental. I was the only single woman there
and I cannot describe how uncomfortable that is but I surely can't complain when
I don't have a solution except to re-marry and that just isn't worth it - Ha!!!
When I asked the other single women in our ward why they don't attend they
always answer "I never go to ward functions in our ward". When I
was R.S. President in Orem I tried everything possible to get the single women
to participate and I was quite successful so maybe the solution would be to have
a single woman serve as president.
I have received our Family Group Picture and I LOVE
it. It is good of everyone and will be a topic of conversation for many
years with Michael and Brett who were not there to be in it. The
photographer digitized Michael in the back row and he put Brett on the front row
kneeling down. He put Brett's head on another young man's body and I like
it - I hope Brett does. I also had Christmas cards made from it - now I
must get busy to mail them out soon.
I'm watching the television coverage of the Supreme
Court decision on Bush's appeal to stop the voting recounts. It will be
interesting to hear their verdict. I am at the point of not really caring
who wins - I would prefer Bush though. I have thought about Steve a lot
during all this - I'm wondering if he REALLY still wants to be a lawyer. It
will be fun to hear how he feels about all this when we get together on
Christmas Eve. It will also be fun to have Barji and Boyd with us - they
will be home this Saturday and I know they are excited.
I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE
SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO. Grandma B
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