December 16, 2001 Farmington, Utah

This has been such a beautiful day. I have discovered that if I open the drapes in my family room clear to the top I have a perfectly wonderful view of the mountains and of course, they are covered with snow. I have most always had the venetian blinds closed on the windows but I won't do that anymore. I bought one of those little 4 ft. trees and it has those tiny lights on it - I had intended to put it outside but it is kinda' hard to get electric current to it so I decided to put it on my desk upstairs so it can be seen from the outside. It's kinda' cute!!! My neighborhood is REALLY decorated.

I know you are all having a wonderful and busy time - it's such a fun time of year. I was sitting at the back of my church members in our chapel today and I kept thinking that some of them REALLY have a lot of "kids" and then I started counting them and learned they have at the most five children so I kinda' got the idea of how the people in Little Rock felt when they looked at our family. They are all SO excited and it's hard for their parents to keep them quiet. I found myself thinking back to the time when Ann and Jean were at BYU and how nervous we always were in trying to get them safely home for Christmas. Then when Bob was with them and they tried to get "Big White" in good enough condition to come by car - I don't believe they ever did that!!! When Roy was at Brown he would get to Memphis and then "hitch hike" a ride to Little Rock - he always had great success but looking back on it, I'm sure that wasn't very smart of us. We would take him back to Memphis to get his flight to Rhode Island and he would NEVER let us wait in the airport for him to leave and that worried me. I really don't know why he didn't just fly directly to Little Rock. NOW, I worry about my grandchildren who only have to drive a few miles to get to their homes from their colleges. John lived close to home when he was in college too. MY, HOW TIME FLIES!!! I'm proud of all of you who realized the drain on our budget so you tried to work out a cheap way to travel.

Bob sent me Russell's letter via a different program and I was thrilled to read that he is doing SO well. I hope they receive another one this week. He is surely thinking very deeply about things he is experiencing - kinda' like a lifetime in another part of the world. Russell really is excited about all the different animals as well as his missionary work. Claire forwarded me the picture of Michael leaning by the Tower of Pisa and I can't believe how thin he is - he looks WONDERFUL!!! I am SO fortunate to have two fabulous grandsons serving in different parts of the world and I LOVE hearing about all their experiences. I AM VERY PROUD OF THEM.

Annie - thank you for your e-mail and also your phone calls. I hope your e-mail is fixed - I check mine very often during the day so you can send me messages and I'll get them. I am going to start packing for the cruise tomorrow so I won't forget anything. I'm going to try to get everything in one suitcase and a small cosmetic case to carry on. I won't take anything like fingernail scissors or anything that might be dangerous. I will have my passport in my purse.

John- thank you for your messages this week. I received a package from Chris and Wayne and they had sent me some kumquats along with pecans and tangerines. Margaret came over and I offered her a kumquat and she PEELED IT. I told her that you aren't supposed to peel kumquats and she didn't believe me so I asked John. He researched it on the internet and sent me the info so I forwarded it to her - YOU EAT KUMQUATS SKIN AND EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE SEEDS. Everything I see on television about New York looks SO exciting and I hope you're taking in all the festivities.

Patrice - thank you for your message too. I hope SO much that Emily's "Holly Ball" was a lot of fun - I'm so glad you had some of her friends and their parents in for a little social before the dance. I would love to know what she wore. I made almost all of Jeannie's cotillion dresses and one of the ones she wore at Christmas Time was green velvet. I believe Roy and Bob wore the same suits for four years (or as long as they attended). MY - how things have changed - and for the best!!! Katie has made the formal she is going to wear on the cruise and it is beautiful.

I helped the sister who goes visiting teaching with me as she had the ward "Empty Nesters" party at her home last Monday. This is for all the adults in the ward who don't have any children at home. She has a friend who travels to Jerusalem often and she gave the program and it was very interesting. She served food that was typical of that part of the world; chicken salad in pita bread, olives, dates, almonds, white grape juice and little cakes. I think about John and also Lynn who spent quite a bit of time in Jerusalem and I'm grateful for the nativity scene and other carved figures of olive wood that I have - they're very precious to me. Jerusalem is a scary place to be now and I hope that will change.

I went to a Condo Board meeting on Tuesday morning and I believe that will be my last one as a member of the board. We will have an association meeting including all the condo owners on January 8th and they will elect a new board. We are going to have a manager starting in March so there won't be as much pressure on the board members and that will be good.

Wednesday I went to the D.U.P. museum in Salt Lake to attend the dedication of a new monument that has just been made and put on a platform by the building. The monument depicts a pioneer woman clutching a little doll and then she is holding the hand of a little boy and it is beautiful - President Faust dedicated it and it was special to hear his talk. I went to our ward Relief Society Christmas party and their program was "The Forgotten Carols" and they served a dinner and that was nice.

I went to the Davis High Jazz Band Concert and that was SO good!!! Brett participates in that and I am SO PROUD of him. I am impressed with everything I saw - the young people and also their conductor who conducts with every muscle in his body - Ha!!! Brett is a natural born musician and the pieces they played are difficult.

Thursday I went visiting teaching in the morning and then the woman who comes to my home as a visiting teacher had a Christmas Luncheon. She is a member of the General Board and does everything "just so" - Ha!!! That night I was kinda' depressed and I finally figured out why. My V.T. companion owns a health food store and for Christmas gifts she gave "Bee Soap" and I gave chocolate candy - when I got to the luncheon the hostess explained that her potato soup was made with only health foods - another lady who was there has MANY allergies so she is on a special diet and she had prepared a delicious fresh fruit salad made with fruits she had bought at a health food store (mangoes, pears, kiwi, bananas, tangerines, etc.) - the other lady who was there has asthma and can only eat certain things. ANYWAY - I decided that I have done things wrong all my life - Ha!!! I am the most healthy one of the group though.

Friday I just caught up on things and about 6:30 p.m. Jeannie called and said, "We're going to pick you up at 7 o'clock to go to the Davis High Basketball game". Sarah performed a dance routine with the D'Ettes and it was SO good - I was VERY proud of her. You wouldn't believe the snow that night - it just wouldn't stop coming down but it was beautiful. I LOVED going and I was very happy I didn't have to drive in the snow and Rick took us right up to the door - he's good at that - Ha!!! Davis High won their game and it was a good game.

Saturday morning at 4:30 I looked out at my driveway and I thought "there is no way I am going to go out in this" BUT I did!!! The snow was at least 6 inches deep and it was still snowing. They had cleared the roads good and I didn't have any problems once I got out of the village - my Subaru really handles good in the snow. It always surprises me that there are patrons waiting to go on a session when I get there even though the weather is terrible. There were 17 weddings on Saturday morning and I had a neat experience. I was in charge of one of the brides so I had to talk to the sealer who was going to marry them. I went into the sealing office and asked who was going to do it. This man came up to me and said he was the sealer and he kept looking at me and my name tag - finally he said, "I don't know how to ask you this but are you my Mission President's wife?" I couldn't believe it - his name is Glen Behling and he and his wife served with us in Montana - they were in the Cody Visitor's Center - small world!!!

The new manager of the condos and his family had worked all morning so by the time I got home a little after noon my driveway and walks were all clear. I left soon after I got home to go to the "Nutcracker" with Margaret and I LOVED that. I thought all during the program about the times we have gone as a family when Rick and Jeannies' daughters have performed in that at the Capitol Theatre - wonderful memories and I'm SO glad we were able to do that.

Bob came over just to visit last night and I love it when he does that. I hated to admit that I was ready for bed and it was only about 8 o'clock but I had missed my nap - Ha!!! He and Claire had been to our favorite Thai restaurant and he brought me some of their Thai soup - it is absolutely delicious. I was complaining about our Bishop changing my tithing settlement time from Thursday night to Sunday night but Bob agreed with my Bishop - he says it is REALLY hard to get people to come in and then they have to have a special appointment later on.

Mary Ann - Thank you SO much for bringing me that delicious dinner today and leaving your sweet note. She even set it on the table for me with a glass of ice. I'm sorry I missed you - I went to the Post Office to leave some mail right after our meetings and I was a little late in getting home. Bob and Claire brought me a roast last Sunday and that too was delicious - honestly, I have plenty of food - my Bishop apologized tonight for not giving me any attention and I said "I have plenty of attention from my family".