Dearest Family,
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ANNIE ON WEDNESDAY,
DECEMBER 3RD!!! I believe she is "thirty something" and I hope she has
a WONDERFUL day. I am constantly amazed at all the things Ann is able
to accomplish and do them all SO well. Besides all the other things she
is doing like teaching at BYU, being a GREAT Bishop's wife to many
single students at BYU, etc., she is now a substitute Seminary teacher
at Timpview High School. She says she is very surprised at all the
things she "doesn't" know and that's hard for me to believe. I have to
laugh when I think about how much she disliked seminary when we lived in
Phoenix and then when we moved to Little Rock she would get up about 4
o'clock in the morning to go pick up other friends her age who lived all
over Little Rock and drive to North Little Rock to attend a seminary
class for about an hour and then drive back home and get ready to go to
Hall High School. I'm proud of you Annie and I know you are a "SUPERB"
teacher.
Thanksgiving is over and the day we spent at
the Woolley's home couldn't have been better. The dinner was perfect
and the special thing about it was a "memory" of the traditional Western
dressing. Do you all remember when Bob, Ann & I went to West Canyon and
we were excited to pick some "sage brush" so Ann could get it prepared
for her dressing? WELL - she did everything just as she was supposed to
do but it ruined her dressing - it made it bitter and no matter how hard
we tried to like it, we just couldn't - Ha!!! I can just hear Aunt
Marvel laughing in Heaven. She was always SO proud to have some fresh
sage to use for Thanksgiving but I'm sure there is a real difference
between that sage and the sage brush Ann used. I haven't tried but I'm
sure we could find out the difference if we looked somewhere on the
internet. I was kinda' glad because I had made the Southern "Timex"
dressing the Woods used to bring to us and it was eaten - I fully
intended to have it all left but I wanted to make it anyway in honor of
our Arkansas days. I really like it and it is practically "fat free" I
think - it does have eggs in it though.
John had prepared some pictures from their
trip to Guatemala and they were ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!!! I find myself
thinking about them during my days and I continue to be VERY proud of
the things they all accomplished there!!! It is a thrill for me to see
Bob, Roy & John giving of themselves to such a worthy cause. Bob
explained to me how Roy had brought a little doll to give to a
Guatemalan girl who had a birthday the same day as his was - she is
holding that doll so close to her in many of the pictures - what a
thoughtful thing for the Roy Mellors to do!!! They were on a boat
sometime and she had the little doll tucked in next to her and her life
jacket. I have NEVER seen such graphic pictures of things like cataract
surgeries, teeth being extracted, cleft palate surgeries, sinus problems
that actually moved a woman's eye across her face, etc., etc. -
UNBELIEVABLE!!!
It was GREAT to have Laura & Bren with John
- I haven't seen them for almost a year. All the Bob Mellors were there
- Claire and Michael came a little late because they had gone with
Grandma & Grandpa Ezell to a restaurant for dinner first. I wish the
Ezells would have been with us but Bob said they were invited but didn't
want to come. Rick, Jean, Ricky and his friend Dan and Sarah and her
friend Brandt were there - Barji, Boyd & Preston are in Florida and Mary
Ann & David went to David's parents for dinner. We missed Susanna,
Steve & Jackson - they are preparing for their move to their new home in
Chandler and we missed Jessie but she telephoned and I was happy to get
to talk to her. Russell, Lee Anna & Jimmy were all there. Some of the
students in Rons' ward came for dinner and they were fun to visit with.
We also missed the Roy Mellors - I know they had a happy day with Suzie
and probably some friends from church.
My cousin and your second cousin passed away
and I went to his funeral on Tuesday. Lee Rhodes from Garland was about
three years older than I am and he has been in a rest home for several
years. Cheryl called me early that morning and I met her and Don at the
funeral home in Kaysville. I was VERY happy to learn about it in time
to get to the funeral - I had never met his children and I hadn't seen
his brothers and sisters who are my cousins for a long, long time. Lee
lost his wife 31 years ago and he has been a "single" Father all that
time and he has done a good job - he has a GREAT family!!! I was VERY
impressed that they had arranged a "horse drawn carriage" to take his
coffin to the cemetery - I had my camera but I worried that it wasn't
appropriate to take a picture so I didn't but I wanted to. Lee was very
good to Aunt Marvel.
I went to the musical "42nd Street" at the
Capitol Theatre in Salt Lake on Tuesday night and I enjoyed it very
much. I can't believe anyone could do "nonstop" tap dancing for three
hours - I am lucky to have Margaret get tickets for these shows because
I don't think I would go on my own and it is fun.
I went to the Temple Christmas party last
night and it was SO nice. The people in charge had it catered and the
food was just delicious - I went into the kitchen at the church where it
was held and when I saw the huge pans of gravy I was impressed and
grateful that I didn't have anything to do with it. They served chicken
breasts stuffed with vegetables, rice, peas & carrots and a delicious
chocolate mousse. A "Bell Choir" entertained and I have never heard
anything like that and it was WONDERFUL!!!
Ricky came over and helped me with my
"Picture Project" and I appreciated that VERY MUCH!!! John had taught
me how to do the scanning that Ricky did all last Summer but somehow I
wasn't doing it right so I called Ricky to see if he could have time to
come help me. He was SO good and showed me where I was "missing a step"
and taught me how to do it right. After he left I tried to scan some
pictures that were vertical and I couldn't figure out how to change them
to be horizontal - Bob surprised me and dropped in and showed me how to
make them the right way. That is such a GREAT project for me to work on
and one way or another I will learn how to do it - Ha!!!
I'm proud of Boyd for his enthusiasm and
desire to do well in his profession of pro-golf. Boyd, Barji & Preston
have rented a small home in Florida where they will stay while he
competes in the "third stage" of the tournament that may qualify him to
go on for future tournaments. You can tell I don't really understand
what I am talking about but I know it is important for them and I want
them to know we are "pulling for them". I believe Jean & Rick are going
to be with them for a few days to help with Preston. I am always SO
happy to run into Jeannie at the temple and I'm impressed that she makes
it to the 6 o'clock a.m. session which means she gets up almost as early
as I do on those Saturday mornings.
I am going to love my new ward but my
goodness it is VERY crowded now when the next ward comes in for their
meetings. After Sunday School they had a combined Relief Society and
Priesthood meeting and there weren't enough seats and people were
waiting in the hall to try to get in so I just left and came home. A
member of the Bishopric came to see me a few minutes ago and apologized
for not having enough room for everyone - we both decided that was a
good problem to have. Church acitivity in this area is just wonderful -
I remember when we were in Little Rock it was my job to count all the
people who came for our Sacrament Meetings and we were thrilled when we
had 100. There are 405 in my new ward and I believe EVERYONE attends
all the meetings.
I don't have any idea who is Republican or
who is Democrat in my family so I don't know how any of you stand on
President Bush's trip to Baghdad but I just can't imagine a letter from
me without mentioning it for "posterity". I thought it was very brave
and the right thing to do - I have enjoyed watching the many reruns of
how surprised the troops were to see him come into their "mess hall" for
their Thanksgiving dinner.
That's all the news - I LOVE EACH ONE OF YOU
SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU
DO. GRANDMA B XXXXXOOOOO