Dearest Family,
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRETT ON FRIDAY -
18 YEARS OLD - WOW!!! That's getting mighty close to the magic age of
19 when you'll be going on your mission. I can't imagine Brett
graduating from High School this year but I'm sure he will and he has
had a terrific time at Davis High - contributing much and learning much
and I'm proud of you Brett on your 18th Birthday.
The big news for this letter is that Roy,
Timothy & Jesse are going to come to Utah on January 9th for a skiing
vacation and I am SO thrilled!!! The ski slopes have plenty of snow and
I'm sure they will be getting even more. I wish Patrice and Emily could
come too but Emily is going to be studying for finals - hopefully they
will come out sometime soon - it has been much too long since I have
seen Emily. I don't believe any of them have ever done any snow skiing
but I may be wrong - it's time they learned how!!!
MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EACH ONE OF YOU
TOO - I'm looking forward to being with my family on Christmas Eve at
the Weinert's home and the weather forecast is for snow so we will all
be in the mood for Santa Clause. I wish he could still drop gifts from
the rooftop but I guess he will be too busy - it won't be long before
we'll be able to do that again for Preston and Jackson. I remember the
time Claire's brother Steve substituted for Santa at the Bob Mellor's
home - where has the time gone????
I am enjoying the Christmas season SO VERY
MUCH!!! I remember when I first came home from Thailand and started
working at ZCMI and talked about my Christmas working schedule with
Margaret and she said "Oh, you'll miss all the Christmas festivities"
and I thought "So What"!!! - Ha!!! I had no idea that people around
here celebrated the way they do but I am learning fast and I'm SO glad
I'm not working anymore.
Claire's traditional Christmas dinner last
Sunday for her parents, me and Michael, Laura, Brett & Katie and
Michael's friend girl was simply WONDERFUL!!! Claire had prepared a
delicious turkey dinner with all the trimmings - actually I didn't
really know it was going to be that kind of an occasion - I have gone to
their home often for dinner and I just assumed it was going to be an
ordinary Sunday dinner. She has promised to give me her dessert recipe
- macadamia nut pie and it was SO good. We had such a fun evening and
watched the videos that she will show again on Christmas Eve for all of
you and you will LOVE them!!!
THEN, on Thursday evening Bob & Claire
picked me up to go to Salt Lake to the Conference Center for the program
"The Savior of The World" and I enjoyed that SO VERY MUCH. Going to the
Conference Center during the holidays kinda' starts the Christmas Season
for me and that program is VERY special. It was even more special
because I was with Katie and her friend Jocelyn and Brett and then we
met Michael and his friend girl there. It was WONDERFUL to see the
Weinerts all there too - we didn't have an opportunity to visit very
long but it felt like a "Family Affair" anyway. Mary Ann, David, Barji,
Sarah & Brandt - Ricky and Boyd were involved in other things. The
Woolleys had planned to be with us but their plans were changed.
Michael's friend girl has the most beautiful long hair - when I first
met her, she had it in a pony tail so I didn't know how pretty it was.
Katie - CONGRATULATIONS on your cheerleading
team winning first place in the competition in Salt Lake a couple weeks
ago. They will go to Florida to compete in the Nationals now. Claire
said it was a 5 hour ordeal but it was worth it.
John is doing good - he called and we had a
good visit. He has been doing quite abit of traveling so he's kinda'
been "out of pocket". I'm glad he is going to have the opportunity to
travel - he is like his Dad in that respect because Lynn enjoyed
traveling. He said he was in Chicago last week and IT WAS COLD!!! John
likes his job. I'm looking forward to being with John, Laura and Bren
on Christmas Eve.
YOU ARE ALL INVITED TO MY HOME ON CHRISTMAS
DAY. I am going to have a little buffet and it won't matter one single
bit if some of you cannot come - I WILL UNDERSTAND. Jeannie has already
told me that Barji & Boyd, and Mary Ann & David will go to their
husbands' family homes and I imagine Laura R. will want to spend that
day with her Mom too. I know Claire will want to spend the day with her
parents and family as well. The Woolleys will be exhausted and will
just want to stay home and I don't blame them - besides, I AM GOING TO
MAKE SOME THAI CURRY - Ha!!!
Ron, Russell & Jimmy have been in Hawaii
since last Wednesday, and Ann, Jessie & Lee Anna have been in Chandler,
Arizona with Susanna, Steve & Jackson since Thursday. I believe they
will be home this Wednesday so they will have LOTS to tell us about.
Annie is such a good organizer that I'm sure everything about their
Christmas is in order. Jessie is going to Hawaii with her friend boy,
Cody and his family but I don't believe they are going until after
Christmas Eve - WHAT DO I KNOW???????
I had my big D.U.P. Christmas party last
Wednesday. It wasn't at my home but I am "Captain" so it was kinda' my
responsibility that everything went well. It was a potluck luncheon at
the home of one of our new members and she has a GORGEOUS large home and
it couldn't have been better. I fixed ham and yams and then one of
those "green bean casseroles" but I really didn't need to take that much
- we had SO much delicious food. The one I liked the best was a halibut
casserole made with fresh halibut just brought back from Alaska. I
talked Margaret into going with me and she enjoyed it but she won't join
because she doesn't want to be committed to anything that would prevent
her from going to Wyoming when she wants to. I wanted to give a little
gift to one of our members who is moving and I found one at the D.U.P.
Museum about the "Handcart Pioneers". I am going to get one for each
one of you when they get more in because they have a list of the 6
Mellors who were in the Willey Handcart Company. EMILY, one of our
members was in charge of getting a little Christmas program and she had
her daughter who lives in Logan with a new baby girl come to play the
flute for us - she is VERY good and I thought about you and how much I
loved hearing you play with your Mom accompanying you.
I went to Perry which is just South of
Brigham City to attend the program of "Annie" which was held at the
Heritage Theatre on Friday night. That is a converted theatre and it
used to be an L.D.S. Church building when I was growing up. I don't
believe I have ever seen a better production and most of the performers
were from Brigham City. Margaret and I went to support our friends, the
Holmans because they had four grandchildren performing in it - we all
had dinner at the Idle Isle Cafe first and that was fun.
My Temple Day was special on Saturday - I
ran into Bob & Michael and that in itself is a miracle because the
temple is HUGE and I have assignments all over it. I LOVED visiting
with them for a little while. Bob and Brett were going to go to Logan
Saturday afternoon to work on Laura's car - it was having problems and I
hope they were able to fix it.
I just came home from Lehi. The last time I
visited the cemetery I could see that it was important for me to "tie"
up the branches of the trees by Lynn's marker and since I wanted to
decorate his grave for the holidays I decided to do both of them at the
same time. When I awakened this morning it was snowing really hard so I
thought maybe I shouldn't go but I drove to church and the roads weren't
that bad so I left after Sacrament Meeting and came home to get ready
and then left for Lehi about 12:30. I put a beautiful wreath on his
marker and I found a "poinsettia whirly gig" ornament to stick in the
ground. Do you all remember how much he liked those whirly gigs in his
garden? It snowed on me all the time I was there but it was fun and his
grave looked so pretty. I drove around our property there and the cows
looked SO cold but I guess they are used to it - it was kinda' dark and
dreary!!!
That's all the news - I think. I LOVE EACH
ONE OF YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN
EVERYTHING YOU DO. Grandma B XXXXXOOOOO