Happy Thanksgiving

The weather is finally telling us winter is coming. But we’ve enjoyed the extended fall. Tom has tons of leaves to clean up from the lawn… and still the trees have some leaves. But this weekend it has been rainy and cold.

The week started out nicely. Monday I worked on some websites. I’m learning about airline maintenance and a new technology that can take all the information that goes into the “black box” and use it to predict when something is starting to go wrong. Then it can be fixed before it actually goes wrong. I also have a gun sight invention that I’m trying to figure out how it really works.

Sometimes these websites seem to be a moving target. I get things written and then the owners come back and say, no, that’s really not how it works. Or, that’s not what we’re going to focus on. It makes me crabby, but I’m realizing this is a moving target. The companies are so new, they are just coming to understand the technology themselves. They want the website up early so they can have something to show investors. And that means sometimes new information comes along that changes things.

Tuesday I went to glaze some pottery with my friend Marian. We always have a lovely time chatting as we work. Whenever I go I always want to do more with pottery. Then I come back home and other things seem more important. But I enjoy working with clay.

Tom has been doing tithing settlement this week and will continue through the end of the year. He enjoys visiting with families whether or not they are full tithe payers. It’s just their chance to report to the Lord’s representative.

Wednesday we prepared for Thanksgiving and for Deborah and children’s arrival. I made pumpkin, apple, and pecan pie. When Deborah arrived, she made a chocolate pie. I cooked up some yams from our garden and they were sweet and tasty. Tom made green jello with cottage cheese and pineapple. Thursday we added turkey, stuffing, and gravy. We were about to sit down to eat and I realized I had not made mashed potatoes. Actually, nobody seemed to miss them.

Ian drove up early Thursday to join us and we invited our neighbor Barb over for Thanksgiving dinner. The kids seemed to have a good time. They had forecast bad rain and storms, but it didn’t happen Wednesday… or Thursday… or Friday. Finally Friday night we got a little rain and drizzles through to Sunday. But no storms and perhaps a total of under 2 inches.

On Friday we watched a Percy Jackson Movie. Sarah had been reading the book— Sea of Monsters, I think. Ian braved the crowds and went shopping for us on Friday. He left that afternoon to get home in time for work on Saturday. Deborah went out in the evening for some Black Friday shopping. She took baby Hailey and all the other were in bed. An easy babysitting job for us.

Saturday we visited and played games with the kids. Then Deborah packed up and headed out. She stripped beds and started laundry so it was pretty simple to get things back to order after they were gone. We thought we might have the mission president and his wife spend the night, but they did not. It was nice to relax. We watched “Silent Night” the movie about how the song came to be. It was a good introduction to Christmas.

Sunday we had two new converts and a missionary speak in sacrament. I worked on some family history the second hour. Then the mission president and his wife spoke to all of us for the third hours. It makes us really want to be better missionaries.