Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to Family and Friends!

We spent Christmas Eve at Miranda's fixing the plumbing repair of the previous Saturday and then patching holes in the wall and installing baseboard.  There might have been some last minute shopping, but nothing serious. When we knew that we would be traveling/visiting family the two weeks prior to Christmas there was serious incentive to shop and wrap early. That evening I made cinnamon rolls; it is tradition!  

The children did not appear until 630 Christmas morning, which we appreciated.  They might have been a little confused though. The tree had been in the family room when they went to bed, but during the night had been moved to the family room, along with all the presents.  I told the boys that the Grinch had come to steal their Christmas, but we prevented him from taking it too far. After breakfast began the fun of opening presents. The children had a great time opening gifts, enjoying what others had received and playing with some items.  They became very engrossed putting their lego sets together. 

Love these pajamas of Miranda:

Miranda fixed a scrumptious dinner of turkey, ham, veggies and several pies which had to wait a couple of hours to be eaten because we didn't have room to enjoy them right after dinner. I do love her pecan pie!

Sandy and I drove home on Wednesday; enroute we visited Jonathan and family briefly to pick up one of their butchered lambs to deliver to the local Chinese healer Sandy visits. After 20 days, it was good to be home again.  Our house sitter did a great job in our absence. It took a couple of hours to unpack and get things organized.  I spent several hours on Friday and Saturday on the mower beating the leaves into submission.  In places where they were thicker, like along the fence line, I raked them onto a tarp, hauled them to the burn pile and set them ablaze. I managed to get most of the yard done. This has been an interesting year for leaves.  Normally they take a couple of months to all fall from the trees (mostly oak) and some years they linger into the next spring.  This year they were 90% gone by early December.

Today marked the end of an era; this was the last Sunday of the three hour meeting block for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which has been the norm for about 40 years. Next Sunday the Church will implement the two hour meeting block, providing us more Sunday time to strengthen our homes in gospel oriented study. This truly is an exciting time to be alive!

When my 45 year old Westminster chiming clock of emotional value to me was officially pronounced dead, brother Steve thoughtfully presented me with this Regulator clock which has a Westminster chime. Compared to the grandfather clock chime, this is more delicate.