Lasagna and Christmas Cookies

You can tell from the title that for Sunday dinner we had lasagna (from frozen), which is one of Camden and Riley's favorites. For treats, we decorated Christmas cookies in the shape of stars and Christmas trees (from Macey's bakery). Camden and Riley had fun decorating and then eating their cookies. Lindy, Richard and Gramma did, too. Grammpa was busy playing with Sidney and Nate was at a fireside. So we sent lasagna and a star cookie home for him to eat. After dinner we watched "The Polar Express" with all three girls in it! That was a lot of fun. They liked seeing themselves, even Sidney who would squeal whenever she saw herself. Riley let us know that in one picture she was wearing a tank top, and in another picture her tummy was showing! They're anxious to watch it again with Tiffany when she comes home. Not too many days now--she's coming home this Thursday!

After the Barretts left for home, Dad, Rich and I went to tithing settlement and got squared away for the year. Good thing Rich has been doing his home teaching and I've been doing my visiting teaching because the bishop asked us if we had been doing it. Thankfully, we could answer yes. Steven is exempt from that, but he does triple or quadruple duty at the MTC!

Speaking of MTC, I didn't go there for Relief Society today, but went to Sunday School and Relief Society in our ward and then to the MTC for Sacrament Meeting. Steven had Elders Tadd and Skinner stand up and told the other missionaries that they were good examples of how to keep their rooms in order. He invited the other elders to stop by their room to see how it's done. Elders Tadd and Skinner also blessed the sacrament today. It was a challenge for Elder Tadd to say the prayer in Spanish, but he did it. (When he finished, it was apparent that he was quite relieved.) But after they sacrament was passed, they came up short two pieces of bread, so Elder Tadd got to say the prayer again! Afterward, Steven and Elder Skinner both told him that he had gotten to do double service today by saying the prayer two times.

We said goodbye today to District E: Elders Fish, Wright, Curtis, Mackay, and Lewis--all going to Argentina tomorrow. Sis. Bankhead was there today and starts her chemotherapy on Tuesday, so she may not be able to come for awhile.

Dinner at the MTC

Our evening at the MTC last night was really nice. As we arrived we were greeted by the MTC presidency and their wives and Elder and Sister Holland. It was fun to visit with the Hollands for a few minutes. I told Sis. Holland that we're related--our grandmothers (Lillie and May Holt) are sisters and our dads (Raymond and Maeser) are first cousins. Sis. Holland was happy to know that. She said, "In fact, your dad and my dad dated my mom at the same time. It made my dad jealous, and I think that's what got him to ask her to marry him." I said, "Well, it all worked out for the best." Then she said, "My dad would say to my mom sometimes, 'I bet you wish you had married Raymond because then you could have been part of the educational world.' " I'd never heard that story before, and I thought it was pretty interesting. Dad used to talk about his cousin, Maeser, a lot. The kids remember the time we went to the Lytle Preserve down by St. George, and Maeser was there. He cut a pomegranate open for them with his pocket knife. They thought that was quite amazing!

At dinner, we sat with Steven's counselors and their wives: Mike and Becky Ahlander and Lew and Jann Bankhead. Sis. Bankhead said she had had a good day and was glad that she could come. She is recovering from recent cancer surgery and is now facing six months of chemotherapy. It was nice to be with the four of them. The dinner was delicious: salad, yummy potatoes, green beans, chicken and/or prime rib, rolls and cream puffs. Each table had a nativity set decoration--I took mine earlier in the day. We almost got to sit at the table with the one I brought, but some other people barely beat us out. So we sat at a table with a really cool, big Polish nativity set. Actually, it was better we sat at that table because it was on the edge of the room and we had to leave at 9:00 while everyone was still singing Silent Night. The table with our nativity set was right up front by the stage and the speakers' podium, so that wouldn't have worked for us to leave before it was all over if we had been sitting there. Actually, the evening should have been over by 9:00, but it was a little over-programmed. It started out with a live nativity, which was very nice. Then a long vocal solo, "O Holy Night," followed by a welcome from Pres. Boone, the MTC president. Then a long opening prayer (I'd say about 3 minutes or more). Then the dinner. After dinner was a nice string ensemble that played three Christmas pieces. The next thing was a chime activity in which everyone participated. It was fun, but that was the over-programmed part--it went on a little long. The chimes were then followed by the speakers: Elder Hinckley and Elder Holland. The speakers were almost anti-climactic because the evening had gone on for so long. But they both gave good talks and kept them pretty short. For Elder Holland's message he read a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay titled, "The Ballad of the Harp Weaver," which he said was a Christmas memory from his youth. It's quite an interesting poem and was, to me, a different kind of thing to be read by him. I imagine it was something like a favorite Christmas reading for his family when he was young. When he was reading it, every time he said "harp" I thought he was saying "heart," so it kind of didn't make sense to me. But then I looked the poem up online and found out it was "harp" instead of "heart," so the poem makes more sense. It's a sad little poem with a good message about a parent's love.

This morning, Steven and I went to the ward Christmas breakfast over at the stake center, then we went to AF to drop Richard off. From there we went to the Barretts to tend Sidney while Lindy and Nate took Camden and Riley up to Park City to see Peter Pan. The weather wasn't too bad when they left, but while they were gone, about 7-8 inches of snow fell there in Pleasant Grove. They didn't get home until about 6:30 because the roads were pretty snowy. Anyway, we're glad they went up and back safely. We surely had a lot of fun with Sidney while they were gone. She really knows how to show Grampa and Gramma a fun time. We sang and read and ate and played with lots of toys. It's so fun to hear her jabber with all of her expressions. When Lindy and Nate and the girls got home, they brought Arby's for dinner. Richard had joined us by that time, so it was a regular party. After coming home, Steven spent the good part of an hour getting us dug out around here. I think winter has arrived for sure.

Tending the Girls

Last night (Thursday) Steven and I went and tended the girls while Nate and Lindy went to Nate's work party. Actually, we didn't really get to tend Camden and Riley because they went to their ward Christmas party with friends. When we got there, they were both anxiously waiting for their friends to come. When will they come? They should be here by now. Are they ever going to come? Finally at about 6:10, a knock came at the door. Who is it? Mollie or Haley? We opened the door and it was Mollie for Riley. Riley was so excited she hurried and put on her boots and flew out the door. It was a pretty hard letdown for Camden to have Riley leave before she did. She looked like she might cry, but she was brave and didn't. Did Haley forget? she wondered. No, she didn't forget. She'll be here. But where is she? I bet she forgot. I bet they're not going to the party. No, they're going to the party, they're just running late. Then at about 6:25, another knock came at the door and Camden nearly jumped a foot off the couch. FINALLY, Haley's brother had come and Camden was on her way to the party! That left Sidney all alone with Grampa and Gramma. She seemed perfectly happy to be the only one home with the "old folks." She did some playing in her saucer for awhile, showed us the tree and told us alllllllllllll about it, and made an adventurous climb up the stairs. Into her jammies and then it was time for stories. She liked the Ten Ladybugs book--especially the page with the butterflies so she could flap her arms like a butterfly. She said "flowers" once and "quack" a few times. She couldn't quite get that fish thing down, but she liked watching Grampa and Gramma do it. We had lots of fun. Finally, it was time for a bottle and bed. She only cried for a few seconds after we put her down, then she was off to sleep. About 45 minutes later, Camden and Riley returned from their evening out. Was the party fun? Yes--we got to run around on the stage and in the bathroom. Every kid's dream party at the church. They were pretty tired, so they brushed their teeth, got in their jammies and then we had hot chocolate and read a Christmas story by the Christmas tree. What a fun evening!

Wednesday night Steven was at the MTC greeting 10 new elders who've been called to Chile. While he was gone and Richard was at work, I scurried and got somethings done around here. It's always kind of nice to have an evening to just do stuff.

Tonight Steven and I are headed to the MTC for the annual Christmas "Ecclesiastical Dinner" for all the district and branch presidencies and their wives. It should be fun. They always have delicious food and wonderful speakers. Who will be speaking tonight? I wonder. Earlier today, I went to the MTC with a nativity set to put on one of the tables. I decided to take the one that Steven brought home from Ecuador last June. It looked really nice on the table.

Stake Friends' Lunch

Today was the day for the Stake Friends' annual Christmas lunch--that's our holiday get-together for the old Sunset Heights Stake YW presidency: Marie Duncan, Kathy Diederich, Connie Allen, Sue Olson, and myself. We've been doing it for a lot of years now--probably at least 17 years. It was fun to see everyone and to catch up on all the news. Connie now has 25 grandchildren! We are all turning, or have turned, 59 this year. Boy, we're old! Marie gave a report on her sister-in-law, Helen Duncan, who was diagonosed with lung cancer a few months ago. Helen was told that she was in Stage 4, so she wasn't expected to live long. She had surgery to remove as much of the cancer as they could, then she went to see a specialist at the Huntsman Institute who said her cancer was different than had been first diagnosed. It's a very rare, slow-growing cancer and she can expect to live at least 10 years more. So, that's better news for her than before. I saw her yesterday at Deseret Book and she looked really good. Marie said she's still recovering from the surgery which was pretty horrendous.

Richard started back to work at the temple today after having had two weeks off while the temple was closed for cleaning. He was glad to have some time off to get things done around here that he wanted to, but now he's glad to go back to work.

Tonight Steven and I had dinner in the cafeteria at the MTC before the devotional. We visited with a nice senior missionary couple, the Binghams from North Ogden, who are going on a mission to Scotland. We admire the senior missionary couples who leave their families behind to go serve missions, often not knowing (as in the case of the Binghams) what kind of mission exactly they'll be serving. As we were leaving the cafeteria, we saw Bro. Rampton, one of Steven's former counselors, who said that his daughter Jennie will be on Martha Stewart this Friday demonstrating her fake food that she makes. Hmmmmmm. That should be interesting. He didn't know what day for sure.

The devotional speakers tonight were Elder and Sister Craig C. Christensen. Sister Christensen said, "You can be made stronger through the power of the Atonement. Let God work with you, let God change you, let Him make of you what He wants you to become." Another thing she said, which I think is a good reminder to all of us is: "President Hinckley gets up every day and he works hard. If he can do it, so can you."

Elder Christensen talked about Prayer and four aspects of prayer, which are: preparation, knowing what to pray for, how answers come, and how to teach others about prayer. We always get to hear such good talks at the MTC it would be nice to be able to remember everything. He also talked about principles of being a good missionary from Alma's teachings. The principles (which are quite similar to Elder Walker's of last week) are: obey, trust God, work hard, exercise faith, love everyone, keep a diary, endure to the end. (I like mentioning what the talks were about in my blog because it helps me remember.)

Afterwards, we met with the missionaries in District D. They are some of my favorites. Especially Elders Tadd and Skinner and the four sisters. Their whole district sang in the missionary choir, which I think shows they are trying hard to do all they can to be good missionaries.

Sidney and the Christmas Tree

I ran over to Nate and Lindy's this morning to return their "Christmas Devotions" book that they left here last night so they'd be able to read story #3 tonight. While there I got to see the Christmas decorations which had been put up since my last visit. Lindy was holding Sidney as we were looking at the Christmas tree. Sidney started pointing and talking and telling me all about it. She's talks very authoritatively these days as if she knows what she's talking about and means it. So she was telling me all about the decorations and how beautiful the tree is. I agreed. It's a beautiful tree with lovely decorations that include three Princess ornaments--one for each of the girls.

I went downstairs to see the new Barbie house that Lindy has been working on for so long. It is quite spectacular. She did a great job and the little girls love it. It is all painted and furnished with all kinds of furniture, bed spreads, floor coverings, appliances, etc. When I told Camden and Riley that it was kind of like Tiffany's apartment in Illinois, their eyes got big as I'm sure they were imagining what kind of place Tiffany must live in.

Tonight for FHE, Steven gave the lesson from Pres. Faust's talk which was in the Conference issue of the Ensign. It's on p. 122 and is titled, "The Power to Change." I regret to say I hadn't even noticed the talk because I had just been reading the talks from Conference that I had been especially interested in. It says the article was prepared in the months before Pres. Faust's passing on Aug. 19, 2007; so, of course, he was not able to deliver it at General Conference. So I think that would be a good talk for all of us to read, along with the other talks.

Richard returns to work tomorrow at the Mt. Timpanogo temple after having two weeks off. I think he's enjoyed having some time off and relaxing. We especially enjoyed having him be able to go to South Carolina with us and for Tiffany to be able to join us at Sarah and Joel's for Thanksgiving. That was such a fun trip!

Christmas Stories

Tonight after Sunday dinner, we went downstairs and had some Christmas stories around the fire. Lindy read two stories from their "Christmas Devotions" book--one for Dec. 1 and one for Dec. 2. It was a lot of fun to be down there by the fire with Lindy and Nate and the little girls. Sidney sat in the little rocking chair and rocked and rocked with a big smile on her face. At dinner Lindy handed her about a half a slice of bread and Sidney looked at her like, "For me? You're actually giving me a big piece of bread instead of breaking it into little pieces?" Then at treat time, Lindy gave her a whole cookie and Sidney looked like she couldn't believe it. It was a fun evening. For dinner we had meatloaf, potatoes, corn, and bread. Riley had a harder time chowing down on the meatloaf than usual, but she made it through the required number of bites. After dinner she sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" into the microphone while wearing the purple crown on her head. Camden enjoyed playing and listening to the stories.

After the festivities were over and the Barretts went home, Steven and I went to Berg Mortuary in Provo for my friend, Colleen Hanks' mom, Vera Millett, who passed away. She was 97 years old and had actually been doing pretty well until she got a staph infection. Last Christmas, for our club Christmas party, we had dinner at Sandy Dallin's and then put together three gift baskets to take to three of the girls' parents. We took a basket to Mary Ann Jackson's dad, Bob Bunker; one to Susan Rogers' mom, Noreen Payne; and one to Colleen's mom, Vera. All three were still living their in their homes at the time. Colleen said her mom really appreciated the visit and talked about it for months afterwards. I'm glad we were able to make those visits--especially to Vera since she has now passed away.

When I talked to Tiffany this evening she said she had seen Elder David Loveless at stake conference today. He told her to tell her mom to tell his mom 'hello.' So I delivered the message. That's fun that she runs into him occassionally. Eleven more days and Tiff will be home for Christmas break. We're looking forward to having her home for awhile--Camden and Riley are especially looking forward to their sleepover with Auntie Tiff.

Today at the MTC, I just went for Fast and Testimony meeting since there was no Relief Society there today. They have mission conference there on Fast Sunday and no Relief Society. So I attended Relief Society in the home ward. Susan Allen gave the lesson from the booklet, "Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple." Two things from the lesson stood out especially to me: From p. 1 it says: "The temple transforms the individual and makes abundantly worthwhile any efforts made to get there." (I added the italics.) Then on p. 18 it says: "As you put your clothing in the locker you leave your cares and concerns and distractions there with them." That is a good visual reminder, I think, of how we should leave our worldly distractions and concerns in the locker as we leave to attend a session. Just put everything in the locker and lock it all up while we go concentrate on the spiritual aspects of the temple.

Karalie called this morning and said that her birthday party was a success and all who made it there (about 100) had a good time. I'm glad everything went well. I was sorry that we weren't able to make it, but sometimes we have to defer to the weather. It's a beautiful sunny (but cold) wintery day out there today. Too bad the storm couldn't have been a day earlier or later. But Happy #50 Birthday today, Karalie!

I Missed the Party

Steven and I headed out to go to Karalie's #50 birthday party in Salt Lake tonight, but the weather got the best of us. After snow had fallen all day long, it had finally stopped by evening. So we left for Salt Lake at about 7:00. The roads didn't seem too bad, in fact, they were pretty dry until we got to about 90th South and then the roads were wet. At about 72nd South there was a big accident involving about six cars that had wrecked because of black ice. As we kept driving, we could see that the black ice problem was only going to get worse; so, even though we didn't want to miss the party, we decided to turn around and play it safe. We had been talking to Tiff since last night about not driving on icy roads, so we thought we better practice what we were preaching. Sorry Karalie. I really hated to miss the party, but safety won out as it did for Tiffany today when she decided not to drive to Springfield to meet Greg because of the ice storm happening back there. We're glad she decided to stay put in Charleston--even though she was getting pressure from Greg to do otherwise. We have to try to be safe out there in this winter weather. It looks like fall has gone and winter is here with a vengeance.