Sunny and blue skies

Sunday afternoon the sun came out and it was a beautiful site. Fresh snow with only the tracks from deer. Oh and remnants of snow angels on the deck!!!!!

What do you do in the snow?

Between friday and saturday we got about 8 inches of snow. Jamie played in it and Mick and I worked in it. Mick learned several things in using the snow blower. Ist and foremost, you must wear a hat while operating. Mick spent hours getting the LONG driveway cleared and scraped, only to have snow again sunday morning. There was a big debate on whether to have church, but the Bishop and 2nd Counselor, aka Mick,decided to have sacrament meeting and then decide whether to have the rest of the block at church. We had a slippery drive there and very few in attendance. Jamie thinks it is hilarious how the Jersians don't go anywhere. "What is the big deal" she says, "it's like they haven't seen snow!" I was the main speaker in sacrament meeting. Told the family story of Christmas in 1920 where Dally got a doll and toys from here sister Ida (my grandmother) and brother. Also the tradition of the orange in the sock. Christmas means giving was the title of the talk.

Oh It's Beginning to Look like Christmas

Jamie flew in last night , thursday the 18th,and the snow immediately started on friday morning. In Jersey the norm is to not go outside. So we decided to put the ornament on the tree. Doesn't our tree look great. The Smiths when they moved back to BYU for MBA school donated it to our family who was treeless. It looks great in our 20 foot ceiling familyroom.

It started snowing tuesday night while we were eating dinner. janelle went outside and started catching snowflakes. It only lasted a few hours and by the next morning it was an ice storm. Yesterday janelle and I ran to the store for the Christmas doorbuster of Prime Rib. The parking lot was jammed and they had to direct traffic with the shopping carts. You would have thought hurricaine Katrina was blowing through. Well little did we know that we are suppose to get 6 inches of snow, so everyone panics and runs to the stores to empty the shelves. I looked pretty silly with one prime rib and two cartons of ice cream in my cart compared to everyone around me with canned goods, milk, eggs, and other essentials. We woke up this morning to frosty and crunchy grass but that was all. They cancelled school last night in anticipation of the storm. Well we shall see if it comes through.

Ok as most of you know I love collecting and pinning bugs. It all started when my kids were in Honors Biology and the big end of year project was the classifying or ordering of 50 insects. I would collect them all year and the students would call me to see if I had any bugs. Even after my kids didn't have Honors Bio I continued to collect these little creatures. side note....can't tell you how many A's I earned. Well my best assistant is janelle. She sees those little buggers and calls me for the capture and kill. One morning she announced, very boldly, that there was a really cool, HUGE bug on the screen. Oh, I told her, I don't collect them out here in Jersey. But after viewing this huge praying mantus I just had to get the collection jar and go to work. Sunday was a youth fireside at the house and my pinned project is now on the phone desk. One of the leaders started to get all flushed and upset. He asked me where I had gotten the mantus and I proudly told him the story. He promptly told me it is against the law in Jersey to kill a praying mantus. Oops!! Well the word got around the ward and the primary president made me this apron. I have to let you know, that I proudly wore it at the ward Christmas party.

Christmas in the City NYC

Thursday evening Mick and I went into the city to attend the Manhattan Temple. When leaving he took the scenic route passing Radio City Music Hall, the store fronts, and the famous Rockerfella Plaza Tree. It was absolutely beautiful and 49 degrees. It has me very excited for our big New Years Bash where my family and 14 other guests will be in Times Square for the ball drop and Jamie's 21st birthday. Watch for us on TV, and hopefully it will be another 49 degrees. We had a Christmas party at our home last night with 10 couples. I laughed so hard I went to bed with a headache. A light snow was falling last night and we woke up to a dusting on the ground. Oh it's beginning to look like Christmas.

Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving week was spent at the desert house. Graig and his roomate from Rexburg pulled in friday the 26th and I picked up Jamie in Orange County on tuesday the 25th. The boys got three games of golf in there on the course at the house. The picture of them is taken from our backyard on the 5th hole. They also went in the hot tub every night and then would jump in the cold pool. We enjoyed swimming and working out at the clubhouse and enjoyed the sunsets and even had a huge rainstorm complete with rainbows one day. We had the Wise's and also Karen Blatter come out from Brea for Thanksgiving dinner. We had fun visiting, eating, and playing games. I got up on black friday and was to my first store at 4 am. Did three stores and home by 5:18, went back to bed and then headed out again with the family for a couple of hoursat 9:30am. It was great fun. I've never had my family go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. Well the girls maybe, but not the boys. My mom flew in friday after Thanksgiving and we shopped and visited and swam. The college kids left early sunday morning and the Jersey gang left tuesday. Randy and Cathi Miller came for dinner on monday night. Mom stayed another week and enjoyed the desert with her girlfriends from HS for their annual Christmas get together. I am so grateful for so many things, especially being together!!!!

How did you spend your Thanksgiving Vacation?

One of the many appointments while in California was going to the dentist. Oh what fun that is when your old and need dental work. I went to a new dentist that puts a dam on and then flosses between your teeth to work. Isn't that a sight!!!!

California and Disneyland

Janelle and I flew out to California on Nov 13th for our quarterly trip to check on the Ca house. It was a great trip filled with dr appts, ultrasounds, dentist, hair, and I even got a little work done at Cranberry to get ready for the Road to "California Show" in

January. Janelle and I stayed at the Brea house a few nights and I even got to attend a ward party held in our home there. Johnny and Emily, our house sitters, were the host and hostess and they invited me. While there the California fires were blazing and several families in our Brea ward were evacuated. Our home remained safe but, johnny and emily had all the things I wanted to evacuate ready on the livingroom floor if the call came to move out. Thank goodness it was not necessary. I also attended both of the book clubs I attended while living there, church on two sundays, dinner with the old YW stake presidency group, and dinner and breakfast at the Guzik home. And as you can tell from the pictures, Janelle and I spent a day at Disneyland on Nov 20th. A big thank you to Brother Tukuloff for signing us in. Mick flew in on friday the 14th so we headed to the desert house on saturday morning to start the cleaning from it not being in use all summer. What a job that was. But it is sparkly inside and out. Mick had a hotel in Anaheim while working the week of the 22nd, so Janelle and I spent some evenings with him and I got to have my Marriott big breakfasts in the mornings!!!