December

The day after Thanksgiving (it's almost December!) I start getting ready for the Christmas holiday. So first thing of course is getting the house all dressed up in the festive decor. Becky was a big help. She put up the tree, decorating it perfectly and hanging up all 20 socks. I spent the day figuring out what to do with the rest of the house. But when finished, we felt like, OK, it's really Christmas time now!

December......Ahh, the activities with neighbors, grandchildren, and family begins.

December 17.....
Our cute little Allie and Becca are in the Lehi Children's Choir so we've enjoyed seeing them perform for a few years now. Becca does a great job with her violin solo and Allie's got a voice that gets her solo parts, too. They even performed on Temple Square this year. Good job!
December 20........
Lynda's birthday's the 20th. What a special Christmas baby she was. We love her and went to her home to celebrate her day. Dianne, her mother-in-law made a fabulous dinner and the little kids maybe ate one bite of it. But all us oldies loved it!
Happy Birthday Lynda.......and Happy Birthday Mason. His was December 9th. Mason turned 4 and is quite a busy-body.
My Sister Susan also had a birthday this month. We (me, Annette, and Susan) celebrated her's by taking a whole day and evening and just eating lunch & dinner out, going to a movie, and shopping, shopping, oh did I mention shopping? Then we just talked and laughed till late at Annette's house.
December 23....
Megan's on the girls basketball team at Lehi High School, so thought I'd go see her make some baskets and she did! She is their teams best blocker. Never knew I'd see the day when a grandchild would be taller than me.

December 24.....Christmas Eve...
We went to Julie and Todd's home for Christmas Eve. Todd ended up working on call at the hospital all of Christmas Eve. Too many people were breaking bones on the ice, falling off roofs, or driving drunk. Kept him busy all night. Glad we could give Julie and the kids some company for the evening. Mason and Sarah sang some nice Christmas songs for us while sitting under the tree.
December 25.......CHRISTMAS DAY...........
After a nice traditional Christmas breakfast Bernell, Becky, and I opened some presents. Then the kids began to arrive and the gift opening continued.
Lynda, Joe, Liam, Ava, Jonah, Breton

Lots of picture taking took place. Always try to get family pictures in front of the Christmas tree.

Lori, Bill, Isaac, Becca, Allie, Megan
Becky, Bernell, Nancy..........Todd, Julie, Sarah, Mason, Emma

More company came, my sisters and brother with some of their families. About 30 people in all. This is the time when our house shrinks. Got noisy and busy with all the people but nice they all came. Can't imagine what Christmas day would be like without family here. Always have had a good crowd. Love them all!

It began to snow and storm as they all left that evening, so I worried about their drive home. Thank-goodness all got home safely but the roads were pretty bad.

December 26..........
Lots of snow to shovel.......Becky again coming to the rescue, Bernell had to work in the temple that morning; neither one of us can work the snow blower so it was a big job.

Becky's out with me as I try to take a few night pictures. The lights in the bushes glowed red but didn't show up in the pictures very well. Look hard and you might see a little pink showing in the mound in front of Becky.

December 29.....
Reva Beth had her traditional after Christmas family gathering in Springville. She made the best carrot pudding I ever tasted! Enjoyed visiting with Mac's family, Reva Beth's family and all our family except Lynda's came. (She had a bad cold).
December 31......
New Year's Eve.......
After this all the festive lights go out for another year. I'll miss them. They brighten the early dark skies of December. At least the days now will start getting longer.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

The Pink Jumper

Christmas 1963.
My brother, Garry, was on his mission in Scotland so it was Ken, Susan, Annette, Mom and Dad, and me for Christmas morning. I was all of 19 years of age. My special present was a fuzzy wool pink jumper. I loved it!

I dressed up in it the next day so I could go to the Thursday night dance at the Terrace Ballroom.


The old place was located between 4th and 5th south on Main Street in Salt Lake City. I rode in the backseat of a Volkswagon with 2 other girls to the dance.

I really didn't like going to dances because I wasn't good at dancing and usually didn't get asked but this time it was different......

......a very tall guy wearing horned-rimed glasses asked me to dance and we got somewhat acquainted during the evening. At the conclusion he asked me out for New Year's Eve and I accepted.

My life changed after that evening wearing my new pink jumper to a dance. Six months later, I married that tall guy, Bernell.
Over 20 years ago this old ballroom was torn down. Made me sad. In the 30s it was called the Coconut Grove and changed to the Rainbow Rendezvous in the 40s. Mom and Dad met there at that time. In the 50s, changed to Terrace Ballroom. In 1963, here I met Bernell and a couple of years later after Garry returned from his mission he met his wife, Deanna, there.

Lynda's Birthday

37 years ago today, Lynda made her appearance into our family. A second daughter! Wow, never thought I'd have 2 girls. Nice Christmas present; brought her home from the hospital in a little red Christmas sock the nurses made for all December babies. Lori wasn't quite sure what to make of this new little sister.

So we had a nice Christmas celebration with our family and our new little daughter.

1973 ----- When Lynda had her 2nd birthday, we decided to have Santa come and make it special. Lynda and Lori are having fun sitting on his knee.
1974 ---- Santa came again next year, too.
And again all the aunts, uncles, cousin, grandmas, and grandpas came. This is Lynda, Ken, LaRae, and Sue.
Here are Elwood, Reva, Dad, Mom, Woody, and Annette enjoying dinner at the pool table; we'd add the ping pong board top which then made a very large table in the basement for the numerous crowd.
1975 ---- Another Christmas birthday cake.
.......and again lots of family, cousins, and of course, Santa! Annette is sitting on the fireplace, and children of Arnold, Woody, and Beth look like they are excited to see Santa.
I've introduced our 3rd daughter, Julie, to Santa this year.

1976 ---- This is a special picture of Reva (Grandma Loveridge). It's the last one we ever took of her. She passed away only a few weeks after this birthday Santa party.
1977 ---- Lynda drew a Christmas picture of a snowman and an angel. When I decorated her birthday cake, I copied her drawing and iced the cake with the same figures.
1978 ---- Santa came one last time for Lynda's birthday. And again, everyone had a good time with him. We continued to have a big family gathering on her day celebrating her birthday and the Christmas season.

Lynda is a special daughter, now with a busy family of her own. I am so privileged to be her mom and love her very much.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LYNDA!

Grandma

We celebrated cute little Emma's 1st birthday about a week ago. Nice to have both grandmas there.

As I've been planning and preparing for Thanksgiving dinner this week, I've thought about last year spending it in Minnesota at Julie and Todd's with Mason, Sarah, and tiny one-week old Emma. She was a beautiful little doll then. Now she's almost walking, still awfully cute, and is grandchild number 11.

All 11 of them are very precious, busy, smart kids. I think this is a good time to be thankful for this blessing in my life. Being a grandma is great! So fun to drive up to their houses for a visit and they come out glad to see you and give you hugs. What more could a grandma want!

Leaves

I love the Fall colors and the cooler temperatures. October was just beautiful! .....But all those leaves have to come down, all how many billion of them. Three times the back yard has been raked up and there's still more and more leaves every day. My last clean up was Saturday. It doesn't look like I've touched it. Well.....I know what I'll be doing again this weekend. Good thing Fall is so pretty....that makes up for the full garbage cans of leaves.

Giant Pumpkin

Our neighbor across the street enjoys growing giant pumpkins. He grew this one in his backyard this summer with much tender loving care and it hit over 600 lbs.

Julie, Emma, and Mason paid a visit earlier this summer and saw the giant still growing.

With much extra man power to move it out, the pumpkin now adorns the front for all to enjoy.

Happy Halloween!
Some of the little trick-or-treat goblins had their pictures taken with the "Great Pumpkin".
We also enjoyed 70 degree weather today, so was nice to see the cute little trick-or-treat visitors in their costumes not hidden under coats.

Back Home

We're back home after a 10 day cruise in New England and Canada. I've wanted to see this area for a about 3 years now and we finally made it. Becky was interested in this one, too, so we were glad to have her come with us.

After boarding the ship in the Manhattan Port we sailed off watching all the great sights like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Ellis Island, and the New York skyline fade behind us.

Our first stop was Boston. Never been there before but the stop was for only an afternoon so didn't get to see much.
After a day at sea, we docked in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Rode a double decker bus through town and walked the pier.
Took a tour to Peggy's Cove. A beautiful fishing village with picturesque light house over looking the Atlantic Ocean.
Another day at sea in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ending with a port in Quebec City. What a fun European, French experience this place was. We walked all over and wore ourselves out.
Our next port was at Prince Edward Island. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful......
Saw lovely countryside, stretching beach fronts, and made a stop at the Anne of Green Gables home. So pretty!

Another day at sea; then a day in Sydney, Nova Scotia. The Cape Breton Island (our grandson, Breton, is named after) is very beautiful with all it's lakes, colorful trees, rolling hills, and green meadows.

You can see here more of it's beauty. We took a ferry across this lake on a bus. Made me laugh sitting on a big bus being ferried across the water.
Had a fantastic lunch at a resort while on our tour outside the Syndey area.
This view was just outside the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. So pretty with all the fall colors.

Next day we sailed back to New York and disembarked. Our taxi ride which was supposed to take and hour to JFK airport took little less than half an hour. The driver scared me to death driving 50 miles an hour through Times Square weaving in and out of traffic and through a tunnel and on a freeway passing every car in sight! Whew, was I glad to get out of that taxi in one piece at the airport!

Glad to be back home. If anyone asks me where my favorite place is, I still would say home.

Once More

Wanted to see the flowers one more time on the church office grounds. Lori came up from Lehi and we met Becky and Annette who both work downtown nearby for lunch and took a few pictures.
Conference is this weekend and soon after the flowers will be pulled out to make room for planting pansies. So we had to come ONCE MORE! Lots of conference visitors were already browsing the grounds and taking pictures. Saw a few brides, too. Perfect day for a wedding.
We had lunch at the Lion House. With temps still in the 80's we enjoyed eating out on the patio.
The geraniums along the street were just huge. Had to take one more picture before leaving.....until next spring....good-by to the beauty of colorful flowers.

The Lawn Mower Won't Start!

How many of us have said this through the years, "I can't get the lawn mower to start!"
I did a couple of weeks ago after filling the tank of old reliable which started nicely for me for quite a few years. It just wouldn't start. Bernell came out and couldn't figure out what was wrong either, so he took it to Sears repair shop. They said he'd be better off buying a new one, so he did. Brought it home, filled it up; it wouldn't start either! Took it back, the nice salesman give him another new mower. Guess what, we couldn't get new#2 to start. Bernell removed all the gas. OK....it....was kerosene! Well......I started using gas from another red gas can in the shed but didn't know it wasn't 87 octane gas. Smelled the same to me. Needless to say, Sears now has a prefectly good old mower full of kerosene, a new mower full of kerosene, and we have a nice new mower that runs great! Bernell called Sears to let them know of his wife's "gas"tly mistake but the person on the other end's English was poor so don't know if they got our gas message or not.

My Friend Karla

My friend Karla came and picked me up today for a luncheon date. We first knew each other clear back in 1955, 53 years ago. My family moved into a new house and she lived across the street.

We became good friends, played together and went to 5th and 6th grade together. This is our school picture.

My family had to move to California because of a job transfer and so our ways parted even though we moved back in only a year. Our lives were very different for the next 40 or so years, me raising a family and Karla teaching many hundreds of children in elementary school. But now we've resumed our friendship and occasionally do fun things together. Don't play paper dolls or jacks anymore but enjoy each other once again!
A true friend is person who will ALWAYS be a friend. Karla is a true friend!