It is so hard to believe that December has arrived and gone so quickly. We actually got some Christmas cards sent but mostly through E-mail. Lon wrote the letter:
Dear Family and Friends:
We would like to express our love and appreciation to all those that have written letters, e-mails and blogs to help keep us in touch. Nancy and I have been home from our missions now for 1 1/2 years and boy has the time gone by fast. We have truly enjoyed our time with our families and especially our children and grandchildren. We have been blessed physically to be able to travel from Georgia to California and all over Idaho to visit. We have enjoyed football games, basketball games, soccer games, baseball games, dance recitals, choir, band and orchestra recitals. It has been great to be together with family.
I have had time to go hunting with friends and with my son and grandson. Nancy spends a lot of time with her Mother, who is 84 now. I think that Nancy's sisters are glad that she is home and can help with doctor appointments and hair appointments so that they don't have to take time off from work. It's great when Nancy can get Mom out of the house to go to lunch and other activities. She is really enjoying being close to her sisters again.
We have been serving in the Twin Falls Temple for all but one month since we have been home and enjoy serving there. We are now serving on the Tuesday mid shift and on the Wednesday pm shift. The Wednesday pm shift is the Spanish shift so we enjoy being able to keep up with all the Spanish ordinances. I am serving as a Sealer and Nancy gets to be an attendant frequently. We also seem to get a lot of subbing in. In October the temple was open 22 days and Nancy worked 18 of those days. I don't get asked quite as often to sub. We love our service there.
Many ask us when we are going on another mission and we tell them that it is in the hands of our Heavenly Father. He knows we are willing to go but right now we feel a need to be here to be with Nancy's Mother and our children. We don't have a strong feeling that we are to leave right now. Nancy serves as the Primary Pianist and the Ward Choir Director. I serve as the Scout Committee Chairman and the 1st assistant in our High Priest Group. We are Home Teachers and Visiting Teachers. We feel that when the Lord needs our service somewhere else, He will let us know. We are willing and ready to serve wherever He needs us.
We enjoyed the summer as Nancy has been my golf partner. We call it our exercise rather than golf because we just enjoy being together and I always have a partner. We do go golfing with our son and grandsons sometimes.
We want to take this opportunity to wish each of you a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. If any are passing through Jerome, Idaho, please stop in for a visit. We always have a room and food. I'm still doing a lot of the cooking and now we enjoy doing it together. I use a lot of the recipes from former missionaries. Hope to stay in touch and if we are in your area visiting, we will try to stop in.
The highlight of our summer was our family reunion in Cascade, Idaho. Here is a photo of our family. We are only missing 4 grandchildren so we did pretty good getting together. We send our love, Lon and Nancy
December started with getting the house cleaned and laundry caught up after our trip to Georgia. Then we got the Christmas tree up and decorated with all of my Nativities beneath it.
Christmas music is on the radio 24/7 and Hallmark movies when there is no football game to keep us occupied. What a perfect way to begin our Christmas season.
On December the 5th, we went to Larry and Blanca's house for dinner. We took over some produce and fish for them and had a great visit.
On the 6th, we started our new shift at the temple. We no longer have to get up early as we are now on the mid shift which starts at 10:40. We leave the house at 9:30am. We don't know many on this shift as we have never subbed on it. We will enjoy not having to get up at 4:30 but will miss having the afternoon to do other things. We ended our shift at 4:30 and headed to Burley to watch the boys wrestle. We haven't seen a meet for about a month and we were pleased to see the improvement that both boys have made. Ashton was ahead in points when he made a wrong move and finally got pinned but he did so good. Chandler got his man pinned.
Chandler is in the red and making quick time of taking control of the match.
He pinned his opponent and as soon as he stood up, the father of the boy was on the mat yelling at Chandler. Poor Chan didn't know what to think. The father picked up his son and as soon as he got to the sidelines, he hit him and told him to "man up". Immediately there were coaches and officials surrounding the father and getting him out of the building. He was probably drunk or high on something but it upset Chandler. He couldn't figure out what he did wrong and of course he did nothing wrong. It turned out to be a bitter-sweet victory.
The morning of the 8th we got our first snow fall of the year. It is so pretty but I hate to have to drive in it. Took Mom to the doctor for a checkup and was really nervous about getting her to and from the car without slipping.
The photos don't show the snow falling but it really was coming down hard.
We heading to Twin Falls on Friday evening the 9th with George and Kim to attend the Twin Falls Stake Christmas Concert that Carson Wong directs.
This is the second year we have gone to this performance. It was very well done. The cultural hall was again set up with Nativities but not as many as last year. We enjoyed the Presbyterian Bell Ringers who performed with the choir.
Saturday morning we headed to the Twin Falls High School to watch the boys in their final wrestling meet. So proud of the boys and the way they have improved and worked hard this season.
Chandler in the red
Ashton in the black
Needing some protein after the match.
Saturday evening, the 10th, was our Ward Christmas Party. It was the worst dinner we have ever eaten. The meat was blood red and the potato wedges which were covered with parmesan cheese were cold. We ate the tossed salad, roll and the dessert. The short program which was an enactment of the Nativity with songs was very well done by families in the ward. Dennis was asked to be the Santa and he did a great job with Connie as his elf by his side.
Whispering his Christmas list to Santa
Ashlyn Robertson came running in and threw herself into Santa's lap. She came in again about a half hour later and told Santa that she thought he needed another hug. She just melted Santa's heart.
Dennis's son Josh brought his family and Mom to the dinner. Mom was so thrilled to get part of this side of the family to a church function.
Eli, Josh, Heather and Brooklyn (they live in Connie's double wide next to Mom)
Lon helped to cut the meat and after the program he helped to clean up the cultural hall while I went into the kitchen and helped Vivian Peterson with the dishes.
We had Family Home Evening with George and Kim on the 12th.
We ate at Idaho Joe's
Then we went to Currie Crossing to see the lights. The Caspersons and their neighbors decorate their lane. The Caspersons serve in the temple with us on Tuesdays.
There were nativities on display all through the lane
We drove to the South Hills to see what the display there looks like now but we were disappointed in it after Currie Crossing. They have moved this one closer to town and it is not as big as it used to be. We had to go to Winco so that George could pick up his Prime Rib that he will cook for Christmas for his family. What a fun evening with close friends.
On the 15th we headed to O'Leary Junior High to watch Chandler's band concert.
This is his first year playing the saxophone so he is in the beginner band with mostly 7th graders.
The students had to introduce their pieces.
He plays very well. Hopefully he will continue next year.
On the 17th the College Football Bowls began. It will be a marathon of football until the last ones on the 2nd of January. On the 21st, Larry came to the Temple for the Spanish session then came home with us to watch the BYU game that we taped while we were at the temple. He spent the night and we took him home after the game in the morning. He doesn't have the channels to catch all of the games that he would like to see.
Our family Christmas party was on the 23rd.
We held it at the church again this year. It just works so nicely. We had soup; cream of chicken, chicken tortilla, and chile with rolls and pies for dessert. We were thrilled when Mom agreed to come and join us. Everyone made it for supper except Mason, who came late due to his job.
Santa and his elf made a surprise appearance.
He had a stocking for everyone.
Chandler
Aydan
Eisley
Ryanne
Gideon
Tracy and Sarah
Kyleigh
Riley
Ashton
Shayla and Justin
Nancy and Lon
Dillon
Santa and his elf had just left when Mason arrived. After getting some food, he went to "play" with the boys. They just love to have him play dodge ball with them.
I had Ryanne taking pictures for me as we were trying to clear up the tables. Mason is just a streak.
It is so nice to have the gym for the boys to play in.
I didn't get a picture of the girls working on their nativity project. They made the Mary and Joseph that Mindi and her family did at Thanksgiving time.
Time to go home. It is in the teens with ice and snow outside and Dillon is ready to leave in his cowboy boots and cutoffs and coat simply draped over his shoulders. We had a great time together. Sarah even had us play a Christmas Bingo game that her grandmother made. I think that it was a successful evening.
We tried to get a photo of Justin and Shayla's family at the party but didn't get it done. They took this when they arrived at Justin's parents home after the party. We don't get all of them together very often so we were really blessed this year.
Christmas Eve day was spent with football, hallmark movies, and hemming a dress and two pair of pants for Tracy and Sarah.
December 25, 2016 HAPPY BIRTHDAY LON. Lon turned 67 this Christmas.
We got up late and showered and got ready for church before we had breakfast and then opened our gifts. We received some nice gift cards so we will go shopping after the New Year when the stores will be less crowded. We had only Sacrament Meeting today. The roads and sidewalks are snowy and icy so most of the older members of the ward didn't try to come out. The church parking lot was literary a skating rink. The choir did an amazing job and Sister Robertson played a piano solo of Christmas songs. She is such an amazing pianist. I am going to miss the Christmas music.
We came home and changed clothes and headed to Tracy's home for Christmas dinner.
Tracy put the cooker in the garage.
putting the turkey into the hot oil
Just about done
While the turkey cooked, we played games with the kids and then got the potatoes, gravy and red lobster biscuits ready.
It only takes about an hour and a half to fry a bird.
Looks good enough to eat and boy does it smell good.
Eisley loved the leg but it was definitely too much for her.
We got home around 6 and Facetimed with Mindi and her family and talked to Ginger on the phone. We ended our Christmas by watching the movie "Christmas Oranges". It is so hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone again so quickly. But it was a great day.
Lon ended up working with George delivering firewood all day on the 26th. It was a cold and miserable day to be outside. Lon has worked at BZ Plumbing 6 half days in the last two weeks. Brent and Connie are in California so Lon is working extra half days to give Angela time with her family. He got asked to sub on Friday mid shift (the 30) so I worked at BZ for him while he went to the temple. Boy was I jealous. Sitting at BZ waiting for customers or spending the day in the Temple---if you know me you know where I would rather be!
I got the Christmas decorations all put away because the house has to be ready for New Year's Day. We went to Twin and picked up Larry about 12:00 on Saturday the 31st and he and Lon watched football and basketball all afternoon. We took him home about 7pm and came home to welcome in the New Year together (at about 10:30pm).
As we say goodbye to 2016, we are so thankful for our blessings that we have received this year. We are so thankful for the birth of our Savior, for his life, his teachings, and especially for his atoning sacrifice for us. We are thankful to have the gospel in our lives. We are thankful for the sealing power that unites us together forever. We look forward to 2017 and being able to spend it together. It is wonderful to live with your best friend, your soul mate, your true love. Life is good!!
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