A Marvelous Christmas Season

-Christmas Eve with Jeremy and Edward and all (delicious Chinese food)
-Christmas with Edward, Jacqueline, Erica, Bentley, Austen, Lincoln and Miranda
- Les Mis at the movie Theatre
- New West Theatre (Tidings) with Jeremy and family
- All our children and grandchildren here on the 27th
- My sister, Joan, dropped in

The Gang's all Here

It was very cold over Christmas (in the -20s C) - coldest weather I have experienced for several years.  However it warmed up Friday the 28th and is much better now.

Darwin and Amber left to go back to Lehi this morning.  Bob and I are alone and it is very quiet at our house.

Bring it on!

The tree is decorated (Thanks Nathan, Tara and boys), the Christmas cake baked, the buttertarts ready, and the gifts wrapped.  We are ready.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Cardston Temple

Yesterday we drove to Cardston and went to the Temple.  It was a cool, windy day, but no snow and the roads were clear.

It warmed up today, but this is supposed to be the warmest day for a while and there may be snow showers on the week-end.

Last week we attended the Stringam Denecky Christmas party - the first one I have been to for 4 years.  The firm has grown and I didn't know a lot of the people. 

On Saturday we watched Courtney and Taylor play basketball.  They were both high scorers for their team.

We tried out a new restaurant in the city.  It was called Cafe Verde.  We were told it was like Cafe Rio, but the food wasn't as good.

December Already

On Saturday the 27th we hurried home from Calgary and worked on talks for church the next day.  Whew - that is over with.   Then we gave a presentation about our time in Nova Scotia the following Monday at a different family home evening group.

We were able to attend the Cardston Temple the last Wednesday in November.

Our ward Christmas party was the 1st December and we had an enjoyable time.

Last Wednesday we spent four hours at LCI watching Courtney & Taylor play basketball.  They both play very well.

Nathan and family arrived Thursday night and we had them until Sunday.  Sue-anne, Langley & Carter came in Friday for supper.

 Our Family Home Evening group had the Christmas dinner on Monday. 

It is snowing again.

Calgary Lethbridge Calgary Lethbridge

On Friday the sixteenth we drove to Calgary.  On Saturday we stayed with Nathan's children while Nathan and Tara were busy being in charge of a Ward Party.  Bob, Orson and Liam went to the latest James Bond movie with Jeremy and family and Austen.

Sunday we went to the Cranston Ward where Lincoln, having turned 12 the day before, was ordained a Deacon.  After dinner at Edwards we returned to Lethbridge.  The weather was not bad that week  and was forcast to be warm for the following week.

We spoke about our Nova Scotia Mission at our Family Home Evening on Monday evening.

Tuesday morning it was 7 degrees C above at 7 in the morning, but by the time we got to Calgary at lunch time it was well below zero and very dreary looking.  The trees were covered with frost.

Good Weather for Puzzles

Nathan and Tara left for Las Vegas in the evening and after Bob dropped them at the airport he drove back across the city to take Liam and Orson to their pipe band practice which was across the city again..

The weather got colder as the week went by and we had some snow.

It finally warmed up on Friday afternoon and Nathan and Tara got home that night.

We arrived back in Lethbridge before noon today and the skies are blue.  It has been warmer here than in Calgary.

Storm 2

During the three weeks we have been home there have been two snow storms.  The second one started Thursday evening and it snowed all night and half the next day. 

View from the Bedroom Window

My age is starting to show.  The first Sunday I was back I signed up for some Relief Society classes and then completely forgot about it and missed them.  Last Sunday I signed up to work at the Soup Kitchen on Wednesday and when I went on Wednesday it was the wrong week.  It is coming up this week.

Nathan and family were planning to be here this week-end, but Lochlan and Matthi had strep throat and so they all stayed home in Calgary.

This morning we attended the funeral of Gerry Jensen who was a counselor in the Bishopric with Bob some years ago.

Later this afternoon Sue-anne, Darryl, Langley and Carter came and visited us.  It is so good to be back near family.

Friday in Hanna

Thursday Bob took my car for an oil change and to get the leaky tire fixed. They found that the battery was dying (and it is only eleven years old) and that one headlight wasn't working.

That evening Kennedy came over and we went to help her buy a printer for her computer.  The three of us went out to O'Sho for supper.  It was the first time we had been  there since the night before we left on our mission.

Friday we traveled to Hanna and my brothers and sister and their spouses met us there and we went to the dinner theatre and production of Grease.  It is amazing what a small community can do.  The orchestra was great and the actors did extremely well.
We stayed overnight with my brother and sister-in-law, Ross and Paulette.

Saturday we returned home.  There was fog and frozen rain all the way to Brooks where we stopped in for a short visit with my aunt.  The roads were fine the rest of the way to Lethbridge.

Edward, Jacqueline and three of their children stopped in on there way home from the Temple in Cardston.  Miranda wanted to go to O'Sho, so we went there for supper before they went back to Calgary.

Sunday we were released from our Mission.  In the afternoon we went to Taber and had supper and a visit with Sue-anne and family.

Halloween

It was very cold last night.  With the wind chill it was -8 degrees.  More "trick or treaters" than we have had for some time rang our doorbell.  They came later and the majority were teenagers.  The  last one came at 10:10.  Altogether we had 25. 

Calgary Week-end

Last week we continued unpacking etc. The plumber came and fixed the toilet.  There were several conversations with Telus in regard to our phone (the last one assuring us that the phone would be hooked up Friday.  The internet got upgraded and is working really well.  We attended an RBC lecture about fixed income investments on Tuesday at the newly renovated Sportsplex (now called the Enmax Center)  and I went to Club on Thursday and had a visit with old friends.  Friday morning we got up to get ready to head off to Calgary and found that our hot water tank had burst and the water was running on the basement floor.  After the plumber came with a new tank and got it installed we made a late start for Calgary.  Our phone was not yet hooked up.  Although the roads in town were a mess the highway was clear.

We went out for supper at Mucho Burrito with Edward, Jeremy and Nathan and their families.

Saturday evening we attended the Youth Cultural Celebration connected with the dedication of the Calgary Temple.  Six of our grandchildren performed, although it was hard to pick them out among the large number of participants.  We ran into our niece, April,   who was ushering and met one of Bob's university room-mates.

Sunday morning we watched a broadcast of the Temple Dedication at the Willow Park Stake Center.  Miranda stayed with us in the afternoon while Edward and family went to attend the last session of the Temple Dedication.

Monday morning we returned home - still no phone.

Tuesday my sister, Joan, came by for a very welcome visit.

Today there was one more conversation with Telus and our phone with our previous number was hooked up within minutes - yea!  I think they sent out a memo to all the phone solicitors.  Within the hour we got a call from Mastercard and one from Sears and they knew my name!  Did we really want a phone?

Nova Scotia Sounds Good

I think I'll go out to Alberta; weathers good there in the fall?

We arrived home on Friday evening.  Darryl, Langley & Carter visited us on Saturday after lunch and later our neighbours, the Hergets brought a treat over and in the evening Sue-anne and Taylor stopped in on their way back from a track meet in Red Deer.

At church on Sunday one of the speakers didn't show so guess who got called up?  Yes, it was Bob and I.  There are a few members of the ward we know, but a lot has changed.  

We went out to Taber to Sue-anne's for Sunday dinner.  One of our granddaughters who is going to college in Lethbridge was also there.  It was certainly good to see them all.

Yesterday we cleaned up the leaves that had drifted into our driveway.  It was cold out.  The snow began at supper time and went on into the night.  The school buses in Lethbridge are not running and our grandchildren in Taber get a snow day.  We hear it was 17 degrees C in Dartmouth yesterday.

We have been busy unpacking and finding out what we left behind (many things that we didn't remember that we had) and trying to decide where we will put things. Bob hauled 70 kilograms of old computer and photocopying equipment out to the recycling place.

Our phone was supposed to be hooked up by now (we are getting our old number back we hope) but it is not yet working.  We have no TV as yet.  Our daughter discovered that the downstairs toilet started leaking the week before we came home and the plumber who was supposed to arrive the beginning of the week hasn't made it yet.  So it is good to be home!

Home in Lethbridge

We arrived home this afternoon about 2:30 p.m.

Beautiful Day - Boring Drive

We left Lehi, Utah about 9:30 this morning and making a 15 minute detour into Salt Lake to pick up some fabric swatches for Sue-anne and an hour detour to Ammon, Idaho so we could eat at Cafe Rio we are now settled into the Hampton Inn in Butte, Montana.

One more day!

Lehi, Utah

Monday we went to Cornbellies for the afternoon.  Many activities were going on there.  Tuesday was a day for shopping.  Today Bob and Owen went to the park.  Later we went to Wheeler Farms for a microsoft family party.  We had a wagon ride through the farm,  were entertained by Hired Guns and ate.  We leave Utah in the morning.

 I Remember when my Dad sold Minneapolis Moline Tractors

The FrontRunner is coming to Lehi in the near future.  It will travel between Ogden and Provo.

BYU Football

Bob, Darwin, Caden, Chloe & Owen went to the football game this afternoon.  Amber and I went shopping.

Walt and Marilyn Johnson (friends from China) came over after the football game and we had a good visit.

Lehi, Utah

What Can I Say?

 Nebraska

Wyoming

(Parking Lot at the Holiday Inn Express in Rawlins)

Wind Turbines on the Move

(The Blades are Much Bigger than They Look When They are in Operation)

I I I

Today's posting is bought to you by the letter I - Indiana, Illinois and Iowa.  (Drive, drive, drive)

As we came west there were less trees (although some were in beautiful colour), more open spaces, more cultivated land, more towns and businesses along the highway, more bill boards and very heavy traffic (at least until we passed Chicago).  There was a lot of construction on the highways.

I have never seen so many trucks as I have seen the last few days.  There were more big trucks on the road then cars until we got past Chicago.  We met them at the rate of 20 per minute.

We passed some very big wind farms.

We passed John Wayne's birthplace - De Soto, Iowa.

Kirtland, Ohio

This morning we drove from Palmyra, New York to Kirtland, Ohio.  We stopped and toured the Whitney Store where Joseph Smith and family lived upstairs for some months and where the School of the Prophets was located.

We were able to tour the Kirtland Temple as well.  The Temple is much larger than I envisioned it and it has three floors.

We ate at Subway in Kirtland and then headed west.  Tonight we are at the Holiday Inn Express in Holiday City.

Today in Palmyra

This morning we attended a session at the Temple.

 The Temple is Hidden by Trees from Most Directions

View from the Temple

We returned to the hotel and a half hour later our friends the Okesons arrived at the hotel and we spent the day sight seeing.

 A Replica of the Smith Family's Original Home

(built on the original foundation)

 Trees in the Sacred Grove

We had walked to the Smith Family Farm and the Sacred Grove and on our way back to the hotel we walked down Temple Street.

We drove downtown and toured the Grandin Print Shop.

From the Print Shop Bob and Jim walked down to the Erie Canal.  Jeannie and I walked through the LDS Bookstore.

Our next stop was the Hill Cumorah
.

 

By the time we finished at the Hill Cumorah it was supper time so we went to the Yellow Mill Diner for supper and then came back to the hotel for a game of cards. 

We Made it to Palmyra

This morning at 9:00 a.m. we left Augusta, Maine and drove to the New Hampshire border and cut across the corner of the state into Massachusetts.  After crossing Massachusetts we drove across New York to Palmyra arriving by 6:00 p.m.  We spent over $20 in tolls to travel on these highways.

The leaves were not as spectacular as those in New Brunswick, but they were some pretty (spoken like a true maritimer although I think in Nova Scotia some pretty means extremely pretty while I just mean somewhat pretty or quite pretty or something like that).

As we drove through New York state we were fairly close to the place where my Shewfelt ancestors settled in the early 1700s when they came from Germany.  The county was covered with rolling hills and looked like a nice place to live so I was wondering why some of them left.  I decided it was either because the land wasn't good enough to farm or because there was no land for the younger children and they had to go off into the wilderness to find land.