A UNIQUE THANKSGIVING WEEKEND HIGHLIGHTS THIS MONTH

 This Thanksgiving was a bit different then most in the past. We traveled to St. George to spend it with Ryan's family. We arrived on Wednesday and on Thursday fixed the traditional Thanksgiving dinner except for the turkey. I was hoping to show Ryan and Katie how to cook a turkey as they had never cooked one before. Katie went out to buy a turkey and came home with a turkey that was already cooked. She paid $8.00 a pound for it so the turkey cost over $80.00. A raw 10 pound turkey would be maybe $15.00 at the most. We couldn't stuff the already cooked turkey so I made stuffing, wrapped it in tin foil, and baked it in the oven. It was surprisingly good. The already cooked turkey didn't have much drippings for a gravy so Ryan bought a package of turkey gravy mix along with 3 bottles of turkey gravy at $6.00 a bottle!!!! That was an expensive Thanksgiving dinner, for sure. One positive was that we didn't have to get up real early to put a raw turkey in the oven as the already cooked one only took 2 hours to heat up. This was a good thing as we had to be leaving for Las Vegas by 4:00 to make it to a BYU basketball tournament.

The already cooked turkey

The girls and Nathan made the rolls and the pies

We left St. George with Ryan's family and traveled to Las Vegas where checked into our Worldmark condos. The basketball tournament was being held at the Mandalay Bay resort. There were 4 teams competing in the tournament and BYU played the second game of the night. They won that game quite handily. Friday, we just hung out at the condos till the final games that night. BYU fought hard to come out on top to win the tournament. It was an exciting time, especially when Coach Pope invited the BYU fans to come down on the court to take pictures with the players. Nathan was flying high after he got pictures with the coach and some of his favorite players.

The crowd coming down onto the floor

With Robinson

Coach Pope

With 'Foose' as the crowd refers to him

We drove back to  Ran's home in St. George the next morning where we watched a BYU football game. They lost in double overtime which was very disappointing. With that loss, the team did not qualify for a bowl game as they had 5 wins and 5 loses. Not the best year for them. That night we went to see Grace perform in a new musical of the Christmas Carol. It was a performance with mainly a young people in the cast but it was an incredible show. Grace sang a solo and was very good in her part of an old girlfriend of Scrooge. I haven't really enjoyed the movies I've seen of the Christmas Carol as they are pretty dark. This show added music to the script and a bit of comedy which made it very enjoyable. We were glad we could see Grace in this role.

Sunday after church, Katie's sister's family joined us for a leftover turkey dinner. Thankfully Ryan barbecued some chicken tenders to supplement the meal as by that time the leftover turkey was pretty dry.  Later that evening, we watched, the family get out all their Christmas ornaments and put them on the tree. A family tradition for them has been for each of the children to get a new Christmas ornament that signifies something important to them for the year. That night each of the children told us about their ornament before they put them on the tree.

The finished tree

We came home on Monday to face a ward Christmas party which we were in charge of. Luckily, we had a wonderful committee who really helped us. As a committee, we decided on a breakfast with the theme 'Christmas Morning Magic.' It was to take place on Saturday, the second of December, thus the week we got back we had a lot to do to pull it off. One of the stresses was finding a Santa. After several people turned us down, we pleaded with Casey to be our Santa. Gratefully he agreed. Andrea and Casey were flying in for Charlotte's production of Hattie's Echo so he would be here for our breakfast. We borrowed a Santa suit for him which fit him perfectly. We were so grateful for his willingness to do this as it had been a big worry for us.

Paul trying on the beard and wig.

We got a kick out of Casey trying on the
Santa suit. The beard and wig were very itchy.
He was such a good sport.

Other happenings of the month included celebrating Lincoln's 2 year old birthday. He loves the movie 'Cars' so that's what his cake was all about - Lightning McQueen, of course. He loved it as well as his presents which were all 'Cars' related. Now he will have some new boy toys to play with when he come to our home. 

We attended a funeral for my uncle Elliot at the first of the month. He was 100 years old when he passed away. It was a beautiful tribute him as all of his 12 children took part in the funeral. We were able to meet up with some of our cousins which we don't see very often. The Fullers and the Bulkeleys came, too.

With our cousin Marilee

An exciting thing that happened was going to the temple with Kim and Eric Howe when he received his endowments. It was such a beautiful thing to see him so thrilled at finally being in the temple. His comment was, 'You mean I can come back as often as I want?' We all went to dinner afterwards to celebrate.

Speaking of temples, one Friday, this month we attended the Orem temple open house. After working our shift at the Provo temple we decided to take our chances of getting into the Orem temple open house. We couldn't figure out how to make an appointment. At the time we went, we could walk right in. It was a self guided tour which allowed us to spend time where we wanted. The temple is magnificent, especially the Celestial room. We sat for a while in there just to take it all in and feel of the spirit of the temple. We were so glad we could see it before it is dedicated.

Then there was BYU sports  -  We attended the last home football game of the season. It was on a cold Saturday morning and hard to get excited to sit through another game after the dismal performance displayed at the last game at which we left at half time. Yes, we lost again. A pretty sad season but one to be expected with it being our first year in the Big 12 conference. 

Half time at the game played on Veteran's day

 Even some fireworks to complete the half time show

At the last game

On a positive note.....Freddy's Steak Burger restaurant is now opened in Provo. We love Freddy's burgers and have waited a long time for one to come to Utah County. We often would go to the Freddy's when we were in Salt Lake as there are several there and now we finally have one a bit closer. 

And now for some fun memes......

And then there's the ones that give us pause to think:

Then there was this entry in my calendar that I found just today.......

So sweet

 

BEAUTIFUL BUT BUSY OCTOBER

 As always, our October started with General Conference and wonderful messages from our prophets and leaders. We watched the Saturday sessions alone but on Sunday morning our college grandchildren came up to share in the talks with us. It was also the day we decided to celebrate Charlotte's birthday. It was a wonderfully uplifting day except for the fact that Charlotte did not seem to be doing real well. We knew she had been struggling with extreme anxiety but thought she was doing better, until we observed her on that Sunday. She was unusually quite, went downstairs to take a nap and hardly ate any of her birthday dinner or, her favorite dessert, apple cake. The next morning, Andrea called to tell us that she went to the emergency room that night. Apparently, she had vomited up all she ate at our home and, later that night, was experiencing chest pains, hence the visit to the emergency room. The doctors put her on medication to calm her heart, once they determined it was anxiety and not a heart attack. She felt great once she left the emergency room but was told to not eat anything but liquids for 2 days and to take a medication that would cause her to sleep day and night for several days. The doctors wanted to reset her body so she could eat and sleep. That morning, we took her down some protein drinks so she could get some nutrition on her liquid diet. By the next Sunday, she was much better but still couldn't eat anything but some slush. There was another visit to the emergency room a couple of weeks later when she developed a rash. The doctor took her off all medications until she could see her psychiatrist that week. We've saw her several times since and she seems her same perky self.....thank goodness.

We think Allison and Charlotte are listening

The special birthday cake she couldn't eat

Speaking of Charlotte, we attended a play at BYU that she wrote. It was called 'Lemonade' and was a comedy that kept us laughing the whole time. She based her play on the antics of her Dad's family life growing up and the audience loved it. Andrea and Casey brought Lydia and Jillian to Utah to watch the play, too. It was a fun weekend for them and for us to have them all in our home for a couple of days. 

Charlotte before the performance

After the 4 shows, the audience has a chance to ask
the playwrights about their plays. The first night, one
person in the audience wanted to know what Charlotte taught
at BYU. When she said she was just a student, the audience
couldn't believe that a student could write such a great play.

At the first of the month, we took our annual drive over Guardsman pass to see the Fall colors. We missed the brilliant reds but the yellows were beautiful. The mountains were snow capped to add to the beauty of our drive. Of course, we ended up at Freddy's for lunch as we love their hamburgers and fries.

Mid month, we wanted to get away for a couple of days so we booked a stay at the Worldmark at Wolfcreek in Eden, Utah. We invited Deon and Gary to come with us. We left on Monday and came back on Wednesday so we only had one full day there but it was fun. As we drove around, we were amazed at the beautiful Fall colors of the trees and shrubs. Eden is set in a little valley just 10 miles up Weber canyon from Ogden. 

Of course, ice cream is always a priority when we visit Eden
and the Mad Moose cafe

Our drive up to Powder mountain ski resort

The surrounding beauty of this area

Not only ice cream the night before at the Mad Moose 
cafe, but lunch the next day.

We took advantage of the hot tub facility that was just a short walk from our condo unit. While we were enjoying the hot tub, we saw these wild turkeys walking along the golf course. Gary loves wild life and went crazy watching them.

We got home on Wednesday, then on Thursday we traveled to Provo for a BYU cougar club luncheon. This one was a bit different in that we met at the Marriot center to watch a practice of our basketball team. Subway catered the luncheon, so we picked up a box lunch from them and sat in the bleachers to watch the team practice. We didn't stay too long after the team finally came onto the court, as they were only doing their warmups and not playing an inner squad game like we hoped they would do. We probably won't attend next year if they have this same format.

Then for the sadness of the month.....Hamas (in the Gaza strip in the middle east) attacked Israel in a horrific massacre, killing whole families including little babies. The terrorists took several hostages, including some Americans and are threatening them if anyone attacks them. Israel is mounting a counter attack which we all hope will wipe out Hamas, a sworn enemy of Israel and the Jewish people. What is sad is that here in America several protests have cropped up, especially on our college campuses, in support of the terrorist and  calling on Israel not retaliate. So sad that people can't see what is happening - Nazi Germany all over again.

On the last Sunday of the month, we celebrated Maggie's birthday. She wanted Hawaiian chicken and all the trimmings so that's what I fixed. Todd and Kailee and their family joined all the college kids so we had a houseful, which we love.  Everyone seemed to enjoy dinner and birthday cake and ice cream. 

  

On Monday, the 30th, we held our Ward Halloween Trunk or Treat. This year we decided to hold it at the Stake Center and not at our neighborhood park. We were glad we did as the weather turned very cold. It turned out to be a success with close to 200 people attending.  Everyone brought soup or chili to share and the ward provided rolls, vegetable trays, and cookies. The Young Men and Young Women and Primary set up some activities around the hall for the children to keep them involved.  After dinner, everyone went outside for the trunk or treat. This is a party Paul and I are always glad is over. The children are so hyped and the parents don't keep track of them. I had to shoo children off the stage at least 4 times and another sister had to keep telling them not to chase through the chapel. But, everyone seemed to have a good time and that's what is important.

The hall all set up and ready for the party

One of the booths the YM set up

The next night was Halloween.  Since we get very few children coming to our home, we decided to go to Todd and Kailee's home to help pass out candy while they took their kids trick or treating. Their neighborhood was inundated with trick or treaters so we were at the door almost continually until 7:30. It was fun to see the reaction of the kids to Todd and Kailee's yard decorations. They went all out as usual, adding even more to last year's display. Most of the kids loved it and had fun making the spider jump out and the other things talk and light up. Aria went out trick or treating with her friends for the first time so Todd and Kailee only had Avery and Lincoln. It didn't take Lincoln long to realize that trick or treating was all about getting candy and he loved it. We were glad we could participate somewhat in their celebration.

All ready for trick or treating

Their  yard in the day time

At night

In the day time

At night

A couple of thoughts before I leave this month's blog........

From President's talk at conference time -
THINK CELESTIAL

And then a little humor .......