MERRY CHRISTMAS

19 years ago our Christmas morning included this little guy. Can't wait to talk to him tomorrow--I keep reminding myself "Don't cry when you hear his voice" ; )

I just want to wish you a very Merry Christmas. I'm happy to be with a couple of our kids but sure wish we were all together again. I truly am a very blessed woman with a remarkable family. I usually always act silly in the pics and must have had a senior moment, but I laughed and told Macy I couldn't believe with the major problem I have with keeping my eyes closed why oh why, on a silly one do I have my eyes open????? Too funny.

Reasons I Hate Living Far Away From Family

First and foremost--Obviously, it's hard being away from home during the holidays--I miss all of our kids. I am grateful that I will get to be with a couple of my kids for Christmas and, of course, get to talk on the phone with the youngest.

As well, there are a couple of things going on in my family that make it particularly hard to be away:

• Last week was the funeral of one of my former brothers-in-law. I felt so bad that I couldn't be there for the funeral. He died after a short battle with skin cancer. He left behind 3 children and 6 grandchildren. One of his sons spoke at the service and said this, and I just laughed. When he started talking about his dad he said: " For those of you who took today off from work…I’m not sure what he would have to say about that. The man who never missed a day of work for anything. I think he would let it slide…just this once." I'm so glad Stephen and Daphne were at the service to represent our family. I know my sisters always enjoy seeing them.

• Tomorrow my youngest sister is going in for a biopsy. They found a mass on her spleen and several enlarged lymph nodes in her chest cavity. I really wish I was there. I know there is nothing I could do except be there to support her. The doctors are going to have to go through her throat to do the biopsy. She told me they basically have to slit her throat which sounds very frightening to me. It's times like this that I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the peace that comes.
  
  Linda is 4 years younger than me, and I remember what a tough time she had when my mom died. She was just 9. It was only a couple of weeks before Christmas, and I was so worried because I didn't know what she was going to do when she got up Christmas morning and there was nothing from Santa. I was so relieved when there were presents for her ; ) I really don't know what happened after that, but she had a really difficult time and basically stopped eating. I know Helen and Les and the doctors were very worried. I was quite scared. But somehow she turned around and did fine. I have always felt bad that she really doesn't have any memories of our parents. To her, Helen and Les are her parents. I would appreciate your prayers for her.

• UPDATE: I just got off the phone with my BIL--the biopsy shows the enlarged lymph nodes ARE NOT cancer. Still not sure about the spleen, but we are relieved.
  
  SIDENOTE #1: After our dinner on Saturday, we got lots of great notes from missionary parents--it was so fun. In fact, one of them lives in Elder Rob's mission and his folks wrote: "We would love to reciprocate your kindness and treat him to a favorite goodie or meal. Keep us posted as to where he is serving."
  
  SIDENOTE #2: Loved this picture from Elder Rob. I remember when he sent the e-mail and wrote about the picture. He wrote: "You'll find one of my pics in the next CD quite disgusting, because it's a dead deer one of the youth killed earlier that day, and all the meat was put up in bags, but it was still a little bloody on the inside... well you'll just have to wait and see it, it's gnarly" Now you have to keep in mind, this young man has never been hunting so I'm surprised he was able to be near the deer ; ) I think he's trying to mimic "THE MIGHTY HUNTER".
  
  
  
  

SUCH A GREAT EVENING

We had our Missionary Christmas Dinner Saturday night, and IT WAS SO FUN. When I was talking to one of my son's on Saturday afternoon, he asked if I was saying to myself, "This is the last year I'm going to do this," and I told him, "I WILL NEVER SAY THAT--I LOVE DOING IT" Yes, it's a lot of hard work, but it is so fun. Our numbers were down this year, but I don't think we cut back on food. We did a lot of prep work throughout the week and it sure made today a whole lot less stressful.

We had 4 turkeys (which ended up being WAY TOO MUCH and several of the missionaries went home with lot of turkey ; ) 30 pounds of mashed potatoes, oodles of gravy, 16 boxes of stuffing, 6 dozen rolls (minus the two Allan and I ate this afternoon ; ), sweet potato casserole, pistachio pudding salad, broccoli/cauliflower salad, and fruit salad. I'm sure grateful we have can use our garage to keep all the food cold.

I did get a little nostalgic when he realized we have been doing this for 4 years and this was the first year Elder Rob wasn't here--he has always played the piano, so it seemed odd to have someone else play.

The gift exchange was a blast. Of course anything with "Canada" on it was a hit--the scarves, the hats, the gloves ; )

A few pic from the evening.























































After the gift exchange they had dessert--death by chocolate, banana split cake a regular one and one with strawberries (which may have taken over my top spot as THE BEST DESSERT EVER!!!), and pumpkin gooey cake. (Any wonder why I failed miserably this week on my challenge ; )

It's so great that today is A DAY OF REST : ) Sure glad I had a little helper for my Gospel Doctrine class today.

SIDENOTE: In less than a week, I get to talk to my Elder ; )

The Wedding

They're Here!!!! Yesterday, I posted the bridals, and today the wedding pics.

First of all, let me begin by saying that when I talked about waiting for the wedding pics--I guess it's all relative, eh ; ) We live in an "I want it NOW" society. Or maybe it's I live in that society. Macy did a fantastic job with the pictures and we had our pictures in only 3 weeks, but for the Verucca "I want it now" me, I got impatient.

So anyone who has an upcoming wedding in your family, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND Macy. You will not be disappointed.

As usual, I have stolen most of these from her blog.

Let me give my commentary.

She always does this cute thing where she has the couple kiss and everyone look and laugh--I love it.

Let me just remind you that it was absolutely freezing that day. Poor Heidi--at least Daniel got to wear a coat ; )

Because it was so cold, Macy took them to the area near the underground parking and it was beautiful so she shot some pictures there and it wasn't quite as cold. I love this one.

and this one.

When we go to the reception in Lindon, she was hard at work again, capturing Heidi and Daniel's excitement ; )

I'll have to ask Heidi what the song was she and Daniel danced to--the only thing I remember about the music was that after they finished their dance the song by the Black-Eyed Peas, I got a feelin, that tonight's gonna be a good night, came on and I was SMILING ; )

This picture shows how cute she and her dad looked doing their dance--it was such a fun moment. I know how difficult it was for Allan to "let go" and do something like this, but it is a moment that I will NEVER FORGET and I know it meant the world to Heidi



The F family dancing up a storm--

They were definitely all smiles as they left the reception ; )

I'm putting together a little DVD for the receptions in Idaho and Winnipeg and this will be the last pic--IT SAYS IT ALL.

It was a beautiful day and I'm so happy for Heidi and Daniel.

Thank you, Macy, for your hard work. Great job. Allan and I love them all.

Bridal Pics

I've been anxiously waiting to see the wedding pics that Macy took--I guess I should have peaked over her shoulder while she was working on them on her computer ; ) Macy did post these bridal pics on facebook, so I'll post them.

It was so fun to watch Macy take the pictures. She did an amazing job. This was one of my absolute favorites.






Heidi really was a GORGEOUS bride.

I can't wait to see the actual wedding pics. I know Heidi wants to use some of the pics for her reception in Idaho on the 30th.

(The other part of why I'm hoping to see them soon is that I want to include a pic of our family for my Christmas card--Oh well, I guess they'll just be late ; )

Learning

I'm going to be 60 years old in a few weeks. It is still so hard for me to believe. I think I am somewhat in denial. (I am excited though because I will fly to Texas and get to meet my newest granddaughter on my birthday ; )

When I was young I mistakingly thought that by the time I got this old, and I guess I should add IF I ever got this old (and believe me, with the family history I had it was A BIG IF), I would have learned everything I needed to know. How silly. I have so much to learn--but this has been a great year for learning lessons.

Here are some of the things I have learned recently:

1) It's fun to get up and get moving. I started running a little over a year ago. I LOVE IT. I haven't done too much in the last few months. That little bout of pneumonia I had really put a damper on things. I'm looking forward to getting out and running again after the new year. After watching Biggest Loser Tuesday night, I REALLY, REALLY want to run a marathon, but I think I need to try the half first. I know there is one on a Sunday in May, but I won't run on Sunday, so I will look for one hopefully in June.

2) If at first you don't succeed--keep trying: I make mistakes--many mistakes, but I will not beat myself up and give up. I will just keep trying. I set a goal and I don't achieve it, so I set it again. I have participated in numerous challenges this year--in fact, the one I am involved in now will end the day after Christmas. (I think I will take a break for awhile. It's been good, I really have developed the exercising 30 minutes a day thing. And I LOVE cleaning up my kitchen and having everything put away before I go to bed.

3) Life is Much Too Short: Yes I learned that when I was a young girl and my parents died. Yesterday morning I learned that my former brother in law, Gary, passed away. He was just 64 years old. When my mom died and we left the home where we were living,we went to live with Gary's family (at that time my sister, Carol, was still in the hospital). We lived with them from December until February when we went to live with Helen and Les.

4) Times Have Definitely Changed: Last night the youth had an activity called "Where's Waldo" and I had gotten a call asking me if I would come and help out. They wanted several Ward members to go to our local Wal-Mart and dress so the youth wouldn't recognize you and they had to "find you". Well I put on a huge coat they had never seen and made myself look pregnant. I decided if I hung out in the kotex/tampax aisle, the guys would never come over there. HAH! GUESS AGAIN!!!

5) I'm A Very Lucky Woman: Every time we get together with our family and I watch my husband interact with everyone, I am amazed at how he keeps it together. He is so patient--I truly do not know how he does it. You think after all these years some of it would rub off on me, but NOT YET.

6) You can Teach An Old Dog New Tricks: I've been working on a family calendar for Elder Rob. When I do the calendar, I put a picture of each person who has a birthday on that day or each couple who has an anniversary. There are some days where people share birthdays and a couple of days where there is a birthday and an anniversary (those are tricky) While we were together in Utah I had ever intention of taking pictures to use for the calendar--well, you know what they say about the best laid plans ; (

I didn't get a picture of Allan and Hannah who celebrate a birthday on the 27th of August. So I used this picture and this picture (taken at Amanda and Darren's wedding reception last year) and created this picture

This is what the April page looks like. Glad I got a picture of Daniel and Chris together.

I also have included a page that goes with the month--December is obviously all about Christmas so the page looks like this

I've had a lot of fun doing it and i know he will enjoy the pictures. He has been really good about sending cards to everyone on their birthdays--not sure about anniversaries ; )

A Great Thanksgiving

Yes, I realize Thanksgiving was a week ago, but I'm still trying to get caught up at home.

It was so fun to be with the family for Thanksgiving. Really would love to do it every year, but that's not possible, so I tried to make the most of our time together. I hadn't seen Georgia Capri since July and she has changed so much.

On Thanksgiving morning, Allan and I walked to my SIL's house from our hotel (not very far)--I'm still working on my challenge and had to get in my 30 minutes of exercise. It was a little nippy that morning, but hey, I live in Winnipeg--WHAT'S A LITTLE COLD!!!!

Heidi and Daniel came over and opened wedding gifts. it was a lot of fun. This was one of the last gifts they opened. It just made me smile.

Then I decided to make a presentation to the past winners of our March Madness pool--I hadn't given out plaques since 2006. (We have been doing our pool for many years, but since 2000 have kept track and given out an award--maybe that's because I won the first year; ) It is a coveted award--believe me there are a couple of people in the room who are still trying to win one of these ; ) The most recent winner was our son-in-law, Tony

Chris was chatting with Amanda in Switzerland, so it was fun to get on and talk to her. She and Darren are having a great experience there.

We had a delicious meal--and I have to admit I didn't do a thing. Allan and my sisters-in-law, Bev and Gerry did all the work--along with Linda and Audrey. I ate, and ate, and played and played. Neal had worked very hard to put together "Minute to Win It". It was so fun. I wish I had pictures, but I was having too much fun playing. If you have a family gathering go to the "Minute to Win It" website and get some ideas. We did "Face the Cookie", "Stack Attack", "On the Nose", "Hanky Panky" and "Noodling Around". They were hilarious.

I'm working on a Christmas present for Elder Rob and am so mad at myself because I meant to take pictures of people so I could use them on the calendar, but I didn't pull my camera out as much as I should have ; (

Sidenote: In my last post, I had mentioned that some of Heidi's students had come to the wedding reception and how fun it was to watch them with her. I found this picture--I distorted the kids faces a little becae I don't have their permission to post the picture here.

Sidenote #2: My friend, Tauna has asked that we post a link to get people to vote for her friend, Debby. So here's the link to Debby's blog--but go vote for Debby here.


Sidenote #3: Went to see Harry Potter last night--really enjoyed it. Can't wait for the next one. Tonight we have our Nativity Pageant.