Shoveling in a Winter Wonderland

December 23 - We woke up this morning to a LOT more snow! I got up at 6:00 and looked out the window. The snow was more than a foot deep and still snowing. I started shoveling, and had a path cleared for one car a little before 9:00. That is a 12" ruler in the photo on top of my car. Today is the day we drive to Mesa for the Brooksby family party tonight, and it looks like it is going to be a rather slow trip with all the snow on the roads.


MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! Remember always the real reason for the blessed season.

Our Best Christmas Ever

If I were asked to name my favorite Christmas ever, I would immediately answer Christmas, 1994. Christmas fell on a Sunday that year. I was the Bishop of our ward, and we had decided only to have Sacrament meeting that year, combined with the other ward in our building. The meeting was special: one of the speakers was Greg Prososki, who was not a member of the church and who had never expressed any interest in joining the church (He was later baptized).

After church that morning, our family opened the presents we had at home, then bundled ourselves into our van for a drive to Mesa to spend Christmas with the rest of our extended family. On the way down, we sang Christmas carols and excerpts from Handel’s Messiah. Having a musical family is such a blessing.

As we were approaching the Valley of the Sun, we remembered that Sister Kaggie, a sweet, elderly lady in our ward, lay recovering from a stroke at Barrow’s Neurological Institute in Phoenix. We thought of how hard it must be lying in a hospital bed on Christmas, hundreds of miles from family and friends. Jan suggested that we make a detour and do some Christmas caroling to her in the hospital; after all, no one in Mesa knew what time we would be arriving. Instantly, the entire family agreed.

We drove into Phoenix and after driving around for awhile, arrived at Barrow’s. An inquiry at the front desk gave us her room number. We rode the elevator to her floor in excited anticipation, planning on the songs we would sing for her. As we arrived at her room, we started singing. I will never forget the lovely smile and excitement in her eyes as she recognized us.

My family sang for her for perhaps twenty minutes. People from all over the floor came as they heard the music. Finally, we stopped singing and wished her and everyone there a Merry Christmas as we left. We walked back to our van quietly, and really didn’t talk all that much as we made the drive back to Mesa.

I don’t remember anything else about that Christmas: what I got, what anyone else got, or anything else we did. Without a doubt, it was the best Christmas I remember, because we shared the love and joy of the season with a dear friend in need. It was only two more years until she had passed on. But the memory of singing to her that Christmas day lingers on in our family.

The Adventures Continue...

What a week we had last week! On Tuesday we flew to Salt Lake City where Emily and the kids picked us up. We spent the afternoon having lunch at Big H burgers (Yum!) then went to the Discovery Zone children's museum for a few hours before riding the tram to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. That was a full day. Wednesday we just played with Jackson, Natalie and Staci. We had a great time.


Thursday was sad, saying good-bye to the kids. Natalie just broke our hearts - she was so sad about us leaving after only two days. She wanted her Grandma to stay "for five years." She kept saying, "I just can't take it anymore!" through her tears. We rented a car and drove to Rexburg to help John and Anna pack and move. John's graduation was Friday night, but there was an enormous winter storm moving into the area Friday night. We told John that we hated to miss his graduation, but if we didn't get out of Rexburg Friday, we might not get out for a week. At the last minute, he agreed and passed up his own college graduation to go with us.

We left Rexburg at 3:00 Friday afternoon, me driving the moving truck, Jan driving the rental car, and John and Anna and the boys in their car. We drove like the wind (John gets his driving habits from Jan, if you know what I mean), and finally called it a day in Nephi, Utah at about 9:00 pm.


Saturday morning there was no snow in Nephi - a relief - but it was blizzarding in Salt Lake City, so we hurried and left. We had dark clouds hanging over us almost all day, but the only thing we really had to contend with was extremely high winds all the way to Phoenix. I mean, there were many times that I thought we were going to be blown clear off the road or into oncoming traffic. It was a white-knuckled 12 hours of driving. Finally we arrived in Mesa, and I was completely exhausted.

Sunday, Jan and I drove home to Pinetop-Lakeside. There was a little bit of snow on the ground, but the driving was pretty easy. Today (Monday) it is snowing, and the forecast for tonight and tomorrow is MAJOR snow. So we got home just in time.

As I came to the office this morning, I found my office decorated with congratulatory ribbons, decorations, and confetti. In our travels last week, I had to miss the Town Christmas party, where I was named "Department Head of the Year" by our Town Manager. It was a nice surprise to come home to. I got a plaque and a $50 gift card to Safeway.

It has been a pretty rewarding/enjoyable/stressful/happy week. Love to all.