Sunday: We
attended sacrament meeting in Kirtland 5th Ward so we could enjoy
their special Christmas program with music from their ward choir and also the
Primary children with their bells. It
was a NICE program. We hustled over to
Kirtland 3rd Ward building so we could meet the Yazzie family that
Bishop Warner asked us to work with. They arrived early so we did have a chance
to visit briefly with them and then I got to sit with Sister Yazzie during
Relief Society.
President
and Sister Batt came by with a loaf of bread to wish us a Merry Christmas. I was in bed still trying to recover from a
bad headache, but got up to visit with them. They sure are good people! Dinner (fresh homemade potato soup) and visit
with the Paynes was a welcome treat.
Monday: We
put in a regular office Monday and went home early when it started snowing
(3:30) and made Sugar Smackies. We were delighted that Kit’s calendar arrived
for Christmas and also the “ordaments” that were sent from Payson. We had a
Mexican Christmas Eve dinner at George’s home with all of the other Paynes in
the area (there were 20 of us there).
After dinner we had a family home evening program with the Christmas
story acted out by Lauana’s grandkids and narration read by their parents. Maren also told the story of the origin of
“Silent Night” and then played it on her guitar and invited us to sing
along. It was a special evening for all
of us.
Tuesday: Christmas
morning was different for us since we had both decided that the church books we
had purchased earlier in the month would be our Christmas to each other. There were only a couple of gifts under the
tree so it didn’t take us long to go
through that ritual. Elder Hunt went to
the computer and started fiddling around and then called to me and said that my
Christmas present came as an email. It was
a tender experience to open “The Small Plates” sent from members of our family
and to read of their personal experiences and feelings of their hearts. What a precious and cherished gift!
Jimmy and
Sandra invited all the Paynes (same crew) to Christmas Day dinner at their home
in Kirtland. They served a wonderful
prime rib/roasted turkey breast meal with all of the trimmings. The Paynes are such fun people to hang out
with!
Wednesday:
Back in the office with baptisms and referrals to enter and also phone
issues for Elder Hunt to resolve. During
the afternoon we went shopping for a clothes dryer and chest of drawers. We got home at 7 pm just as snow began to
fall.
Thursday: I
took pictures of all of the senior couples at our Zone Conference in Polacca on
December 12 and since I had a little free time, I worked on making a picture
collage for my “Senior Friends” board in our office cubicle. Some of the faces in the pictures are pretty
funny – I’m glad there is a cute one of Elder and Sister Hunt and not a
ridiculous one!
We went to our favorite Maytag store and
picked up a dryer to take to the Teec Nos Pos elders, loaded it into the
Silverado and then parked it in the Payne’s yard for the night. We also mailed some new pots & pans to the
Crystal elders.
Friday: We
were on the road to Teec Nos Pos (30 miles west of Shiprock on the road to
Kayenta) before 8:00 am. We got to visit
briefly with the Mays, the new senior couple who are on a six month mission and
just brought their little travel trailer to Teec last month.. They were headed
to Shiprock to a funeral for a relative of the Teec Branch President so we
didn’t chat very long with them. Elders
Nelson and Bast were happy to get a dryer that works. Elder Bast considers himself to be a mechanic
so he helped install the dryer while I helped Elder Nelson scrub their
microwave and stove and kitchen area. We
felt good that we left the Teec place BTIW!
After we got back to Farmington we spent some time getting our load in
order for our Durango trip the following day.
We thought of
Cherise and our family all day and evening as it was her day to go to the
temple for the first time. We were
thankful for Maria’s called about 9:30pm on their way back to Payson giving us
a brief accounting of the evening. She
said she sat by my mom during the session and other members of our family who
were there included Kirsten, Allyson, Duane & Lari, John (Alysson was
sick), and of course Darren & Shirley. It was a special family time and we
are so thankful that many of our family were there together.
Saturday:
Elder Hunt watches the weather report every day and since snow was in
the forecast for next Monday in Durango, we decided to take our load up and
help the sisters there move into the new apartment that we had gone to see the
week before. Fortunately for us, the
Durango elders were available to come help us so we had three trucks to haul
things to the new place. Both the old
and new place was up a flight of stairs, so it was especially good that those
two elders pitched in like a couple of farm hands to do the lifting and
moving. Elders Sanchez and Davis had an
appointment in Cortez and weren’t able to join us for lunch, but we took the
sisters to The Dough Factory, a nice little sandwich shop. Sisters Tuddenham and Pielstick had an
appointment to keep so we went back to the old apartment and did a bit of
tidying up (including scrubbing the stove and oven—something we have had a lot
of practice doing the past few months!).
Our goal was to be on the road back to Farmington by 4:30 so we wouldn’t
have a repeat of the previous week (we hit a deer just out of Durango!). We made it back to Farmington by 5:30 and
were thankful to be back safely.
Megan’s flight from Seattle arrived around 6:00 (after a few delays in
Denver) and they came over to visit us after they stopped at Sí Señor for a
bite to eat. . It sure was good to see Meg again!
It has been a busy week and we were glad for that so we
wouldn’t get homesick during the holidays.
It has been a good Christmas and we really didn’t miss some of our usual
Christmas “busyness” – baking, making, etc.
All of our Christmas shopping was for our missionaries (beds, pans,
portable DVD players, etc.) and it was really fun. One day as I was driving by Alco in Kirtland after
giving organ lessons at the stake center, I decided to stop and just go in and
look around. After going up and down a
couple of aisles the thought entered my head, “Linda, you don’t even need to be
here!” so I walked out the door and felt happy.
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