Saturday, December 22, 2007

December in California

This is why we live in Southern California. Notice the trees still have leaves and Wayne is in his shirt sleeves. The weather today was delightful. We got to see Sara play a Los Altos Varsity vs. Alumni. She still has it. Actually I think she still plays as well as she did in high school. It was fun to watch her play again.

Notice we still have roses blooming. The gardeners just trimmed the dead ones off.
I was surprised to see the azalaes blooming. Usually it they bloom in the spring.
I think I will make a bouquet of flowers for our Christmas table with fresh flowers from our yard. I even picked some peppers from our garden.
When all of you are cold and tired of the snow, just remember where you could go to get away from it all. It has been great to have a few days of rain and it gets chilly at night. But when the sun comes out, we can see our beautiful mountains and not be trapped in your inversion (aka smog.) We miss being with the bigger part of the family for the holidays but Wayne would rather be golfing than shoveling snow. (And so would I).

December Happenings

Since Kari and Matt are going to Utah for Christmas, we had to celebrate with them last Sunday. It was cute seeing the kids open their presents and be all excited. We will miss seeing them on Christmas as well as the Garners and the Lees, however, we are lucky to have Tim, Tanya, Marisa and Sara around. I think the only thing Marisa will enjoy is the wrapping paper.

Monday after school I went to Ladera Ranch so I would see Haylie in her Christmas play. It was a cute show and she did a really good job. Merry Christmas to all who read this blog.



Sunday, December 2, 2007

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Today is the 100th anniversary of my dad's birthday. It is quite amazing that he lived to be 88. He started out as a very small premature baby. I am grateful he was my dad. He taught by example. I have been told that I know how to work hard. I know how to work because of the example of both of my parents. Dad had a wonderful garden. He spent hours outside. He had us out there helping with the planting, weeding and the harvesting. Our hours were short compared to the hours he spent. He had other talents. He had an excellent mind. He loved learning especially things about money. He had a love of the gospel. His action showed that. He also loved his family. He was so proud of all his children. I always felt I was on the top of his totem pole. However, as years go by I probably wasn't the top but as a kid I didn't know that. He loved his grandchildren and would have loved all his great grandchildren. He probably kissed them good bye as each has come to earth.

Perhaps you have a special memory of grandpa that you would like to share with the family today. I want you to know I loved my dad. I still do. He gave us all that he could. I have missed both Dad and Mom.