....although, I should not be surprised when we have a start of a week with about six inches of snow and BITTER cold and end it with temperatures in the mid-fifties! The first photo is last Sunday night. And today, the snow is melted and we're all going around in shirt sleeves.
The snow was SO pretty, though, and we discovered that our little all-wheel drive Element does very nicely on snow. I had a rehearsal last Sunday afternoon and I was able to just tootle right there and back with no problems..... well, I tootled at 25 miles per hour but with nary a skid. I had to work at the Music Suite both Monday and Tuesday but beyond that, Steve and I pretty much hunkered down here at home. We did more baking.
Even by Thursday, there was still snow on the ground. I looked out my bedroom window in the morning to see the following sight....
Yep, that is orange and red spray paint! Dig Rite strikes again. At first, I couldn't imagine why they had come by and then I wondered - could it possibly mean that our foundation work will start soon? And, sure enough, Absolute Foundation Recovery called that afternoon to announce that they were coming the day after Christmas! Hooray! Wait.....the DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS????? And we have to have the part of the garage next to the house cleared of everything by then? Well, it is what it is and we started last night by moving all of Sarah's boxes into the house so she could sort through them. YES! Sarah is here. She arrived Friday night after her epic two-day drive from Utah. Hooray for Vicki and Joe Southerland who let her sleep at their place in Aurora on Thursday night. Below is Steve with the granddogs. Never skipping a beat from a two-year absence, they are awaiting their nightly treat from Grandpa. We don't have doggie treats any more but tortilla chips do quite nicely!
Yesterday, we had our annual visit to St. Charles. Steve, me, Emily, Joe, Noah, Lucy, Quinn, Larkin, Elise, Beckie, Steven, Tamara, Sarah, Melanie and friends Aaron Barnard and Patrick Layton all came. Weather was in the high 40's and we went earlier than usual since Beckie had to work in the evening and it turned out to be a perfect time.
Here is Emily and Lucy visiting with "Ebeneezer Scrooge"
Here is Emily, Lucy, and Larkin in the attic of one of the shop buildings. Most of the places along the street were built in the mid-1800's
Larkin holding Aunt Beckia's hand. She has forever linked Beckie with IKEA - hence the combo name.
Lunch was at an nearby McAllister's Deli where we ate and all showed our treasures we found during our two-hour shopping adventure in St. Charles.
Steve and I pooled our treasure-finding money and bought the galvanized tote on the table below. I believe it was originally used to haul milk bottles.
It was nice to let someone else do the cooking for Saturday lunch. From Saturday the 14th to Thursday, the 19th - six days - we had guests at our house for dinner five different times! Each night was enjoyable with good friends but, wow, that is a bit much!
Today was our ward Christmas sacrament meeting program. Three short talks (all VERY good) with music before, inbetween, and after. I was asked to coordinate the music a few weeks before officially becoming the music chair, thankfully, so I had time to put things together. The Primary children sang first..."Mary's Lullaby". Then I played in a trio with a flute and a piano - we did a lovely, simple arrangement of "The First Noel". I accompanied a young women trio singing "I Heard The Bells". This was a fairly sophisticated vocal arrangement but the girls were definitely up to the challenge. It came came from an old book - a collection of holiday songs... some sacred, some secular...that my mom had passed down to me! In fact, there are my mom's pencil markings in the arrangement so sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, she sang that very same song in church! Pretty neat, I think. The final number was Silent Night played on the piano and organ with a violin obligato. Tamara played piano, I played organ, and the violin was played by an extremely talented violinist I just discovered in our ward. We had a false start, though. Tamara played the first two measures and when I came in on measure three, it sounded AWFUL! Someone prior to the service had tinkered with the pitch selector on the organ and had moved it to a couple of steps higher than the piano!!!!! I had to stop Tamara and adjust the dial and THEN it went without a hitch. One time before, when I was the organist, I noticed that the opening song seemed extremely high and looked down at the pitch knob and, sure enough, it WAS set to a very high pitch. From then on, I always checked the knob every Sunday. But, it has been almost ten years since I have been the ward organist so I was not in that habit. I am now!
We watched "One Magic Christmas", "Miracle on 34th Street" (the newer one), and "Elf" this past week. Christmas gifts are all wrapped and cards are all sent. Goodies have been delivered to neighbors and friends. Time to sit back and just enjoy Christmas with family.....
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