Thanksgiving

My full Thanksgiving weekend in SG featured a beautiful dinner at Urquharts (with Jared and Liz, too) a little mini-dinner with GG, and an outing with MaryLu for yogurt. I came home tired but glad to get a lot done at Grandma's.

A Thankful List for me includes the technology that lets me hear from my children and see my grandchildren. Amazing time we live in!!!

On Thursday I read that we ought to "live in thanksgiving daily" and I think we do.

LA Textiles

I bought 100 yds. of fabric today in LA's downtown textile and fashion district, a sort of street bazaar atmosphere. The men who helped me were Iranian or Mexican, measuring off bolts with wooden yard sticks. One store was so crowded with bolts of stuff I gave up trying to get inside.

OC

Fun to be at the Stanleys with these two little brothers and their two great parents.

100 Quilts

For our last Enrichment of the year we're trying to make 100 crib quilts for the Humanitarian Center. Apparently there's an urgent need right now. GG and I made one today, "pillow case" style. After machine sewing the edges/batting together, we turned it right side out and tied it on the kitchen table by first pinning stings to the four corners of the quilt and then tying each string down around a table leg. It wasn't as tight as quilting frames, but it pulled the quilt tighter than if we tied it on our laps or left it loose.

TJ's

Cashew Butter from Trader Joe's served on very thin bread has become GG's favorite snack. Instead of PB&J she's been calling it CB&S--she likes a little salt with it.

She likes TJ's rice noodles, too. "Fabulous," she said. No Joe's near us yet.

Ben's Little Brother

Can't wait for pictures of our New Someone in OC!

Halloween and McD's

In the 1950's Peaks was a precursor to McDonalds. You walked up to the outside line at one of three windows--the hamburger line, the french fry line, or the shake line. Right away they figured out all-items-at-one-window and called themselves McDonalds. But golden arches and drive-through and Ronald were still in the distance.

Our family went there on Halloween to eliminate stress for Mom who had make-up and hair-do's and treats to worry about. Eating out was a Big Deal, so Peaks plus a paper sack full of candy on the same night...!!

On our way home this afternoon, GG and I stopped at McDonalds for small hamburgers, fries and shakes. : )

On Vacation

GG has been with us for a week now. Things she likes:

• Sunny fall days exercising on the driveway, walking with her wheely walker.
• Breakfast in her room with little dishes of jams and a little dome covered butter dish.
• Actually, any food. "Oh, I haven't had a soft-boiled egg in ages." or "Corned beef! What a good idea." She's easy to impress since her staples at home were PB&J or toast wrapped around a cheese stick.
• Movies with Audrey Hepburn. She watched Sabrina last night and Roman Holiday is on for today.
• Initiatory at the Temple. "I can't hear everything but I know what they're saying."
• FHE. Alan gave the lesson and in family prayer afterward she said, "...and we're glad that we're related."

In two more weeks she'll go to Aunt Janet's so I can go meet our new little OC baby.
I don't write often because this is taking my time and attention, but I miss you all.
Love, Mom

CA

Just returned from a short trip to CA to celebrate the 70th birthday of Roger's sister, Joani. We flew in Thursday and had a short visit with Daisy and then went to lunch with Jordan at Zazie, a cute patio restaurant with yummy food. En route to Paradise we visited my cousin Merlene in Sacramento who has a version of Parkinsons, and we did some Family History at the CA State Library. We tried to see Aaron S., but he was doing a late-night at work. In Paradise we spent time with Roger's dad (89) and sisters before heading back to the SF airport to be home by 1:00AM. A good but very short trip. Wish we could have worked in more visits.
Love, Mom

PS: Tomorrow we drive to SG to pick up GG.

More from GG

Here are more things my mother taught me.

• Teach babies where they're at. Her baby would be ensconced in the wooden-high-chair-turned-infant-seat on the kitchen floor so that mother could 1.) talk to her 2.) watch her 3.) teach her. While she cooked, mother would hand the baby the empty Jello box to hold, look at, taste.
• Teach line upon line. Watching blackbirds with year-old Rachel, mother said quietly, "Bird. Bird." After about a dozen times she added, "Crow bird."
• Children need experiences. They took us to the mts., the ocean, the desert, the snow (in a station wagon without seatbelts or air-conditioning). We went to Tijuana and made a point of riding the ferry to Coronado, etc. When I got a Betty Crocker baking set with little pie pans and cake and cookie mixes, she helped me make each item.
• Children need to learn patriotism. She put up a gilded copy of the Pledge of Allegiance in the kitchen.
• Have Family Home Evening.
• Parents are learning, too. FHE at our home had been a strictly "teaching" time until they went to a FHE fireside and came home fired up to make it Fun! One night Lyle got to choose the treat and we had butterscotch instant pudding (wow) with whipped cream out of a spray can (double wow.)
• Music is good. We sat on the piano bench and sang with her while she played Primary songs, etc. Janet could sing harmony.
  
• Scissors: Walk with them pointed down; don't leave them between cushions of couches; don't cut on top of something you could cut through; don't blunt them by trying to cut wire; put them back.
• Make your home nice. She put trailing ivy in round glass vases on the mantle. She let me arrange flowers--pink camellias floating in a low, flat bowl, with a tall pink and black ceramic flamingo standing in the center. This was such a hit that I did it every year when the flowers bloomed.

• Meals should be nice, too. It's not OK to throw on a pile of silverware, but set each person's place. If you do set out a bunch of spoons for dessert, put the spoons in a cute cup. (Maybe that one is mine...) Don't put the pot on the table. At Thanksgiving, each person had an individual salad of pears with creamed cheese on lettuce, a cherry, etc. Sometimes we each had shrimp cocktail.

• Put up a picture of the prophet. Before it was standard, she read that Rose Kennedy had a picture of the Pope in a frame on her piano. If it was good enough for Rose, it was good enough for her. Mother got a frame for a picture of the Prophet (President McKay? Kimball?) and set it out in the LR.
• Smile. Your face will get wrinkled no matter what. You're better off with smile wrinkles than frown lines. (This advice came later. She didn't smile a lot as a young mother. In following her, I remember trying NOT to smile fairly often.)
  
• Exercise. She tried a little Jack LaLaine, or maybe she'd stretch out on the LR floor and do sit-ups when she thought she needed it.
• Be a lady. When a friend at her work (before she was married) went around the office sharing a dirty joke, the girl by-passed mother saying, "You wouldn't want to hear this."

Photo of mother helping me walk, from my scrapbook--one kept for each of us by my Grandmother Rachel Evans.

Laketown Lodge

Elder Alan McEvoy spoke in Sacrament Mtg. yesterday. He did a fine job and friends and family came to the house afterward.

In the few days before that, his family gathered for a reunion at Laketown Lodge, an old rock store two miles from the shore of Bear Lake. Newly refurbished to house large family gatherings, the lodge has beds for 35 and sleeping spots for more (hide-a-beds, etc.)

Laketown is a small farming town--we saw an actual cattle drive right in front of the lodge--one of the many little communities on the rim of Bear Lake.