Happy New Year

I've been neglecting my poor blog - but I've had a million things to do before my shoulder surgery next Wednesday. I had to get my Christmas decorations down and the house cleaned and to arrange so many things for Relief Society and type up new schedules for our lessons, conducting, etc. Thank goodness I delegated our 2008 Relief Society History to my secretary - that would have taken many more hours. I had 14 thank you notes to write and I'm still trying to get new Christmas stockings made for Joshua, Jeremy and Lily to match the ones I bought at a craft fair for Don and I. I did some big after Christmas shopping and got all my wrapping paper, Christmas cards and even Relief Society Christmas gifts for next year. Actually, I found some wrapping paper I really liked so I probably got enough to last 6 years. I also found a beautiful red silk top (very dressy) at Ann Taylor Loft for $9.99 - it was regularly $46.00 so that was quite a bargain. And my best friend, Janine, gave me a $50 gift card to Ann Taylor so I ordered online a tweed jacket and pencil skirt that came 2 days ago and are so cute. They're size 4's and the jacket fits perfect but the skirt's a little big. I don't want to send it back, though, so I'll live with it. I can't believe a size 4 can be too big on me. They were both on sale for 75% off. Tomorrow we're having Joshua, Jeremy and Lily over for a big turkey dinner so I need to make a couple of pies today. Saturday night we're having the missionaries to dinner and then going to a baptism with them. These guys are working so hard and have 2 more baptisms lined up this month. They've also been helping a lot with activation.

Joshua, Lily and Jeremy all came over for Christmas Eve. We opened presents (which we've never done on Christmas Eve but may become our new tradition) had our usual hors d'oeuvres (which I made wayyy too much of) and then went out to look at Christmas lights. Joshua and Lily gave me an iHome clock radio docking station for my iPod and some candy.

We had a very quiet but very nice Christmas. It was just Don and I for most of the day, but it gave me time to contemplate the meaning of Christmas and read some Christmas stories. Jeremy came over in the evening and he'd had a nice day so that made mine good. Joshua and Lily tried to come, but they thought our hill was slick and decided not to try to make it up. They ended up coming over the next evening and so did Jeremy so we had a fun time eating pizza and playing games. I didn't take a single picture on Christmas so I have nothing to post. When all the kids were here the day after I meant to take pictures but forgot. I'm going to try to take some of everyone tomorrow.

Heather, Mark, Jennifer and the kids were supposed to come the day after Christmas and stay a few days but the snow in the Siskyou's scared them away - turns out they could have made it but they didn't want to risk it. I don't blame them, but we were sorry not to have them come - we'd really been looking forward to seeing them. Heather is buying her first house. It's in Vallejo just off Columbus Parkway not too far from Benicia. It needs some work but will be really nice when they finish. It was in foreclosure so they got a great deal. It has a pool and spa which we'll enjoy when we go to visit. She assures us that there's lots of room for us to come and stay whenever we want so maybe we'll get down to California to visit more often.

I had my pre-op and anesthesia appointments on Monday (it took 4 hours) and now I'm more scared of this stupid surgery than I was before. I'm not looking forward to them putting a needle and catheter in my neck before they put me out and the recovery sounds like hell but I guess I'll get through it.

Don and I went out to dinner last night at Sweetwaters on the River (a really nice restaurant). We had a table right by the window and the river was beautiful with the light bouncing off of it. I had a wonderful avocado salad (looked really fancy) and a crab chowder (which was delicious but I couldn't finish). Afterward we went to see "Doubt" at the mall across the street. It was very good but Don and I felt the exact opposite about the characters in it - interesting!

Have a Happy New Year everyone. It started out great with the birth of our new little Trevor Noah - Congratulations to his happy family.