More Christmas Lights!

We didn't get around to looking at Christmas lights until Christmas night. One of the best places to go around here is the Toyon Way/Red Bud Lane area of of El Margarita. We saw some great houses - like the one below with Kim and David standing under the blue arch.

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This last house is a Gingerbread House made by one talented lady on our ward. She designed it to look like the "Crooked House" in England. It's hard to tell from this angle, but it really is pretty crooked.

Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas!

For those who grew up in our household, you will recognize the settings for the scenes portrayed below. For others - well, you'll just have to imagine the fun we have. We had a great day. Many thanks to our children and grandchildren who were making happy traditions of their own. You've blessed our lives in countless ways.

Mom, Kim, and David open stockings on Mom & Dad's bed

Mom displaying a couple of gifts given by loving family members

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Kimberly opening one of her gifts, and Dad wearing what is now his favorite hat

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The leftovers.

Yes, we had the traditional Hall Christmas Eve dinner with cheese and sausage, crackers and nuts, soup and vegetables - with copious amounts of cookies, candy, and other assorted treats.

(you know, the four food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup)

David left today (needs to be at work Monday), Kimberly leaves tomorrow, but both went to Church with us today. It is SO MUCH FUN having them here. I don't know what we'll do when they get families of their own.

December 17, 62 A.D. - Lazarus Dies for the Second Time

I've shared this before I think, but I always think about it this time of year, and it makes me ponder.

In the Old Farmers Almanac several years ago, on this date, the little note said: "Lazarus dies for the second time - A.D. 62."

Now that's interesting. So I get to thinking and the first thing that occurs to me is that 62 is probably the about average age for a man living at that time. The second thing that comes to mind is that if that's true, then he was born in or about A.D. 0, and that would make him about the same age as Christ. It also occurs to me that they may well have been childhood friends.

In John 11 is we read that Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and also Lazarus. A few verses later, after Jesus sees the family and other mourners weeping over Lazarus' death, we see the famous verse: "Jesus wept." He then proceeds to the tomb, asks for the stone to be rolled aways, and calls out: "Lazarus, come forth!"

Remembering that Lazarus had been in the grave four days already, and that Christ could have come sooner, but chose not to, it is not readily apparent to his family or others (maybe not even to us) what the purpose of all this could be.

However, overarching the entire scene is Christ's teaching that not only is Lazarus' illness "not unto death," but hints that future events surrounding this will occur "for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."

Reflecting on the sometimes unfathomable occurrences in my own life, and knowing of Christ's infinite love for me personally, that particular teaching often makes me ponder just how many of my challenges are "not unto death" like I think they are, but in fact are solely so that the Son of God may be glorified. That is, if I will be more faithful, more humble, and more willing to let Him work his miracles in my life as He did in Lazarus'.

Merry Christmas

Soon the bells will start...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. I got the first strands of lights up on the house last weekend (the eaves, the garage and the windows and door), then they failed, then I fixed them. Later in the week I got the tree up in the yard, and today I added a couple of new items: rope lights on the sidewalk that I bought at an after Christmas sale for 2 bucks last year, and some old white drape lights I picked up somewhere. Basically,it's my standard plan with a little embellishment.

Mom bought a really nice tree a couple of weeks ago and we put put it up and decorated it last Monday (with popcorn and cranberries of course). Now all we need is to get out of school and have fun with David and Kimberly.

A Mad Dash, and Home Again Quickly

We had planned on leaving for Utah Tuesday to be with nearly the whole family for Thanksgiving, but the weather was quickly turning bad, so we packed up fast and got out of town Monday just after noon. We expected I-80 over Donner Summit to have chain at least part of the way, but we lucked out and never had to put them on at all. There were some pretty snow scenes along the way, but traffic VERY slow due to the prior chain control.

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We made a planned overnight stop in Winnemucca, hoping to get on the road again before the approaching storms from the West. No such luck. Just after we got up the next morning it started snowing heavily. But by the time we were ready to go it had let up and we decided to take our chances on the road. It wasn't too bad really - even in Mom's little KIA (the Jeep was in the shop getting a fuel line leak taken care of) and we only put chains on once, but otherwise did well. The video below pretty much describes the trip.

Chris and Lorna opened up their house to everyone and we eventually had 8 adults (yes, counting me) and 6 children, ages 6 and under (4 of them under 2). The food was great, the atmosphere lively, and the company entertaining. Below are some of the scenes we enjoyed:

The Master Chefs at Work...........................................with a little help from their friends
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Family gathered around the table doing what else?;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;Lorna was fabulous at providing the food
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Some beautiful (VERY cold) scenes from a late afternoon trip to the park - preserving sanity for both young and old

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More beautiful scenes...;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;of more beautiful people
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And finally, 2 short videos of Trevor & Michelle's kids. It's not like they're not cute or anything. . . Lizzie and Jane

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It was a good trip, but cut a bit short when we saw that snow was predicted all across Nevada for our planned trip home on Saturday. So we once again packed up quickly and dashed off home Friday about noon. It was good to have Saturday to recuperate, even though the weather was miserable here in YC too.

This may be the last post you see from me for a couple weeks. I have tons of work to catch up on (from being away all last week), the house Christmas lights to get up, my band's Christmas Concert Thursday night, and a whole weeks worth of meetings and interviews the week after that. Then I can get serious about preparing for and enjoying the Christmas holiday. Until then, Christmas tunes on the radio and iPod will be my only respite.

Miserable Day for a Run

Today was the 3rd annual Turkey Trot for Hands of Hope. This is an organization that assists homeless children who are enrolled in local schools districts. I know most of the people who started it and they're all good people. I like to support their efforts.

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At the same time, I don't particularly like running, and I hate rain and cold. Today was miserable with all three. So why did I do it? In part to support a worthy cause, and in part just because it presented something hard to do - and I think it's important to do hard things. Well, okay, there's the free pancakes and sausage afterward too. (hey, food is important)

This video clip is of runners at the starting line trying to keep warm. If things had started on time we would have missed nearly all the hard rain. As it was, it started to really come down just as we got ready for the starting gun. I thought things were going pretty well - until I turned into the driving rain near the half-way point. This was one of the few times I never got warm while running. Kept my hat, ear socks, and gloves on, and my jacket zipped all the way up for the whole race. Brrrr!

That's a Crock (-er Art Museum)

So Mom and I spent some of our off day throwing money at the beneficiaries of one of the Big Four (railroad barons Stanford, Huntington. Hopkins, and Crocker). I've always loved going to this pace - mostly beacuse of the beautiful wood throughout the grand old home that housed the gallery. It's interesting parket floor, huge mirrors, and marvelous ballroom (with a balcony) are just fun to be it. Nowadays the art museum is vastly expanded and most of the art is not displayed in the house. (Too bad)

Below are a couple of examples of contemporary exhibits that caught my eye. The first is "Moon Pie." The lower one is a genre I always gravitate to. Huge heads carved out of stone - looking at you. There's just something appealing about that to me.

Get it?

Afterward we walked over to Old Sac and shared a Capital City waffle cone with hot fudge, whipped cream an a cherry on top. Don't worry, it didn't spoil our appetites as we went from there to IKEA and ate an äkte (real) Swedish meal of meatballs, mash potatoes and lingon berry jam. Then we waddled around the store looking and buying, buying and looking.

I bought some odds and ends of Swedish food to share with Elder Per Malm (newly sustained to the 1st Quorum of Seventy, and someone I knew well when I served in Sweden). He will be here Monday on a mission tour and I'll have the chance to eat lunch with him.

Highdee-Ho neigbors