CHRISTMAS WEEK

                                                       Office tree...note the angel on top

Last week was like a whirlwind!  I meant to get a picture of all the boxes in the media room.  They were encroaching on my space and I was getting claustrophobic!  Gratefully they've all been delivered and everyone had a great Christmas.  There were days last week that we had three deliveries a day.

Wednesday and Thursday we had Christmas zone conferences.  We combined three zones on Wednesday and four on Thursday.  They were really fun.  There was instruction and teaching the first three hours and then lunch, ugly sweater contest, and a musical program in the afternoon.  We have so many talented Elders and Sisters. 

                                          Lexington, Lexington North & Crestwood Zones

   Very nice luncheon for us

                                                                     Ugly Sweaters

                                                      Christmas in Kentucky

                                   Louisville, Evanston, Elizabethtown & New Albany Zones

Saturday we went to the Mission Home and had dinner and visiting with all the senior missionaries.  Before that, Don asked if I would try making rolls again.  "Okay...if you insist".  This time they turned out almost perfect.  I decided to half the recipe because it makes a lot.  Yeah...next time I'll write the half amounts down instead of doing it in my head and forgetting to include the yeast water in the total amount of liquids.  I had to add flour, so they were a little more dense but they tasted good and Don was happy.  I, on the other hand, am beating myself up over the fact that I'm having such a hard time doing something I used to do all the time!  Just kinda like a lot of things in life at this age, I guess :(
                               

Sunday was our one hour Christmas program at church and we came home, took a short nap and ate Christmas Eve dinner...ham, baked sweet potato and rolls.  We opened our gifts that evening.  I got a lens for my camera, a new camera bag and a warm scarf!  I got Don a .22 pellet gun (to shoot the sap-suckers that drain the sap from our quakies up at the lake). I also got him a light and magnifying glass for tying flies ( he should have plenty when we get home and he can hit the lake).  Also got him some warm gloves and an overcoat.  It's gotten pretty cold finally.

Christmas Day we slept in and then I made a chicken pasta salad that Robyne had made once.  It's so good.  We took that to the Mission Home where we had a nice meal with just the office seniors, and several Elders and Sisters (about 15) that didn't have any place to eat.  It was fun, and we got in on a lot of calls to home by the missionaries.  Several brought their Ipads in and showed us off to their parents.  It was good to talk to all of our kids too. It sounds like they had a great Christmas.  I'm looking forward to being in on some of them next year!

                                           Deep in thought

                                                                                     Christmas Socks!

                                                   Breinholt, Hughes, Fleming, Prior

SANTA'S ON HIS WAY!

Christmas is going to be a bit different here.  The extent of our decorations is a wreath on the door.  We just couldn't see buying a tree and decorations here when we have all that at home.  I did buy a rustic-looking creche as a souvenir.

We went to a Greek restaurant a couple of Friday's ago with the Priors and Flemings.  It was a little"hole in the wall" place.  I'm not sure I'm really fond of some of the seasonings.  I had skewered shrimp over rice.  I think if we go again, I'll go for the gyro (chicken...not lamb).

Among the interesting things here in KY:  I'm sure you can guess what the yards look like after fall...with all the trees here!  If you don't want to bag all of them, you can just rake them to the curb and trucks with "leaf suckers" on them come by and vacuum them up.  Not a bad deal unless the wind comes up before they come by!
Another thing:  When the new missionaries are being instructed, the president tells them to be really careful because in Kentucky the yellow light means speed, and the red light is just a suggestion.

Leaf Sucker

Transfers came and went.  We had an interesting group of missionaries coming in:  10 Sisters and 4 Elders.  Those going home this month had more sisters too.  We will have early releases on January 2 for those starting school in Spring semester and then the others on January 26.  February looks like a pretty quiet month.  Angie and Mike are coming President's Day weekend to visit.  I can't wait!!

There are still some die-hard exercisers out in the park.  There are some we've named, like "Short shorts black socks guy",  "White-haired two dog lady", and "Rollerblade dude".  There are other regulars too but we haven't attached names to them yet.

We went to Lexington Saturday to go to a multi-denominational sing along of the Messiah.  It was so good.  They had removed 5 rows of benches in the chapel so the chamber orchestra could go there.  They even had a harpsichord.  It was just what I needed to put me in the Christmas spirit. We spent the night there and went to Church at the Pioneer Ward before coming home.  We had the trio of Sisters to dinner last night.  One of them goes home on the 2nd.

I drove by this Friday:  He reminds me of a much-younger version of "Big Boy" we had growing up in California.

We used to drive through the Bob's on Sherman Way or stop and get a burger, fries, and vanilla coke, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  From there we'd drive to Van Nuys Blvd to "drag", looking for friends to meet up with.  Jeri went to this one when she visited Heather in KY and was disappointed it wasn't like we remember!

On that note...not much more for this post!   

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE...

So Don had me get some better flour to make rolls with.  So, on Thursday I made turkey noodle soup and another batch of hockey pucks!  "We've" decided I need to try again this week, so...I guess I'll give it one more shot tomorrow!  I used to make rolls all the time!  No pressure though!!!

I'm  having one of my difficult decision weeks.  We have a young man who has diabetes.  His A1c has been very high.  Because he can't seem to get it down in the mission, we'd decided to send him home to get things under control.  He's scheduled to go home on Saturday.  In the meantime his mother has called and written a long letter to the mission president trying to change our minds.  He has supposedly been approved for a new CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) that keeps a constant check of his levels and adjusts the pump accordingly.  So now we're wondering if we can get that taken care of here, or if he still needs to go home, get his levels under control and then come back.  Basically the stress comes with me being the one giving advice to the Mission President, and hoping it's the right advice.  I hate to send someone home, but I'd hate to keep him and he not do better.  Monday , Dec. 11.  The Elder decided he wanted to go home and left on Saturday.

There's an area right next to where we live that has beautiful older homes.  With columns and sun porches, etc.  They're starting to decorate for Christmas and they're so pretty.  I'm going to take pictures the next time we go through there.  We really love being here.  We could see ourselves staying if we didn't have family we miss and love!  Besides that, the only thing missing is mountains. It's really easy to get turned around here without the mountains to get our bearings!