Week of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 28, 2013

We started out this week, on Monday, the 25th helping with a Community Outreach service project preparing holiday food baskets for the needy.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, but the temperature was quite chilly.  Even though we were in a building, the doors were opened all the time as pallets and cases of food were hauled in for us to sort and distribute into shopping bags.  I started out wearing gloves but threw those in the car once they got too soiled and wet to do me any good.  By noon, we had sorted all of the food and filled all of the bags that were available.  More people came to volunteer their service, and everyone was just standing around waiting for more bags to arrive, so Sister Boone and I decided to go home a little early.

Since we could not do our regular Thursday Temple Day we decided to attend the Temple on Tuesday.  Monday night a storm began to move through the area and we drove to and from the temple in pretty heavy rain.  Wednesday we drove back to the Temple (still raining) to be at the Visitors Center for the annual Mission picture.  They took the picture following the transfer/farewell meeting.  12 elders were going home (one had already gone to catch his plane), and they each had the opportunity to bear their testimonies at the end of the meeting.

Then we went upstairs and gathered together for the mission picture.  Hopefully we will get a copy of the picture.  I am interested in seeing how it turns out.  There were about 220 people in the picture so the photographer took some wide-angle shots, then used a narrower lens and took several pictures (about 20) that he will edit and "stitch" together to make one big picture.  He told everyone they would have to find the best position that allowed their full face to show and then not move or talk until he had taken all of the pictures so that he could connect the faces from one frame to the next.  Do you think it is possible for 190 young missionaries to not move or talk for ten minutes?  It didn't happen.  Hopefully photo shop will do the job.

As we left the Visitors Center, I took a few pictures of the trees with Christmas lights on them.  We will be working at the Visitors Center three days in December during the Festival of Lights, but it probably won't be much darker than it was this rainy day to get better pictures of the lights.

We had one last appointment in Waldorf that afternoon before our Thanksgiving holiday break.  This was our final visit in White Plains 2nd Ward for the time being.  We had an appointment with the new Ward Relief Society President, but she was not the President when we set the appointment the previous week.  She was just sustained on Sunday, the 17th.  That evening she received a call from the Bishop about a sister in the Ward who incidentally we had been trying to visit but could not find at home.  The reason was that she was in the hospital.  They did not think it was too serious, although she did have pulmonary problems.  The following day things took a turn for the worse.  That was the day we stopped by her house and left a card to let her know we had been there.  That evening she passed away, so we never did get the opportunity to meet her.  She told the Bishop that she did not want to be alone when she died, so the Bishop and his wife, the High Priest Group Leader and his wife, and the Relief Society President were there for her in her final hours.  So Sister Michela started out her first week as RS President helping with funeral arrangements for this member of the ward.  We had a good visit with Sister Michela and told her that we felt confident she was going to do a wonderful job in her new calling.  We let her know what sisters we had been working with and told her a few that we hoped she or others in the ward would continue to visit.

Sister Boone's daughter, Deana flew in on Thanksgiving Day for a visit and I drove to Heidi's to spend Thanksgiving Day and the weekend with her family.  As Alex was also planning on going to Heidi's, I called him as I left the gas station to see if he was on his way and how the weather was.  I was driving in rain and slush, but the roads weren't bad.  Alex had decided that they would not be coming after all.  Reed got sick Wednesday morning with flu-like symptoms and had not improved enough for them to feel good about going.  They were going to see how he was doing in the morning and possibly still come.  Instead they spent Thanksgiving with another couple in the ward who had their travel plans thwarted by the bad weather conditions for their journey.  We were sad that we were not able to see them, but I am glad that they didn't have to drive in rain/snow and icy roads.

I enjoyed spending time with Heidi's family and eating a delicious meal that Heidi and Bryce had worked long and hard to prepare.  I ended up staying with them until the following Wednesday since Sister Boone's daughter was not leaving until Thursday Dec. 5th.  We drove to DC on Friday and visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum again so Isaiah could show Bryce the discoveries we had made on our first visit there.  With some persistence, Heidi was able to accomplish a few items on her To Do List such as hanging some Christmas lights on the house.  She started out working on her own but decided that she needed some help with the ladder so she sent Isaiah in to get me.  I went out and saw that she had her handy dandy, heavy-duty, (I mean VERY heavy) ladder extended to its fullest limit (maybe 18 feet) and was trying to set it up against the upper story roof (probably about 20 feet in the air).  I am surprised that we did not let it fall through a window while we tried extremely hard to situate it in the bushes so that we could get close enough for it to stand up against the house.  I finally convinced her that it was just too short and we would probably not be able to put lights on the upper roof.  Once I talked her out of trying to go around to the back deck and setting the ladder up there so she could get on the upper roof and hang over the edge to put on the lights, she opted instead to string them across the soffit of the main level; not nearly as impressive but in my mind much safer.  It looked very nice when she finally finished hanging them and found all of the burned out or loose bulbs so that all of the strands were lit.

When I came home after a week at Heidi's, she sent me with a small set of trees and a table cover that I could use to put up a Christmas tree in my apartment.  Sister Boone had already purchased a small tree and set it up in the living room.  She placed little porcelain snowmen on it and it looked so charming.  I just didn't think she would appreciate my homemade ornaments on her tree.  I didn't really have any idea what I was going to do about a tree, but I knew that I needed to display my little menagerie of Christmas ornaments that the kids had made last Christmas.  I am so grateful that Teresa had the foresight to suggest the ornament exchange last year.  When she proposed her idea, I don't think she knew that it would be my last Christmas with the family for a couple of years, and I was going to need something to keep them close to my heart while we were separated by hundreds or thousands of miles.  Thanks, Heidi for the loan of your little trio of trees.  They look so cozy in my room, and Sister Boone told me they look very lovely.

I must confess I am not much of a decorator.  I was grateful to have my husband and children help me with the decorating for the first 36 years or so.  There were a few years there when we were first married that we didn't really worry about setting up a tree when we traveled to San Jose or Montana for Christmas.  And I truly believe this is the first time I have ever decorated a tree all by myself.  It took me several attempts at hanging the ribbon and ornaments before I found something that was satisfying to me.  I took many pictures of it trying to give you a small glimpse of the warmth that it brings into my home far from home.  Oh, what would I do without my family?  I treasure these ornaments that remind me of you.