Dear Family and Friends—
It is the start of the Christmas season, and we actually got ½ inch of snow last night—didn’t last long as it is raining right now, but for a special time last night, it was snowing. The timing was perfect because Lynn and I had made hot chocolate and homemade bread for the missionaries in our area and they came over at seven to be with us. They came bearing gifts—sang a Christmas song and gave us a plate of chocolate chip cookies. Our place looks as Christmassy as it can get with our little tree, Nancy’s gifts for us under it, and the picture on the December page of Julianne’s calendar off to the side. Two poinsettias, Christmas candy, nuts, and colored lights strung on the railing of our balcony completed the festive scene. As I am typing this, I’m listening to John Denver’s Christmas album on Pandora—sigh—so nice. The missionaries only stayed long enough to eat and then were off to members that the Bishop wanted them to visit and deliver cookies to.
Lynn and I then watched the church broadcast at eight—wasn’t it the best?! On Facebook one of the members of our Provo ward noted that her husband’s great-great grandfather was the Macfarland that wrote “Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains” and how excited the family was to hear the story mentioned in the special broadcast last night.
Last Monday FHE was a little slow, not enough excitement, but you take chances when you have others help you doing FHE—had a good turnout though. One of the best members of the ward and her family came (a very unusual thing) and afterwards I commented that she was still in her nurses’ clothes, gave her a hug and told her how wonderful she was. She grabbed me and hugged me tight and expressed thanks for my kind words. Huh? She then told about a very terrible day. She’s an oncology nurse and between patients and the administration, it’s a rough profession to be in.
At the temple, 14 dear Elders and Sisters came for their “we’re going home in a week” trip. I knew most of them, some of them I knew quite well, so it was a joyous time. Lynn was officiator and I the follower for their session. I’ll tell you, it just doesn’t get much better than that. : ) One sister told me that as soon as she was getting home her tonsils were coming out. Strange, because at the time she told me, I believe my Ken was having his tonsils out (well, I know it was close timing). Before we left the temple, I wanted to go to Distribution. There were a lot of missionaries in the entry area and I asked where they were from. From Morristown, NJ mission. Wow. Yes, they did know Elder Braydon Marchant, my grand-nephew. When Lynn and I left we walked to Columbus Circle, as we wanted to see the Christmas lights. We discovered a high end flea market at Columbus Circle and enjoyed seeing the pretty things and ate dinner there.
Wednesday was spent getting ready for Nancy’s visit and much more than that, preparation on my part for Institute. I had to do shopping, laundry and finances that day—a full day. Institute went well with the exception that Doug Lee can now come to Institute—he’s got one more hour that he can be out at night. He’s combative and argumentive—comes across like the lawyer he’s trained to be. I have to help him understand, somehow, that class is not a court room or I’ll end up with no students. The lesson was on Elder Soares talk on meekness—that was ironic.
So, I was up bright and early Thursday so Lynn and I could go to LaGuardia to pick up Nancy. Her flight was supposed to come at eight. We gave ourselves an hour and a half and it took only 40 minutes to get there—gave us some talking time. We found Nancy and had a joyous reunion. Then, off we went to the Bronx to the New York Botanical Garden. They had a special display in the indoor conservatory called the Holiday Train Show. It was magnificent!! A company had created small versions of familiar homes and landmarks in the New York area and put them in a garden setting complete with the large gauge trains going through it, quite a few trains as it turns out. We got there at 10 am and spent an hour oohing and ahhing over all the beautiful things we saw. At 11, large groups of students showed up from local schools to go through the exhibit—we dodged a bullet there!
Then, Lynn left with Nancy’s luggage and left us to get on the “4” train to go all the way from the Bronx to Battery Park at the end of Manhattan. We got off, found the Staten Island Ferry, got on and took the 25 minute trip to the island. It was a foggy day but Nancy was able to see the Statue of Liberty as close as she could without paying to actually be there. We got off the ferry, went in the station, and got right on the returning ferry. This time, as we traveled to Manhattan we were accompanied by a Coast Guard boat which was right alongside us, complete with an officer manning a machine gun at the bow. He followed until we were close to docking—still don’t know why, but it was fun to have the experience.
Next, we got on a bus that took us to the 9/11 Memorial—thank you driver for letting us know where to get off! It is a touching experience to be there and Nancy enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed showing her some of the things Lynn and I had discovered on our earlier trip. Because it was a dark and cloudy day, the lights on the fountains were turned on making the water sparkle—very beautiful. I showed her the “Survival Tree” and then we went to find a security guard and asked if he could check to see if anyone had found my watch that I accidently left in the security bin earlier. It took quite a while, plus five officers, to get my watch back, but the time was well spent as the officer we were supposed to stay with told us that he was at the first attack in 1993 and then as a NYPD officer, went to the site right after his wife told him she thought the towers were attacked. (He had been on the late shift and was sleeping). I wish we had more time to talk to him, but an officer came with my watch and we were on our way.
We went to a nearby restaurant that sold pizza and I had the best mushroom pizza I had ever tasted—some of the best pizza I have EVER tasted! We then went north and caught up with Lynn at Rockefeller Center. It was dark by that time and the holiday crowds were thick, but not unmanageable. The tree had just been turned on Wednesday, so people were eager to see the tree and other decorations, plus the light show on the front of Saks Department Store. We eventually found Lynn and walked around for a while seeing things, then went to the display windows at Saks. As we passed a door to the store I took a breath of exclamation because what I saw was so beautiful—Saks had magnificent decorations in their store, so in we went to check it out. They were stunning. Then, you saw all the high end departments in the store—you wonder who has the money to spend on what you saw. Well, it is NY with a lot of people willing to spend their money.
We made our way to Carnegie Hall and got ourselves settled into the top balcony. We weren’t in the nosebleed section, but it was a long ways to the stage! Glad we had binoculars. We came to see a Tim Janis production called “The American Christmas Carol” which was being produced to honor music education. This concert was the reason Nancy wanted to come to NY, and she couldn’t have made a better choice. The orchestra was made of students from Connecticut and was simply professional sounding. You have to audition to get in the orchestra. They had a 250 voice choir made of high school students from around New Jersey. There were various young people who performed at the concert that I had never heard of, but they were outstanding. The old man for the night was James Galway and his wife also played her flute. Jackie Evancho also performed six pieces. The first part of the program was secular music, but when the large choir came on all the music was strictly, and beautifully, Christmas. From Tim Janis’ comments before the performance of the Christmas music you could tell he had strong Christian beliefs. It was just magic, this night, just magic. At the end people to the left of us started clapping and yelling at the choir leaving the stage. We found out they were family members there to see their kids, and they were so proud as you can imagine.
The next day we all woke up late, but finally in the afternoon Nancy and I went out to see Macy’s (crowded and nice). We made it to the 8th floor and found the line for Santa Claus plus all the elves etc. around. It was a great set-up for Santa (never did see him, he was too deep inside). We then caught a bus to Grand Central Station. She was duly awestruck!! as well she should have been. : ) We took a little tour around and then had lunch in their food court. We went back to the bus station where we got off wanting to head north. After many buses that said “Out of Service” and 15 minutes, we gave up and walked to the train getting off close to the Ralph Lauren store. Nancy had a friend of a friend that decorated the NY store and we were supposed to see it. Well, it was impressive—the friend of a friend did a great job. We then did window shopping down Madison Ave. and saw how the other side of society lives. There were tux clade guards at every store, not a lot of customers in the stores and I’m guessing just one purchase would pay everyone’s wages for one day, plus the rent. ; ) We found one store that had live models in a mock-up sports car that was supposed to be Santa’s sleigh. Went to Bloomingdales and were duly not as impressed with it as other stores. Finally after much looking and watching we took the “F” train to a station that would put Nancy on a bus that would take her to LaGuardia. I started to call Lynn so he could find us and before I could finish dialing, there he was. Turns out he was on the same train we were on, just a different car! I was starving and so I had a grilled cheese sandwich at Dunkin’ Donuts and home we went.
Man, I don’t know how Nancy felt the next day, but I was tired and my legs were sore—a lot of walking for two days. But, it was a wonderful time and a great time to catch up with what’s happening with Nancy. She’s going home now to prepare for an Open House for Matt and Rebekah.
Saturday was spent in recovery, making bread and then we drove to Park Slope chapel in the evening for the Saturday session of stake conference. The entire evening was devoted to missionary work. I think that subject has been the subject of all the church’s stake conferences lately. We have 80 missionaries in our stake! We drove to that meeting, but on Sunday we took the train to downtown Brooklyn, to the Marriott Hotel and had stake conference in the ball room—worked out great. The conference was well organized and the talks were outstanding. We stayed a long time talking to missionaries and ward members. We are losing a lot of missionaries from our district and the Spanish district—wow, a lot of changes are happening tomorrow. Personally, I’m saddened by the amount of change, and will greatly miss the dear young people that I love.
My beloved Astria Richards is taking out her endowments this Wednesday at noon. I will be her escort. Astria had joined the church a number of years ago, went inactive, decided that was not the kind of life she wanted to live and has since been an anchor in our FHE and Institute programs. She is a dear, dear person. I think she’s about thirty.
The church is true. I am grateful for the blessing of the Atonement in my life and love my Savior for His great gift. It’s sweet to be here on a mission during Christmas time and share the joy of the season with those here that we have grown to love.
Hope all is well with all of you. Meriden and Jim—wish you best in your move to Missouri. Enjoy your snow, those of you out west—a white Christmas. Lucky. Hope the reception and having kids home for Christmas will be a special time Nancy.
Love to you all—Kathy/Mom
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