Dear
Family and Friends—
Post
Merry Christmas! Our weather has
continued to be relatively warm.
It really poured down rain yesterday and I guess we will get more rain
today too.
Of
course our biggest news is about little Tanner James McKell, born early
yesterday morning in Portland, OR, to Bob and Moira. He weighs 6 pounds even which is pretty darn large for a 5 ½
week early baby. Latest posting on
Facebook mentions that he is still in NICU but in his own little area which is
away from the critical babies. Bob
and Moira mentioned that he was the healthiest looking baby at the NICU and
were so grateful that he’s doing so well.
She figured the steroid treatments she received for Tanner’s lung
development while trying to keep him “baking” helped him a lot. Her parents should be to Portland very
soon to help take care of the kids and home. As you can imagine, we are relieved that everyone is
healthy. Courtesy of Skype on
Bob’s phone we were able to talk to them last night.
Christmas
was very nice. We Skyped early
with Bob, Moira and family and watched the kids open up their presents. Then, we talked with Ken, Margie and
boys and they showed us what they had already opened. Ken also told us details about his tonsillectomy and post-surgery
recovery. His biggest problem
right now seems to be that some foods taste metallic because during surgery
some taste buds were badly damaged.
Then, we talked to Sean, Julianne and family after they had eaten the
traditional McKell Christmas brunch (or at least a form of it). The kids were very happy to show what
they had gotten for Christmas.
But, now that we have a teenager and teenager to be in the family, it
was interesting to see how presents for those two kids have evolved.
We
then ate our left-over brunch that we froze after feeding the missionaries the
week before. Quiche always tastes
good later, always! We then opened
up our presents that we gave to each other, plus the calendar and picture from
Sean and Julianne, and a Taste of Home cookbook, bar of gingerbread smelling
soap and a beautiful small purplish blue hand thrown vase that Nancy had given
me for Christmas. Lynn got a few
non-descript things from me (ties, “D” cell batteries) and I got some gloves,
our family picture beautifully framed in gold to go above one of our small
tables in the living room and two camera cases to replace the sad one that I’ve
been using. (On Friday afternoon I
told Lynn that we needed to get him a Christmas present from me, so we went to
several stores, bought small self-powered speakers for the laptop, and Lynn
tried them out and chose one—so I had a legit present for Lynn). J.D. sent an email telling us we had a
$25 gift certificate from Amazon, so I ordered the book “Killing Jesus” by Bill
O’ Reilly. I read a little of the
book at COSTCO and it looked really good.
After
eating brunch I got to work cooking carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower to take
to the Soletas for their Christmas “open house.” At three we went to their place. There were a few ward members there to talk to and lots of
good food. I made a sad
discovery—bringing hot vegetables for a “drop-in” at your convenience between 2
and 8 pm doesn’t work—without a chafing dish to keep them hot, the veggies were
ice cold and yucky. Next time—I’ll
just bring a relish tray. We
stayed there for several hours then went home so we could Skype with J.D. He was still at Ken and Margie’s
place (he showed up in the late morning to surprise the boys and eat with the
family). We spent a long time talking. He plans to be in California for New
Year’s Eve, apparently the LDS community has a “1st night” type
celebration he wants to attend.
On
Christmas evening, we went to several places to take some pulla bread. One place was Claudette Clark’s apartment—she’s
a good friend, and we’ve helped her on occasion. She was not home but we carefully tucked the bread against
her door and hoped no one would steal it.
She was at the end of the hall, so we figured it would be OK. Yesterday she told us an interesting
story: When she and her daughter
got home from traveling, I think on Thursday, they found the bread and three
pennies at the front door.
Apparently in her culture, leaving bread and coins is a very bad sign—it
could be that the bread was left there by an “enemy” or something—maybe
poisonous. She called the Super to
look at the situation. He said she
shouldn’t touch the bread and maybe get some police involved. Then she dared look at the back of the
bread and discovered the note we had left her. Her daughter refused to touch the bread and the Super
thought it needed to be disposed of carefully. However, Claudette realized what was going on and explained
to the two that the culture of the people giving the bread was such that it was
normal to leave gifts at the door for Christmas. As skeptical as her daughter was, Claudette said it was the
daughter that ate the first piece of bread, declared it delicious and then they
both enjoyed it. Interesting, huh?
Thursday
was a quiet day—doing miscellaneous.
In the evening we went the Miller’s for a quick visit and to drop off
some bread. They had just barely
returned from Boston so our timing was good. Friday was shopping and I got into the frig and cleaned it
out—desperately needed. I made a
version of cauliflower soup (trying to duplicate the soup we had at The Smith)
and it was pretty good. More
shopping Saturday and spent quite a long time filing papers that have just
piled up and up. Boy, it felt good
to get that done.
But,
Saturday evening, I had an interesting experience. The sister missionaries have wanted me to go visit an
investigator and an inactive member.
The investigator kept cancelling, but Saturday night we went to visit
Chantae Johnson. She’s 22, a
lovely young lady, and part of the Williams family that are originally from
Jamaica. That family has a lot of
solid members in our ward. About 6
months ago, Chantae’s husband was killed in an auto accident in Jamaica. It was his fault. (Very few people in the ward even knew
that she was married and since she only comes on occasion, not many people know
her). We didn’t ask why he was in
Jamaica and she was in NY but apparently she was overcome with grief at her
husband’s death. She kept saying
over and over that night that people think she looks good and is doing OK, but
she’s not OK. We asked her if she
had prayed for comfort and her answer was that she didn’t feel like it, was
angry at God that her husband was killed and kept asking over and over—why me,
why did this happen to me, I’m too young to be a widow. The sister missionaries said many
appropriate thing and handled the situation quite well. I talked to her a lot. The sister missionaries said they
wanted someone older to be with them while they talked with her, and after visiting
with her, I could see why. We left
with good feelings and I’m guessing that I will go back with the sisters
another time. If you’re angry with
God, and refuse to pray—it’s a problem.
Chantae joined the church when she was 15.
Yesterday
we got a phone call from Bob at 8 am letting us know about Tanner’s birth. Of course we were overjoyed. Then it was to church for our normal
meetings with an emphasis on members helping the missionaries find people to
teach. Later I fixed a great
dinner and heated up the king crab claws that I bought from COSTCO earlier—so
yummy! Then we talked with Bob and
Moira and got to see some fuzzy pictures of Tanner on Skype—something is better
than nothing; we were grateful they tried.
So,
that was our short week. Wish all
of you a Happy New Year and hope you have a great celebration with all that
football watching. : ) The Church is true and we are grateful
for our mission and the wonderful people, young and old, that we associate with
here.
Love
ya, Mom/Kathy
P.S. Just a second ago Lynn brought in a
package from Amazon. I just
ordered the book Saturday, got notice yesterday that it had been shipped, and 2
pm our time, there’s the package; must be a distribution place nearby.
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