Yesterday was Third Advent, something that most Mormons don’t understand and perhaps haven’t even heard the term. Advent starts the Christian year and First Advent is the Sunday nearest to November 30th (Saint Andrews Day). Second Advent is a week later, Third Advent is two weeks later, and Fourth Advent is the Sunday before Christmas Day. Each of the Advent Sundays further represents a phase in the Reign of the Savior and is commemorated by the lighting of an Advent Candle on an Advent Wreath. The Wreath generally has five candles. Three are purple signifying the royalty of the Savior as well as our need for penance and also are symbolic of the attributes of hope, peace, and love. One is white and is usually in the center of the wreath signifying Christ. The white candle (if present) is lit on Christmas Day. The remaining candle is rose colored, symbolic of joy, and is lit on Third Advent. This is a long explanation, but interesting for this entry.

Third Advent is a celebration Sunday. Most traditional Christian churches schedule lots of music on this Sunday. For some reason, probably completely unrelated, the LDS Church often schedules choir festivals, carol sing-ins, or Messiah concerts on this same Sunday.

Last night Nina and I attended the twentieth annual Handle’s Messiah sing-in held at the Highland Stake Center on the east side of Pocatello. This beautiful building hosts a pipe organ! That is indeed a very rare feature in a Morman church building. The event featured a small orchestra, very prominent soloists, and the audience as the choir. The Colorado Springs North Stake sponsored a Messiah Sing for a few years, but about four years ago that changed to be a stake choral festival. While the festival was quite nice, I really missed the chance to sing the Messiah choruses. I had an absolutely wonderful time last evening. The program was planned to last about an hour and a half and I could have easily spent another half hour or more to get more of this inspiring piece of music actually sung.

The program started at 7:30. We arrived just before 7 and were able to find seats in the chapel. At the end of the event the chapel and cultural hall were filled with people. This was a well-attended event. I’m sure that consistency makes a significant difference. Twenty years of a tradition is a great beginning. This is an event that will be on our calendars for the future.

Nina got a new church calling yesterday. It’s a new idea being piloted in our area and I’m not even sure what the correct title is! It’s something like "Kitchen Trainer" and there is one person called per building. It’s somehow tied to the Bishop’s Storehouse in downtown Pocatello where a very nice new demonstration kitchen has been built and put into operation. After we sat down in the chapel yesterday evening for the Messiah Sing-in, the lady who sat down next to Nina turned out to be a counselor in our Stake Relief Society Presidency and knew quite a lot about the program. I’ve heard the word "coincidence" defined as "appointments made by God and kept by man." This was certainly true last evening. Nina and her had a great conversation and she’s off and running in her new church calling. Mind you, she didn’t give any church callings up, she just got another one. Life is starting to get busier again.

So, how long should a post be on this weblog? Since I’m primarily writing for me and letting anyone who wishes listen in, I guess it doesn’t make any difference how long the post is. You can simply stop reading whenever you become sufficiently bored!

Heather called last night to see if Nina can go down to Orem and watch the grandkids for a couple of days. This is something that we’re always ready to do. Thanks, Heather, for asking. It’s a good thing as Nina really enjoys spending time with the grandkids and she doesn’t have a lot of opportunity.

Jim now has a new web log running on my server. You can find it at james.rnsmith.com. I’m looking forward to reading his postings. Nina has also said she’d like to try out this process as well. When that gets going, I’ll include that link. I’ve also found a plugin that allows people to subscribe to these posts and get notified when something hs been added. I’ll be testing out that capability and it’ll be implemented as soon as that testing is completed. Of course, in order to test, I have to build up a development server. I also need to move my desk in the office about a foot closer to the door and that needs to happen before I build up the development server. So, any testing on additional capability will probably not happen before the end of the week. I’m still enjoying the remnants of a lovely Sunday evening singing The Messiah!

Bradica (the dog) has developed a new habit that had to be changed. She absolutely hates getting her feet wet. She decidedly doesn’t like snow. She also doesn’t really like walking on grass! Last week we received some very wet snow. It wasn’t a lot, perhaps four inches. During the storm she discovered that there wasn’t any snow under the deck! So when we’d let her out to do her “business”, she promptly headed under the deck and made her deposits. “Do something about it” was my instruction from Nina. So, off to Home Depot I went to see about fixing the problem.

My first thought was to buy some lattice and nail it up to the right and left of the stairs. However, there was no lattice to be found at Home Depot. That’s obviously a summer item and we are no longer enjoying summer. Finally I settled on putting up some wire fencing which I could attach underneath the deck and it wouldn’t be all that noticeable. Then, of course, I needed staples to attach the wire mesh. I know I’ve got a staple gun somewhere, but I could spend a couple of days looking and still not find it. The solution was a new tool: an electric staple gun! So I came out of Home Depot with about $80 worth of stuff to block off the way under the deck to the right and left of the stairs. Bradica dislikes the snow enough that she won’t go any further than that, so I don’t need to block off the long part of the deck. What’s a Saturday without a trip to Home Depot, anyway?

I made up a shopping list before leaving. The list had several items on it:

• Shoe polish for my cordovan shoes
• Lattice
• Stuff to attach the lattice
• Snow shovel (for the back deck because the other shovel is always in the garage)
• Gas for the Toyota
• Music for The Messiah
• Windshield washer fluid with de-icer
• Windshield ice scraper

I made it back home with everything except the snow shovel. Even with a list I still forgot something! Tomorrow night is the annual Messiah sing-in at the Pocatello East Stake Center. I knew where my score was, but Nina wasn’t about ready to plow through boxes in the basement to find her score. She suggested that I stop at the used book store downtown and see if they had any music. I would never have thought of checking here, and viola, they did indeed have a copy. This book store is quite amazing and very eclectic. Books are piled everywhere, but the proprietor knows where everything is! There isn’t much rhyme or reason to how things are organized in the store making browsing in the store a lot of fun. So, we now have three scores to Handel’s Messiah but only one snow shovel. I’m sure that’ll require another trip to Home Depot.

Bradica (the dog) loves to stand under things that rub on her back. One of the Christmas trees is set up in the great room and Bradica will often stand under the tree. I’ve been trying to capture that picture and so far this is one of the better images. I’ve no idea why she does this. She’ll stand under bed covers that are hanging down, any plants that have low-hanging branches, and under table cloths that reach down to the floor. Everyone needs to have a pet with a little strangeness!

We’ve had a couple of minor snowstorms during the past week with abundant COLD temperatures. The new snowblower got a workout a couple of nights ago when I finally got rid of the snow. The machine worked very well, but I learned the machine requires a lot of manhandling, particularly getting it to turn corners. My upper body was pretty sore after the work was finished. So, obviously this was good for me! The forecast says we’re to get more snow on Sunday and Tuesday. That would be very good. We can use the moisture. I’m sure glad we got the outside lights up before the weather turned cold and the area got blanketed with snow. The house actually looks somewhat festive — particularly since it’s the only house in the neighborhood with any Christmas lights set up outside. Christmas is fast approaching and according to Nina, this is the earliest she’s ever been finished decorating the house. However, perhaps we aren’t quite finished!

I’d like to invite my staff and their spouses over for a Christmas potluck. The company will allow me to spend up to five dollars per staff member on a Holiday Party. If everyone came and brought spouses (or significant others), we would have about 80 people for the event. Realistically we could expect between 40 and 50 people. That’s too many for just the upstairs. We’d have to use the family room downstairs as well for the event. Nina says that means setting up one more Christmas tree and decorating it! Sure, why not? What’s Christmas without all the trimmings??