I enjoy Sunday evenings like this one. We’re home, it’s dark, no one is coming over, I’ve no place I need to be, there are no obligations or other things I need to be doing. It’s also the last day of the Christmas Holidays. Tomorrow is a working day and most everyone will be back at work.

We had Monday, December 23rd, Tuesday the 24th, and Wednesday the 25th off from work. We were also encouraged to take Thursday the 26th and Friday the 27th off as well. Most of my staff did take these days off. I decided not to burn the two vacation days since we’ll be spending some in January. The two days were great days to be at work. I got most all the administrivia taken care of and can now let it pile up for several more weeks.

Christmas was very nice. Nina and I went to see The Lord of the Rings part two, The Two Towers on Christmas eve morning. We went to the first show at 10:00 a.m. meaning we were able to get into the theater for $3.75 apiece. The theater was filled — with a smattering of single seats left here and there. We were near the front of the line and had choice seats. Only problem is, the movie is more than three hours long with previews and such. Well before the movie was finished, both of our bladders were demanding serious attention. That’s too long that early in the morning to be too far away from a bathroom. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the movie a second time. I’ll definitely go see it at least once more in the theater.

Christmas eve night we were invited to a Mark and Karvin’s home along with another couple, Bob and Rosemary. Mark and Karvin had put together an sumptuous feast, including Swedish mush! I like cereal and found this to be very good as well. The mush includes one almond which ends up in someone’s bowl. The finder of the almond is supposedly blessed with good fortune in the coming year — in such ways as being the next one married, or having the next child. None of us were interested in any such “luck.” However, the Bishop drew the bowl with the almond. We’ll have to monitor his coming year to see what “luck” comes his way!

We were planning to sleep in on Christmas morning! At 4:45 a.m. the phone rang and it was our friends from Townsville, Australia: Ray and Mary. We had a lovely long chat. It’s mid-summer in Australia, so their day included a BBQ, swimming, and a water-balloon war. Meanwhile, we were enjoying 30 degree weather. Fortunately, Ray and Mary called us second. Duane and Bobby got the 4:00 a.m. call! After the chat with Ray and Mary, sleep was out of the question. We both lazed around until around 8 when we opened presents and then made a huge Christmas breakfast. Most if the breakfast waffles made it outside for the birds. All the bacon, however, was consumed! Later that afternoon we went over to Bobby and Duane’s to join them for their traditional family Christmas dinner. In preparation for the dinner, Duane decided to get a couple of tables and some chairs from the church building. He called me to make sure the room where the tables are located would be unlocked. I offered help, but he assured me all would be well. A little while later, I got a call from his cell phone. He was at the church and had locked his keys inside the building! So I drove down and rescued him. He had brought out two tables, with one holding the door open. He loaded the other one into the pickup truck along with sixteen chairs. He then loaded the other table- and the door closed, locking his jacket inside the building on the couch along with all his keys. Luckily, the cell phone was on the seat of the truck. He took a lot of ribbing about that incident!

While at Duane’s house, I took a couple hundred digital pictures of the family (there must have been about thirty people there). I then loaded the best of them, about a hundred pictures, onto a CD and put together a slide show of the pictures. That was a lot of fun and I learned a lot putting the CD together for him. One of their children lives in Maryland, so I made up two CD’s so that they could send one out east for that family to see pictures of the cousins and siblings.

Friday morning we finally finished revising our will. Both Nina and I now have a will, powers of attorney, medical powers of attorney, living wills, and all the associated paperwork for trusts and specific bequeathments. It’s good to have that done. The work is expensive…. Definitely not as expensive as not having all this paperwork completed! We can now demise and not have to worry about what will happen.

The Christmas season and the year 2002 draws to an end. It has been a good year for us. We’re still gainfully employed. We’ve been able to take two cruises. All of our children are doing well and everyone seems to be in good health and vigor. Mom and dad are getting much more frail, but they are still enjoying life and able to take good care of themselves. Dad has recovered very well from the fall resulting in a hip replacement. Mother has a congestive heart condition but it hasn’t gotten much worse over the past year. We’re active in the Church and thoroughly enjoy our work at the Denver Temple each week. Life is good!