I skipped over posting a Thanksgiving recap, unintentionally, so I'll do it now. I hosted this year and we had a full house. It was so fun to have all of Greg's family here with us. The turkey turned out pretty good, which was my biggest worry. And almost everything else was brought by various people. I made some pumpkin pies, my favorite. Andrew helped me make some cute place settings which has become a yearly tradition for the two of us. He wants to make the same ones every year. I borrowed the idea from a friend, and they're so cute. You take a paper plate, preferrably the strong chinette ones. Paint the bottom inside part an orangish pumpkin color, then paint the sides of the raised plate brown for the crust. Cut it into pie pieces then glue on a cotton ball for some whipped cream. Write names on the crust or on the piece of pie. I use my tole painting paint. Very cute and simple.
We had my parents here this last weekend for a neat family event. My mom's cousin is married to Gary Smith, who is a direct male descendant of Hyrum Smith. And through that family from the time that Joseph and Hyrum were martyred in Carthage, they've passed down some family relics from father to son through the Smith family. They include Hyrum's clothes that he died in. They have bullet holes all over them and blood stains on his shirt. His pocket watch that was smashed by a bullet. Hyrum's rifle and sword from when he served in the Nauvoo Legion. His customized sunglasses that he wore. These are so cool. They look so modern and flashy. His mother's (Luck Mack) little tiny footstool that she always used. And a wooden box with a lock on the front that Joseph kept the gold plates in for a while. It originally belonged to his brother Alvin. The box has his (Alvin's) name scratched into the front of it, and if you look very closely you can see the individual letters still there. They have not been tampered with all these years. The Smith family has held all these items in their possession from the time of Hyrum's death. Gary's father, Eldred, is the Ameritus Church Patriarch and for the last 50 years he has gone all over the world with these articles giving firesides. He is now 103 and decided it was time to pass them on to his son, Gary. Now Gary and his wife (my cousin Elizabeth) are doing the firesides and they gave a special one for just family members last Saturday night. It was so neat to see all those things. People have asked them why they haven't donated them to the church museum in Salt Lake where all the other things that belonged to Joseph and the Smith family are. They explained that they felt if these things were in a museum, people might walk past them and glance at them, but wouldn't get the full history and story behind each and every piece. It was such a special night and I felt overwhelmed as I looked at and touched the articles that belonged to Hyrum. They estimated that these items have been seen by almost a million people in the course of Eldred's dedication in doing the presentations. The items are handled with extreme care. No flash photography and only handling with gloves on.
We got dumped on big time with a load of snow over the weekend. I love it. I was not meant to stay in California when we lived there. I just couldn't give up the beautiful snow and white mountains that surround me today.
David decided to climb into the tub fully clothed Sunday morning while it was filling up.
David with my Dad, Steve. He really was happy, just looks sad in photo
Andrew's first grade Thanksgiving program. We had crummy seats even though we got there early and couldn't get better shots of him.
This red tree was the most impressive one, I think. So beautiful. 
