The Old Folks at Home, Dec. 6, 2005

The Old Folks at Home, Dec. 6, 2005

Dad and Jim are into bees, big time. They are making many trips back and forth to California. It is time to haul all the little hard-working critters to a warmer climate. (What do I have to do to be included in the warmer climate part?) Of course, I don’t want to make three to four trips a week. I just want to stay and bask in the sun.

My bathroom should become a reality this week (Dec. 6). We will see. The plumbing is in, the floor is ready, the drywall is up and painted. Now all we need are the fixtures. I am ready for the joy of not needing to race upstairs. The only sad thing about it is that the stairs do give me forced exercise several times a day.

Sunday, Dec. 11, we are having our temple devotional. (That is the same day they picked for our Primary program so Maryanne Woodbury is sitting with my class.) Dad and I are singing with our shift for two numbers. I am glad there are so many other good singers that you really can’t hear me. President Monson will be the speaker at the devotional. I think that should be a wonderful experience. 

Auntie Helen also stood in line at the ticket office in Salt Lake at 3 a.m. to get us tickets to Joseph Smith’s 200th Birthday celebration on Dec. 23. Then, we are looking forward to having all our family home for Dec. 24th. What a wonderful month!!!!! (It was made even more outstanding by the birth of another grandchild to share the glory of the birthday month. (Todd and Amy haven’t decided how to
spell Hailey so don’t go by my spelling.) She was born on Monday, Dec. 5 at 4:23 ET. (That was 2:30 p.m. in Utah and during county commission meeting so I may have been the last to know. I knew I should have stayed home!) I am so excited.

What a great life! I am so glad that I am alive and that I have such a great family. Thank you all.

My money from Dad (Howard Pitts) is now all safely invested. It should make money unless I lose it all. (I never have trusted money. It comes and goes too quickly, to my way of thinking. It is like counting your chickens before they hatch. Actually, it is more like water. You can dam it up for future use, but the dam doesn’t always hold and there are dry times when there is no water.) The money is invested in Smith and Barney, where HTP kept his money. If either Dad (LHT) or I need it for future medical expenses or because we need to be kept in a nursing home, it is there. If not, then you will all inherit it. All the papers are signed, sealed and the money, which I never saw (either as cash or as a check, just as figures on a paper) is delivered. It is nice to know that, hopefully, it would be a cushion so that your parents (LHT and MT) would never need to be a burden on you. AnnMarie is going to write a trust for us and that will be filed with Smith and Barney as well as however else it is done. I should be thankful that my father actually took care of me, and my sisters, this way. However, I would rather have him still here on earth. Dividing up his earthly goods and leaving his home an empty house was not fun. It wasn’t fun when Grandma Smith died either. It wasn’t fun when the Trauntvein grandparents (Dad’s folks) died. I suppose it never is for anyone. OK, that does it. I am done being maudlin.

Grandma Smith used to make Christmas so much fun for all of us. She always really got into the spirit of the holiday. There are years of trees, cooking and gifts to remember. What a legacy. The only thing I didn’t like was having to go out into the cold and stand in line to see Santa. Price used to have Santa show up in the evening. Garth, David and I would get warm clothes on and stand there waiting for a bag of candy and a chance to sit on Santa’s lap. I told Aunt Rene one year that the line standing was over-rated. I would just as soon write Santa a letter and buy my own candy (with money one of them gave me, of course.) But we kept up the tradition until we got too old. Now the tree was something else. We used to go to a tree lot and pick out two trees, one for the Smith house and one for the Childs house. Then Aunt Renee and Grandma would MAKE tree stands and the decorating would begin. I always loved that. At LHT’s house, they usually cut their own tree. We may have done that once or twice, but not often. LHT’s family did it every year. That is why, I suppose, we used to do it as well. I hope each of you are making wonderful memories of this Christmas for your families to remember as they get to be Dad’s and my age. We hope to be able to see you all sometime during the coming season, or close to that. In addition to all you wonderful Utah kids, we hope to see the Boltons in Massachusetts when Mikaela is baptized, the Trauntveins in Ohio when Hailey is blessed and the rest of all of you at your homes just because we want to.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We love you all.