Christmas Skunk

Greetings.

It has been some time since we last sent out an update. As you can imagine, we've been busy.

Hurricane writes:
I saw a skunk. It was not spraying. It was in our yard. Me and Underfoot found it's hiding place. It was hiding under ground. It did not smell good. It did not smell bad.

It was trying to eat our chickens. Somebody came and took the skunk away. Then they let it go. The end.

Lance writes:
We noticed that something was digging near our chicken coop. One Saturday morning, I noticed the distinctive look of a skunk tail poking out from underneath the scout. I went all the way around the house to get a better look (from a safe distance, of course!) To my surprise, I found myself face to face with a skunk. He was not more than 4 feet away, happily sitting on the front passenger tire of the scout. In an effort to encourage the skunk to leave, I started up the scout. Unfortunately, the skunk went into the back yard, rather than the front yard.

A friend was kind enough to loan us a trap. After 4 unsuccessful attempts, I was able to catch him. The trick was to tie up the meat in a piece of wire and hang it in the right place. That caused the skunk to have to work at getting the bait. Just minutes after setting the trap, I heard the unmistakable sound of the trap door, closing behind him. My heart was racing as I approached the trap with a towel to cover the skunk. In the morning my friend who loaned me the trap picked up the skunk and released him in the desert.

Hurricane writes:
I didn't play very well. I was playing Ode to Joy. I also played Deb Kahora.

Lance writes:
In other news, Underfoot had a piano recital as well.

He played O Christmas Tree and sounded beautiful. He performed a duet with another piano student. It was nice to have the duets because the total length of the recital was about half as long as last year. Over the last 3 weeks, Wendy went to a continuing education class. We decided early in our marriage for her to keep her counseling license current as an insurance policy. At church our congregation was put into a new stake. A stake is a collection of wards (congregations). Also Wendy got her hair styled. It looks better than I thought it would.  Hurricane also had a Polar Express day at school and a school musical performance.

We hope your Christmas and holiday preparations bring you the joy you seek. A tradition we've always loved is an Advent calendar that focuses on Jesus Christ and the promised blessings he brought because he was born.

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving. In preparations for going, we did the normal things like clean house, ask someone to watch our animals, took care of the trees, and packed. My hair has gotten heavy. The morning we left I cut 11 inches off, which was 3 ounces. My headaches stopped.

We took 3 days to travel north and stopped to see some of our favorite people. We stopped in Las Vegas and saw the Ryan family. On our way north we stopped in St. George.

After continuing on our journey, we saw Grandpa Hoggan, the Locey family that was in Utah, my cousin, Nicol Brown, and Sweetheart's former roommate, Kevin Funk.

While in Utah, we went to BYU to show the campus to a young man that we brought with us on our trip. He is hoping to attend the University after he graduates from high school. While in Provo, we moved kitchen appliances for Aunt Laura Jane when we stopped by her house. Aunt Laura Jane took the boys and spoiled them with gifts and food. We stayed with Grandpa Hoggan.

While with him, we went and saw Uncle Jerry, Sweetheart and my matchmaker's father, and attended church with them. In the afternoon, we had a Locey Thanksgiving supper at Alma and Yvette's home. So much fun to see so many family members. 

 

Hurricane had had a fever for a few days that wasn't going away. He and I made a visit to the urgent care with a strep throat diagnosis. Hurricane chose to wear a mask our family while the antibiotics kicked in. He was faithful in wearing the mask.

On Monday we went to Temple Square

and saw all the visitor centers

and the Conference Center.

We ate lunch at the Lion House Pantry. Everyone thought the food was super yummy. We finally made it to Idaho that evening to amazing hosts.

Sweetheart sat down with Scott and listed all his favorite things to do in Idaho:

go to the cabin, shoot guns at the cabin, ride in the Fire Truck,

go to the car museum, soak at Lava, and see the heavy machinery. These are many of our boys and my favorite things as well. Scott and Jill made all of our dreams come true and added to more to what we did. They added to our adventure by giving us 10 days of Turkey gifts, going for a late night drive in the snow,

growing a turkey and allowing Sweetheart to chop its head off, drawing blueprints for a contraption,

hosting a seafood night with Shaun and Katie's family who came from Missouri,

and eating a farewell lunch at El Heredero again with Katie and Shaun. They gave us a lot of their time and all of the love as we were there.

Scott showed us while at the cabin how he cut down his Christmas tree.

He took a shotgun and 3 shots later had a tree. Last year the chain saw didn't work as well so they improved the method.

Moving machinery gave Hurricane the opportunity to drive an excavator.

He loves driving the excavator with Uncle Scott supervising.

One of the games was to sit in the bucket and to spin around like at an amusement park. They all laughed and laughed and laughed.

The boys were spoiled to have their cousins' attention.

They played games, sledded, watched movies, put together puzzles, and had sleep overs.

Hurricane's only wish was to play in the snow, and he got his wish. It snowed for 2 days making a blanket of snow to sled and play.

 

Thanksgiving was held at Meridell with my Dad's siblings, their children, and married spouses families.

We had such a marvelous time. It was a potluck meal with Scott and Jill bringing the homegrown turkey.

Carbonated apple cider from Meridell was provided along with all our favorites and some new favorites.

Aunt Karol made a beautiful t-shirt quilt for Scott that she presented at the feast. We took family pictures,

saw deer run through the property, and called my parents on their mission to say hello to everyone.

On our last day in Idaho, the adult girls went and shopped in the morning, and Sweetheart packed up. He commented later he doesn't know how I remember everything. We went to lunch one last time together at El Heredero and then off to 1st Street to the car museum. A collection of arcade machines have been added since our last visit, and Sweetheart played Ghouls and Ghosts. Scott said Sweetheart was pretty good.

Scott started up the fire engine and took everyone for a ride. I was awed at how much they were willing to do for us.

We learned while on the fire truck that Clint A. Kirkham had been born in Cozemel, Mexico. He is the new member of the Kirkham family. We said our goodbyes, went and

got a dip top ice cream from Tasty Treat in honor of Gramps, and headed to Salt Lake.

We hit Temple Square again and saw the Christmas light come on for the first night of this Christmas season.

The Church History Museum has been modified, and we toured the new displays. We were very impressed by the displays and what we saw. We stopped again to see Grandpa Hoggan, but he wasn't home. And we stayed at Beck and Michelle's home.

We got up and went to Las Vegas. The adults went to the Wicked Spoon.

The children were to go to sleep, but when we arrived home around midnight, they were still partying.

After settling down, we slept and got up for church services. We returned home that evening.

We are THANKFUL for the many, many blessings we have. With the many sad and horrible things in the world, we are GRATEFUL for family that love us and we love to be around. We are so happy to have spent time with all of them.