Christmas 2018

Here is a short synopsis of Christmas Day 2018.  First I will show you what I got for Christmas from one of the families I am assigned to for ministering.

Beet Greens

These are beet greens and they are way better than lettuce on a sandwich. I got to pull them right out of his garden. He also gave me some honey that his beehive produced. Mmmm good!

We had Eric and Krystal and their dog, Koda, with us for Christmas. We broke with tradition and had dinner on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. It was good as usual...and filling.

Christmas Dinner

We did some singing with guitar on Christmas Eve and read Luke 2 and, of course, Felicia read 'The Littlest Angel'. It was emotional.  We followed all that up with singing at the piano.

Here are photos from Christmas morning.

Felicia worries about Kirby

Krystal w/Koda

Shall we open gifts?

Eric and Krystal and Koda

Stocking time

Eric finds something he likes

More Brighton stuff

Cleaning up

Next we were able to talk to Haley using Facebook messenger. It was great to see her although hearing her companion talking in the background was distracting. Haley had a good message for us about missionary work.

I found snow in Oracle during my motorcycle ride. A nice message accompanied the snow.

Tumbleweed Man

I found Tumbleweed Man while riding in the middle of the desert with other decorated desert plants.

Eric and Krystal and Koda

Eric and Krystal flew in to visit for Christmas. They brought their dog, Koda. It has been fun having them. We went to The Music Man in Tucson and then went to Winterhaven to see Christmas lights.

Waiting for The Music Man to start

Annual Pilgrimage to Winterhaven

The reason for season

Amazing roof lighting

One of the houses had a Light the World poster

We found a leak in our roof a few weeks ago and have had several quotes ranging from $13.9K to $15K. This week someone came who said he could repair the leak without replacing the roof. We are trying to arrange that.

I took a hike up Linda Vista trail and woke up some Javelinas.

View of Oro Valley

Javelina on Linda Vista trail

Getting Ready for Christmas

We finally got around to decorating this week. I have been struggling to get the Santa Claus to inflate reliably. Some of the lights on our tree have stopped working so I think we will need a new one next year. We've had the same tree for many years. 

Tree nearing End of Life

We've had a lot of rain and we noticed a leak in the front porch area of the house. The rain also has caused problems for Kirby. He wants to pee on the back porch when it rains. Felicia got tired of cleaning off the back porch so she had me get some stepping stones to get Kirby to leave the porch when he pees (he can't walk on river rock anymore).

We got a Roomba for a reward for 35 years at Raytheon. This caused Christie so much stress she peed in the living Room.

Sliders

Even though I should have been decorating for Christmas, I had to put these things on to get them out of the way. So that was how I spent most of Saturday. I got the big blowup dog and some other Christmas decorations up after the sliders were installed. I'm half way done with the Christmas decorating.