Happy Birthday to Matt and Caitlyn.

Ori's birthday was Tuesday.  Here she is enjoying the tent
Grandma Catharine and Grandpa Roy made for her.

 And, we have more January birthdays--Happy Birthday to Matt and Caitlyn this week!

Tuesday, we also enjoyed a couple of wedding receptions.  AJ's little brother Alec was the groom of one of them.  Adrienne looked beautiful, as always (above picture with her friend, Kandis (maiden name-Harding)  She was a little dubious about the dress that the bride chose for her, though, when her four-year old, Ollie said, "Mom, You look like Jesus," then, after a slight pause, "No, Moses!

We're getting a lot closer to moving into our new home.  Carpet is being laid, but our carpet layer works alone and he'll need another week and a couple of days.  After that, we can probably move in.  I think the timing is working out all right, though, because who wants to move this week with all the snow and the low temperatures.  I really didn't want to move right before Christmas, either.  At least we still have a nice warm home to live in.

Saturday, Roy and I drove down to a funeral of my first cousin,  Russell.  He was the oldest son of my Uncle Bill, 3rd son of W.W. .  I didn't know Russell very well--actually, not at all, but we went to support the family.  There are a couple of Russell's siblings that are close to my age.  The funeral was a lot smaller than I expected.  Russell had 10 children and had stayed married all his adult life, to his wife, Ann.  I have to say, it was probably the saddest funeral I ever attended.  It became clear with the first speaker that his relationship with his family had been difficult and complicated.  What was interesting was that, though the children were remembering their father as a very angry man, the spirit in the chapel was very strong.  Russell's wife must have been a phenomenal woman, to keep her family together in a home where there was obvious and difficult mental illness.  I don't know the children (using the term loosely, as the children were all grown) of the family, but it was clear that most of them were active in the church.  It also appeared that were were two or three of the children that had problems of their own--either mental illness, or fall-out from a hard childhood.  The fourth child of the family, Angela, gave the eulogy.  She spoke of the words honor and honesty, and how honesty came from the word honor.  She said that she would honor her father, but that she had to be honest about how difficult their relationship was.  Her talk was excellent.  She mentioned that in the final years of his life, Russell, because of his pain and illness (He had diabetes and had lost a leg, I assume from the disease) softened, and lost his anger.  He told one of his children that his biggest regret was that he never learned to control his anger.  She also spoke of the healing power of the atonement.

 I had some other cousins sitting in front of me that I know better, (Blaine's children).  We spoke afterward and they admitted they hadn't known anything of all of this, either.  Dave Cook said that he had been somewhat aware of the difficulties in the family.

When you go to a funeral, you expect to hear all wonderful things about the deceased.  When you are sitting there, and things are said that don't follow that pattern, it's a little bit uncomfortable.  I am glad I went.  It helped to remind me that our relationships with each other can be the key to a happy and joyful life if we make the effort to nurture them. It was also a reminder that a lot of people have very difficult trials, and we need to be careful in our judgments of them. Of course, it also filled me with gratitude for my wonderful, loving parents, and the family relationships that I enjoy with my own children and grandchildren.

I am writing this letter early today, because our new stake cancelled all their meetings last night, due to the expected ice storm (which I don't think ever materialized).  It is cold and snowy out there, but I don't believe it's terribly icy.  However, the message said that our stake has a lot of the older population and many of them live on the hill, so it is probably a good thing that it was cancelled.  Roy said that the singles stake is meeting for Sacrament meeting only, so they must have been concerned about ice (and parking?) as well.

Roy was ready to have everyone over for Sunday dinner, but I told him I needed one more week of recuperation from the holidays.  You can expect an invitation next week unless any unforeseen difficulties arise :)