Grandma's Attic

This week was decorate the tree time. Right next door they raise trees, half the people in town came out and paid $30.00 for one, but David decided to get a $5.00 permit and cut his own. So he went up with two other friends, tied three trees on top of a small car (where was my camera?) and he put on the lights and left the rest to me. The best part of decorating is the memories, especially if you have reminders of trips you took in past days. Going to Seaside is always great. one year with Linn and Keiko

where they have a time share, another year with Allen and Beth. Now we watch the snow fall outside and remember how warm it was.

Not really, Oregon beach water is seldom warm.

Just beautiful

Picking Brian up after his mission in Ecuador in 1988

was a high point for all of us. So many cute hand made

ornaments . We spent two weeks, also taking in

Peru and Machu Pichu. We came home on Thanksgiving

to a huge snow storm. He had to shovel snow at the

office before we even came home to find Ruth and Elaine and

families and their friends waiting with turkey and trimmings

plus

two new babies that Brian hadn't met, Jason and Nicole

I went to Osaka, Japan in 1985 with Linn and Keiko for 5 weeks

where we met her parents and planned

a future wedding. I was a tag-along, but loved

every minute of the trip. I also spent some days

in Tokyo with neice Linda
FUN times

The pink fish are Japanese also

and the little hula girl of course is

Hawaii. While Dee was practicing medicine, we were

able to go there twice, plus we stopped there

with Mark after we met him at the end of his

New Zealand mission for another really nice

two weeks together before he could take off his suit

and become a 'real' person again

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(and buy Christmas ornaments)
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Actually, there is nothing quite like going out to pick up a son who has just finished serving a mission. They are so filled with the spirit, and Dee was made their companion until we got back home. He said later, "I've never said so many prayers in my life" Somehow that doesn't always last, and it's easy to slip back into our old habits again, where 6 times a day is just too hard. But we'll never forget meeting all the people in Ecuador who "loved" Elder Fuller, or visiting with Mark's mission president, who helped set patterns that still guide his days as Stake president.

If you have a chance to meet your missionary........DO IT!