A Day of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at our home woulds not be complete without family to share in the joy. We have now graduated from one large table to the large 16 seat table, and two 10 seat tables in the living room. This year we were able to have all of our family over at some point during the night. Every year, Janene works like a slave to get this all ready, but by the time the night is over, and we have had a chance to visit with every grandchild, son and daughter, we both go to bed tired, but filled with joy.

Sometimes big crowds are difficult for Nathan, but we all enjoy having him near us. Angie is such a good mother for him. We never foresaw the difficulties that Angie and David would face, but the two of them are the perfect parents, probably the only parents who could handle the diverse family they have been given. Nathan loves his mom and would rather be with her than anyone else.

 We got an extra blessing this year as my sister Vikki was able to join us. She has been helping my father while my other two sisters are out of town. The two of us are less than a year apart, but we have been separated by distance ever since we each married. Sometimes we have been more than a half a continent away from each other and she is still 250 miles away so it was especially nice to share Thanksgiving with her this year.

 Poor little Tessa took a tumble earlier this week and got to have stitches, but by Thanksgiving she was feeling fine and was a lot of fun. She says the cutest things and has such a sweet smile. I cannot imagine Shon and Melinda's family without this perfect little girl.

 Stephen is a great dad - and Jeffrey James is a darling little boy. Jeffrey is a new addition to our Thanksgiving celebration. He and grandpa got to spend a few quiet moments napping in the rocker. A perfect way to spend Thanksgiving evening.

 So here are the other three Phillips girls. It has been a long time since we got them all on the same couch together. Chelane was able to pass her boards and is now finished with everything she needs for her medical career. We are so proud of her determination to pursue this goal in her life. Heather and Brooke are each great mothers of five children and active with other major responsibilities. Each one has followed their mother in some way, each becoming capable and confident in their own right.

Shon has completed a move this year and now has a home on the same street as Angie. - And the best garage in town. All of our children live close. Some of our grandkids walk over to our house sometimes. The other day day Max rode his bike over to help us with the bees. We are truly blessed beyond our wildest dreams.

This year we noted with sadness that my mother was not with us, but she would be the first to say that we should enjoy this day of thanks whether she was with us or not. My dad was here and he misses her terribly, but we all look forward to that day when we will be reunited again. Our family has had its share of sorrow and troubles, but we all love each other and enjoy being together. What blessing could be better than that? Janene and I used to pray that our children would grow up to be independent and able to make their own choices. When they did just that, we went through a period where we wished we had prayed for something else. They were gone from home too soon for us, but now as we see each of them with their strengths and accomplishments, we really do have something to be thankful for on this special day.

The Monster Tree and the Spirit of Christmas

 Christmas at the Phillips home is not for the faint of heart. Our tree is over 14 feet tall (not counting the angel) and has over 4000 lights and it seems it has just as many ornaments. Over the years we have accumulated ornaments from trips, from neighbors, family and special ornaments created by or for our children and grandchildren. One year, we took out a magic marker and wrote on many ornaments what we were thankful for. That is why you will find ones that say "LIPS"or "TACOS". Some were brought home from the Soviet Union where we served as friendship ambassadors. One commemorated the first landing on the moon (this happened on our first campout together in the Uintas). And many priceless ones belonged to our dear David.

One by one over the years, each child has taken their ornaments to their new home with their new family, and one by one, we have had fewer and fewer helpers to put up the tree.

 This year some of our grandchildren came to help us, and some of our kids. Little Jeffrey didn't help much, unless you count the increase in the Spirit that could be felt as we had our own little Christmas child to love.

 On Thanksgiving Day, Laura told Janene just how much she loved putting up the tree at her home. "I don't necessarily like it while I am doing it" she says, but " I really like it when it is all done". Her Dad and brothers put up the tree without her this year, so she called to see if she could help us. The tree would probably still be hanging in sections in our new "tree room" in the basement if it wasn't for her call. She was able to see and help hang ornaments that had belonged to her great great great grandmother who also bore her name.

 Lily had a fever and was asleep on the couch in the family room for most of the night, but we finally coaxed her into coming up and sitting on the floor as we worked. All I could get was one of those Mona Lisa smiles from our cute girl, but I think she still had a good time.

So with Christmas carols in the background and Frosty the Snowman on the family room TV, the work progressed like a house afire. Ryan had been told not to climb the ladder. (14 or 15 feet is a long, long way for a small boy to fall.) But we caught him a few times sneaking ornaments to higher elevations on the tree. Amazingly, no ornaments were broken this night.

 Tyler took on the task of tying on the golden butterflies. He is so patient and can stick to a job until it is done. He especially enjoyed the upper portion of the ladder too, for some mysterious reason.

Uh -Oh, here are three little boys playing video games instead of helping. These little guys deserved a break. This was probably the first time we have ever gone from box to completely up! in one evening. We could never have done it without the help of these guys. Max came over and helped me hang all the outside lights the day before. That is the fastest that that has ever been done too! I only wish we had actually planned to do this so that other kids and grandkids could have helped and enjoyed the fun.

That's right, you heard me. FUN! After Dave died, it was hard to put this up without his help. I don't think we would have done it again except for Chelane and her insistence that we remember the Spirit of Christmas. And remember, we do. We are grateful for the knowledge that we can be together again as a complete family thanks to the special gift from a loving Father that made this possible.  He is the Gift.

#SharetheGift

Good-bye, Friend

When I first started writing this blog, I never imagined that I would even want to write about someone who has died, but now I can't imagine not writing about this great man. Guy moved in down the street maybe 27 years ago. He raised his entire family here and was an integral part of our neighborhood family. His boys were near David's age and were avid scouters, so we were always intricately connected with our family. 

Guy was assigned to be our home teacher and for years, he served faithfully in that calling. I called on Guy many times in the middle of the night to give someone a blessing, a duty that he cheerfully responded to. Guy is a faithful loving man who was friends with everyone. He was the guy you called whenever you needed a heavy lift, like the time someone slid down our driveway and got their car stuck under our truck parked at the bottom. Janene called him and he picked up the back of the car and moved it out of the way. Or the time he lifted our spirits with comfort after David died.Someone described him as a teddy bear at the funeral, and I would have used the same words. There never was a softer, gentler man in my life.

I was privileged to work with Guy in church callings and some with our business connections. There was never a more honorable man to work with. I will never forget this good and righteous man who made such an impact in my life. I look forward to the time when I will see him again. Love you, Man.

Elsie Kate - Child Actress

So tonight, we got to see the rest of the story. Our granddaughter, Elsie, had a starring role in The Candy Bomber, just like Sam. It was like deja vu all over again as the curtain pulled back and there was a different grandchild singing and dancing her way to stardom.

Elsie had the role of the American ambassador  with plenty of singing. I think it's funny that in all the pictures I have of her, everyone in the cast has their eyes on her, as if to say "Wow, that girl can sing!" Wait a minute, didn't I say something like that about Sam?

I found myself wishing that I had had my new camera last year when she played the part of a French feather duster in a different play. She really was incredible in that play, but my pictures don't do her justice.

 Elsie even got the chance this time to sing a solo and be in the spotlight. She played some other parts in the play, but I was not strategically located to get her best side (I did get her backside). It's a little strange watching the same play twice, but with different kids. Each one brings their own personality to the part, but they both shone brightly

 Of course, the family privileges allowed us backstage (well, it was really frontstage, to be honest) with this budding actress. This is the third play in which she has played a major role. For someone who was scared to even talk to his teacher, I just stand in awe of what these kids, and especially Elsie have been able to do. BRAVISSIMA CHICA!

Sam Landon - Child Actor

Tonight we went to our grandson's play. It also happens to be our granddaughter's play, but that is a story for a different night - tomorrow night, in fact. Sam seemed to star in this play about the Candy Bomber, Lt. Gail Halverson. There was even an introduction by Brother Halverson at the start of the play

Imagine my surprise as the curtain rolled back and there was my boy Sam front and center. The next thing I knew he was singing away like he had been acting all his life.

A little bit later and he was back on stage again. Janene commented " Sam looks good in a uniform" .

A little bit later and Sam was doing a cute little song and dance number in a polio hospital blowing bubble gum bubbles a seemingly having a good time. Man! This guy can sing! After all this time, he has definitely been holding his light unter (it was based in Berlin, after all) a bushel. Everywhere we turned, there was Sam playing another part. He was the star of the show (at least in our eyes)

 One of the privileges of being family is that you get to go behind the scenes and meet the actor. Move over Brad Pitt, here comes the next leading man in film and on the stage. BRAVISSIMO!!

Thank You Dr. Salk

Yesterday, Google had a banner up saying "Thank you - Dr. Salk". I wonder how many people viewing it even knew who Dr. Salk was. It would have been his 100th birthday. Dr. Salk helped to create the vaccine for polio. Every summer, parents lived in fear that this year polio would strike their young and vibrant child and they would have to watch their child become forever crippled  - or worse.

As a child, I knew about the iron lung machines that children had to be in to be able to breathe. If they were lucky, they could graduate from the machine, but have to wear steel braces to hold up their withered legs. I knew children at school who were permanently disfigured by the disease.

 And then - everything changed. Dr. Salk and his team created a vaccine that prevented children from contracting the disease. Originally, it was given by injection, but was soon improved so that a drop or two on a sugar cube would do the trick.

I remember our whole family going to Northwest Junior High School -not the current school, and waited in line for hours to get our vaccination. There was no going to the doctor. This was a public free distribution of the vaccine to anyone who wanted it - and everyone wanted it. I was only in 3rd or 4th grade at the time, but I still can feel the relief I felt at knowing that Poliomyelitis was not going to get me. I am sure that part of that was sensing the relief my parents felt knowing that now all of their children were safe from the dreaded disease.

Our next door neighbor wanted to be a policeman or a fireman when he grew up. Steve grew up with one leg withered and shorter than the other. The polio case had been mild. He was one of the lucky ones, but he never realized his dream. It was cut short by an unseen killer that could now be prevented by a sugar cube.

There has not been a case of polio in the United States in over thirty years. My grandchildren will probably never even hear the name of the disease. The same could be said for countless other diseases we knew as children - measles - mumps - rubella- chicken pox - diphtheria - pneumonia -shingles. It will likely be the same for Ebola in the future.

I cannot understand the people who believe that vaccines are a bad thing now and refuse to get their kids vaccinated. It is as if now that we need not fear these diseases, we now have to come up with something else to fear - even if that is the very thing that made our current blessed lives possible.

I, for one, am not willing to go back to those fearful days.

Thank you, Dr. Salk

A Helpmeet? or a Cheerleader?

During conference this week, we listened as one of the Seventy from Taiwan gave his talk in Cantonese. He was comparing the story of the sick man who was lifted down through the roof to get to Jesus, to the work of bishops and home teachers and elders. In my mind, he stretched the analogy just a little too far. By the time he got to the part where he said that the part of the Relief Society was there to cheer the men on and admonish the men to "be safe", I cringed at the thought of all the hard working sisters and Relief Society presidents being relegated to mere cheerleaders.

I know that he probably did not mean this to come out this way, and maybe I was the only one who took it this way, but all I could do was think of how hard my bride worked (and how hard two of my girls are working) to fulfill their responsibilities as Relief Society presidents. It brought to mind the work that my Grandmother Morton did to support Grandpa in his photography. Countless incredible photographs feature Grandpa front and center. Just who do you think took those photographs? Grandpa took black and white photographs, yet all of the big murals in the Capitol and the Union Pacific photos were in color. Just who do you think painstakingly hand painted all that color into the photos. Thankfully, the cherished photo I have bears the inscription "By Thelma and Al Morton".

Just as Grandma was an accomplished photographer in her own right, Janene is likewise blessed with artistic ability - plus she has to put up with me when we go out taking pictures. This week, I think I took seven hundred photographs. Four or five of those turned out to be good. Janene took probably about twenty - and got at least four or five good ones. This one was one I took too. Hers was better.

Janene oftentimes sees things I don't see. I didn't see the orange tree that makes this picture pop.

 Janene can really see detail. Maybe she just has better vision, but I am afraid it is something more than that.

I wanted to take the trail out of this picture. Janene's version leaves the trail in and invites the viewer to become part of the picture.

Both of us saw this picture, but while I was fiddling with the camera, Janene was saying "the light is changing fast - just take the picture. And she was right. She is almost always right". I am just grateful that I am blessed with a companion who is willing to put up with me and things I want to do. She is far more than a cheerleader for me. She is a teacher, a helpmeet, and someone who makes me complete.

Have I got it good or what? Again.

Seeds of Grapeness

Holy Bunch of Grapes, Batman! Grape Caesar's Ghost!It seems "some are born grape, some achieve grapeness, and some have grapeness thrust upon them". William Shakespeare  Q. What was purple and conquered the world? A. Alexander the Grape

The saga of the grapes continues in Janene's kitchen. We found more grapes to contend with and they are now being turned into various forms of grapeness for our future use.

But no! That is not all. Now for a limited time only, you can have BEETS too! That's right folks. Two different vegetables known for staining everything they touch. The floor is sticky. The sink is permanently red. For Janene, these just might be the grapes of wrath. But, as Helen Keller said, "Life is either a grape adventure, or nothing".

Grapes, Bread and Dinner

This evening I went to the back yard to get another ladder (as if a full set of scaffolding, two Little Giant ladders, an extension ladder and an 8 foot stepladder weren't enough) to work on the front of the house. As I walked past the grapes, I could smell the ripeness of the grapes. I commented to Janene that it looked (smelled) like the grapes were ripe now. Then I went up front, climbed the scaffolding again and began working under cloudy skies with snow flurries in the distance.

Pretty soon, I could hear rattling from the side of the house, at the same time that I caught a whiff of the aroma of fresh baked bread. That smell always takes me back to the kitchen of my great-grandma Meik. I will have to write about my memories of that kitchen some other time. My Grandma Phillips used to bake bread in her kitchen too. There are few things better than Grandma's fresh baked bread with real melting butter, a no-no in my Mom's kitchen. One of those better things is fresh baked bread from Janene's kitchen - with butter. If Janene is in the kitchen baking bread, who is making all the noise on the side of the house?

 There she is doing two things at once. I guess they must have been ripe enough that they just had to be picked right away. Somewhere in the middle of baking bread, and picking grapes, she was also painting fascia on the ladder I brought around. What a versatile woman.

It wasn't much longer, and I had to come down from the scaffold again because I could smell the best dinner being cooked in the kitchen. I swear that sometimes I can smell Janene's great cooking when I am driving up ValVerda from work. So for dinner tonight, I was treated to homemade bread with dreamy melting butter, fried eggs and veggies from the garden with Janene's famous home grown chili sauce - and a big tall glass of fresh grape juice.

Have I got it good or what?

After The Storm

We were painting the house when it started to rain ... again. We put away the paintbrushes and decided to go check out a different kind of painting. I thought we were going to head up Little Cottonwood Canyon to look for autumn leaves, but it was already late and I knew that by the time we got there, it would be almost dark. We headed to Farmington Canyon instead.

 After the storm rolled across the valley, there was a period of about two minutes where the island and clouds were perfectly reflected in glassy water. Didn't get a good shot of that. We were too far up the canyon for it to work out, but I did get this one.

 As the storm was moving up the canyon, the light got pretty eerie and I tried to take a picture of autumn leaves lit by the sun and rain. I forgot to hold the camera still and got this picture instead.

 The lake was still a pretty good subject, so Janene and I did get some nice photos of the lake and Farmington Bay. My mom used to tell us about chasing sunsets with Grandpa Morton, driving like crazy to get to the right spot to see a spectacular sunset. A few times in my life, I was with him when the light changed in the canyon, and we were off, camera in hand, to capture something that you don't see every day. Tonight was a little like that, only I was with my sweetheart this time.

Oh, and those autumn leaves we were really planning on seeing?

We saw a few of those too!

The Golden Days of Indian Summer

A week or so ago, Brooke called me to ask if the autumn leaves were out. We had seen the first red maples on our way up to Clyde Lake. I told her they must surely be brilliant by now. She sent me a picture from Soapstone that was somewhat less than brilliant. I think they were disappointed.

I often get a chance to drive up the canyon as part of my work and today was one of those perfect days of Indian Summer where work and pleasure mix. I wish we weren't caught up in getting the house ready for winter. A nice trip on the Skyline Drive would be in order. If I cannot go up to watch the leaves, maybe my kids and grandkids could enjoy it for me. Send me some pictures when you find some worthy color.

A Night Near Bald Mountain (apologies to Mussorgsky)

A nice little backpacking trip to the Uintas just before the end of summer was the setting for a ton of fun for David, Laura, Sam and myself. We hiked in to Clyde Lake where we set up a base camp just below timberline. We hiked past Crystal Lake, Lily Lake, Cliff Lake and Watson Lakes before we got there just as the sun was going down. It looked like rain, so there was no time to fish that night. I got up early because I heard the clop clop clop if hooves on bare rock. I thought it might have been the mountain goats that frequent the area, but it was only a herd of deer. Still, the early morning walk before everyone got up took me to all three of the Three Divide Lakes. These spring-fed lakes sit on top of the ridge with one of them draining to the Weber River and the other two going to the Provo River.

 Laura was really stylin' in her father's coat. It seems that her dad said "Pack some clothes" but he forgot to say "warm clothes". Since it froze, it was a good thing her father (Scoutmaster) was prepared. Somehow she slept the whole night through and never heard the thunder and lightning or the hail that pelted her tent.

 Sam was able to enjoy fishing on Clyde when it wasn't raining. Once he got his gear set up, he was off and catching fish. He only popped one bubble, which was fortuitous since I only brought two. One for me - and one for him.

 We hiked over to the Big and Little Twin Lakes and walked over to the cliff edge to take a look at Wall Lake and Trial Lake from our lookout near the notch in Notch Mountain.  Sam had lots of luck fishing, but it wasn't until we got to the Little Twin that he got one big enough for lunch. Sam fell in love with this guy and just had to re-enact the family kiss-pose.

We both caught these fish at the same time. We took them back to camp and fried them up in bacon grease and picked the bones clean. Sam though his fish tasted like salmon and my little brookie tasted like filet mignon (maybe it was the other way around). It just goes to prove the old Chinese proverb that "everything tastes better in bacon grease" - especially when you are having the time of your life in God's country.

View From a Robin's Nest

OK -What happened to the desert we are supposed to be living in. From the Robin's nest where I have been working this week, I would have to say that we have a forest bungalow.

 After a rain, it always looks nice from the perch at the top of the house.

 There is always that little catch in my throat as I look down.

Here is the view of the lake through the tree. Just about time lay down this weary bird.