Escaping Winter for Christmas

We took Ben to San Francisco for Christmas. First stop was a dinner buffet in Reno.

On we went to Sacramento where we stopped for the night. Don't these lumpy beds look very inviting?!?? Shockingly they were much more comfortable than they appeared.

Lunch at In-N-Out. Notice the blue sky, the palm trees and most importantly--no coats while dining outside.

We got prime parking right outside Abe and Klarissa's apartment. Glen is calling Abe to let us in.

Look at this cute little feller we found inside eating his lunch.

Good thing there were signs of Christmas around the city because the weather didn't feel like December to us.

We went on an excursion and ended up here where we played bocce ball while eating our dinner.

Thankfully the court right next to ours was empty and Newland was able to run free on it and play with his own set of bocce balls.

Dinner was set on the table behind our court and we ate as we played.

Photo op before we moved on to our next activity.

The Tapestry Church puts on a live nativity scene. While waiting in a long line to get into the city of Bethlehem, we saw angels singing and dancing on the rooftop of the church across the street.

At last we made it inside the gates of the city.

The camels were popular with everyone. Klarissa wasn't afraid of getting up close and personal with the beasts.

It had been a fun way to spend our first afternoon and evening in San Francisco.

Quotes of the Week

"Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed."
-- Cavett Robert

"The best way to get started is to get started. Life rewards action... not reaction. Wait for nothing. Attack life."
-- Dave Kekich

"Always give without remembering; always receive without forgetting."
-- William Barclay

"You can't change all that is wrong in this great big world, but you can have an impact, even if it is just a tiny,
positive impact on a stranger that receives a smile from you on the street today. There's so much we can do for others, and in the end, what we do for others ends up benefiting us tenfold. So let's do this. Let's make our little worlds amazing today."
-- Craig Ballantyne

An Optical Illusion

No--Eli does not have the magical ability to turn his head totally around to the back of his body.

He just dressed himself this particular day.  

He had been out playing in the snow in the back yard when I arrived and he stayed out there for a while. He was busy shoveling the patio. Sarah left while he was still outside and had taken my car to the dentist.

When Eli came in, he went straight to the window to look out at the driveway. He suddenly whirled around and asked me incredulously, "You took no car?!?!???"

 Carson and I looked on in amusement.

He understands a boy's love of cars and will probably soon be checking to see which set of wheels his grandmother has driven to his house.

No doubt one day in the near future Carson will be wearing his britches backwards and I'll be doing a double take once again.

Quotes of the Week

"Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn."
-- Ben Franklin

"The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become."
-- Jim Rohn

"Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."
-- Warren Buffett

"I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful."
-- Bob Hope

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It was mentioned in my previous post and it will be mentioned again in this post. It's COLD outside! Not just cold, but downright miserable, bone-chilling COLD! It's been this way for a couple of weeks. The temperature stays well below the freezing point on the thermometer day after day after day.

This was the scene from our front window at the beginning of last week and it has hardly changed since then.

Quite an impressive icicle we have. It has dripped down onto the tree below and it has turned to ice clear down to the ground. We have our own stalactite/stalagmite growing in our front yard.

Here's what it looked like out the back door.

During one of my shivering-out-of-control episodes, I consulted KSL vortex on my iPad to see just how cold it was. Seven degrees. BRRRRR!

Then I noticed poor Jacob's family having it worse than us at one degree in Omaha. But the shocking thing was seeing San Francisco registering 36 degrees. Even Abe's family has been dealing with super cold weather in "sunny California."

It was a bit unfortunate that we had our combined YM/YW mutual activity during the weeks of constant arctic air outside. We planned caroling for cans of food for the food bank.

About half of the youth who usually come braved the elements and enthusiastically went around the neighborhood caroling for cans.

There were four small groups, but I only managed to take a picture of two of the groups. This is the total amount of Young Women who showed up. But, surprisingly, they won for collecting the most food items.

At the food bank, they weigh your donation. On the donation slip it read "290 pounds of 'cand' food." Didn't know there was an abbreviation for "canned."

Fortunately I was in charge of the hot chocolate, so I got to stay inside the building while the youth and other leaders were out in the cold. I'll say it once again, "BRRRRR!!!!!"

I am thankful for a warm church, a warm car and most especially a warm home when it is so freezing cold outside.