Merry Christmas and ANOTHER NEW YEAR!

After my book group and the SHEEP, I was on my way to Arizona to help Janae and her family as the new baby came.  What an awesome experience!  We left on the 10th of December and Greer Mae Burkinshaw was born on the 11th! Janae named her after my grandmother. Vera Mae Upchurch. If she grows up to be half of the woman my grandmother was, she will be blessed.  Janae had a very spiritual experience the day of her blessing with feeling the presence of Grandmother very strongly.  Another tender mercy, especially for Janae.   This is the first child that I have ever seen delivered and let me tell you, it is something that I will never forget.  What a miracle to behold.  She was only 6 lbs. and 10ozs. but so beautiful.  The amazing thing was is that Jacqui helped deliver her.  She is a labor and delivery nurse and so she was at the hospital that she used to work in with the doctor that she loves, Dr. Russ Beck, and so she was one of Janae’s nurses.  She took Greer after the delivery and cleaned her up and did all the new baby stuff.  She took such good care of Janae and it was a moment in time when I was in awe and so pleased that we could all have this experience together. Another Tender Mercy for me.  I am having a lot of those and I realize it and am so grateful. 

So after having helped  Janae for 10 days, we flew back to Colorado and got home at 3 AM. Went to the temple the next day for our 10 hours, and then were up at 6 AM to drive to Kansas City for Christmas with my folks.  Keep in mind that we had three dogs with us that we had to take, because Jonathan and Jaimie went to SLC!  This is the way that I rode in the car for 10 hours!  Richard insisted that he needed to drive the whole, entire…….way.  I wonder why?  

So along with “White Lung Disease,” I now have a hairball that will last a life time.  (See earlier post.)

We had a great time with Mom and Dad, and spent a lot of time with the Upchurchs’.  Christmas with them was fun, we did everything from eat, eat, eat, to playing Christmas Bingo, reading the Christmas Story, (with Lotto tickets as an incentive :) way to go Tara!, to playing Guitar Hero, Karaoke, and just plain fun. I taught Tara how to make homemade rolls.  She was so excited and now I have passed on the recipe to the younger generation.  Mom started it and it better carry on!

We had a special Christmas morning with just my folks.  Not much hoopla but so nice.  We opened gifts and just enjoyed each other.  It was a special Christmas for me.  My mother gave me my Grandmother Upchurch’s old wedding ring and it is something that I will always treasure. It was a Christmas that I gave the best present that I have ever given.  I have been working on a book for my mother for the last six months.  It was a book filled with pictures of her life and my memories of the times I remember.  It is something that she will treasure.  She was so touched and I am so grateful that it is something I did.  Tender Mercies. I enlisted Daddy to help decorate gingerbread cookies that I took over to the Upchurchs’ and he is pretty artistic…

Then I also had a little chance to visit with some of our friends.  We went to church at our old ward and saw lots of dear friends.  Went over to the Carlsen’s and got to see Elaine and Justin.  He is one of my boys………He is a big time pilot in the Marine Corps and will be going to Iraq in March to fly those big planes.  I’ll let you know when we all need to start praying!  Maybe it will be over by then!