Day Family Newsletter - December 2014

January 1, 2015

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER – DEC. 2014

Christmas always highlights music for me. In fact, music is a big part of my life, even though I don't sing in a choir or play the piano much anymore. But listening to music, now that's a passion of mine. Gospel, blues, rock & roll, LDS hymns, Christmas music....and on and on. Sometimes lying in bed at night before going to sleep, I find myself humming/composing in my mind gospel or blues type music, improvising the melody all over the place. Am I nuts, or do any of you do something similar?

We enjoyed having dinner one evening with Shelley as we exchanged books to read, got her Santa $ for Danny's Christmas, delivered gifts (for Danny and hers to us). We also took Linda's brother, Steve to dinner one night for his Christmas gift. Had dinner another night with friends. And we enjoyed New Years Eve with friends at dinner as well. Today, we attended Mark & Pat Tsuyuki's son's (Chris) wedding & reception. Very nice - held in one of the beautiful garden rooms of a local mortuary - they have several garden rooms they rent out for weddings or special occasions.

We had a wonderful Christmas with all the kids/grandkids. As usual, Linda prepared a nice turkey/ham sandwich buffet with deviled eggs, salads, stuffing, veggie tray, cheese ball and lots of other treats/deserts. It snowed early Christmas morning, and we awoke to about 5 or 6 inches on snow. It didn't stop, and by the time nightfall came, we had about 10 inches - I had to shovel three times. This is the first real snow storm of the year in Salt Lake. Because of the heavy snow, Steph and her kids slept over Christmas night before heading back home the next day. Because I kept snoring, little Taylor (6 yrs old) kept waking me up to tell me to stop snoring. She finally got in her Mom's bed after 4 or 5 attempts to get me to stop snoring.

I spent a half day with Danny attending his annual DSPD meeting with the state rep and TURN rep. All went well. I took him Christmas shopping for $15 gift cards (Subway) for siblings and a few tins of popcorn or chocolates for friends. We attended Danny's 71st birthday bash at Chuck-O-Rama in Lehi that Derek organized. About 30 to 35 people came, and it was fun visiting with old group home house parents, cousins, nephews/nieces.

Linda gave all the kids the washcloths she made with a wooden spoon and candy cane. She also gave the lady who does her hair a nice throw she crocheted for her new baby coming in a few months. Linda and I shopped this year at a garden center for three of our girls who garden. We put together a basket full of veggie seeds, miracle grow, spade tools, markers to label rows of veggies, some garden art - like a head start on next year's garden.

Attended Jack’s first piano recital (Katie & Bills 5 year old) – so proud of him. Linda and I saw Peter & the Star catcher, a good play at the U of U. While I watched the U of U football bowl game, Linda, Steph and kids and Debbie’s Kaylee went to see the movie Annie. They also spent the day making Christmas candy & cookies. Kaylee slept over that night. Linda and I saw a good movie called Big Eyes. I was rooting for BYU in their bowl game, although the post game festivities reminded me of ward b-ball. I’ll never forget Jim Wooley walking out of the bleacher seats during an M-Men b-ball game and flooring the ref with a roundhouse right because he didn’t like the call he just made. Or the skirmishes in general and roughhouse action under the boards in many games during my ward b-ball days. Sally Heath’s boyfriend (a U of U football player named Merlin Driggs if I remember right), weighing in at about 250 pounds compared to my 135 pounds at age 19, told me while running down the court side by side that if I touched him again, he would floor me on the spot. I guess I was a little rough on him working on rebound position.

I started exercising again this past month per doctor orders. This, to extend life/improve quality of life. We keep seeing examples people we know who are having major health issues, and we’d just assume not being another statistic. On a more positive note, today I had two “dream headlines” published in the SL Tribune newspaper. It’s an annual thing they do, asking people to think of headlines they would like to see in the newspaper in the coming year – serious or light hearted. Mine were “Prison replaces oil refineries” (they are trying to decide if moving the prison to another location would be wise, but there is much public opposition to having a prison moved to their area), and the polluting North Salt Lake oil refineries are a big contributor to our annual inversions. The second one: “Jazz trade Toyota dealership for Durrant” – a more light hearted one.

I read a book Shelley got me about a Mormon growing up in Bountiful and his life/trials/adventures/music passion. She knows the authors brother, and now I’m going to read the 2nd book covering his teenage years and mission. The author is now working on the post mission and 3rd and final book. I am currently reading Jon Huntsman Sr.’s book, “Barefoot to Billionaire”. As he is our second cousin, don’t you think it would be proper for him to set aside a few million for each of us?

And that’s the news. Happy New Year. Tom & Linda