Sunday, December 20, 2020 we went to the Georgetown Ward Christmas Activity. We left early enough to get dinner in Georgetown. Claude parked us in the Kroger parking lot area with our car facing southwest. You see, this year we are experience a Christmas Star. This is actually the planets Jupiter and Saturn coming so close together they appear as one bright star. This is called a conjunction. The last time this happened was in the Middle Ages. The best time to see it is the Winter Solstice on December 21st. We have been having cloudy evenings and this night was a bit more clear. We watched the sky as the sun went down and then Claude spotted it first. Even with only our eyes we could see that there was a bright star and another behind it that was fainter. Claude did have binoculars and we looked through them. We will try again tonight. We drove on to the Church after seeing the star and took the second picture from the Church parking lot. So much fun!!
We arrived at the Church and drove thru the parking lot. We were given a set of instructions telling us where to drive. It included some songs to sing while we waited at the four stops we would drive to. We were also given a brown paper bag with food to enjoy while we ate.
The second stop would be the shepherds and was at the Parret's home. The shepherds were standing by a little fire. We started the video again and listened to it as we watched the shepherds. What to our wondering eyes should appear...but an angel stepping onto the roof and the shepherds turning to watch and listen to the angel. Oh My!! Someone's teenager was having a lot of fun being an angel on the roof.
Our final stop was at Bishop Johnson's home. The Christmas tree on their front porch we were at a few days before to get cards to help families in need in our Ward. This was the Nativity portion and we listened and watched the Facebook Video.
Our activity complete we headed for home. We looked for the Christmas star again when we got home and were pretty sure we saw it. By this time the sky was full of stars so it was a bit harder to be sure. We had a great Sabbath Day!
Monday, December 21, 2020 we were feeling a little discombobulated. We don't want to start any big projects because it is so close to Christmas. The Marx family will come Christmas Eve at dinner time and leave Saturday in the early afternoon. We went over our grocery list to be sure we had everything on it. Then drove to the Church to pick up a stack of Christmas letters left there for me to deliver to the nursing home. We drove to the nursing home and I left a treat bag for Papa and the letters for residents who are not getting much mail this Christmas. Then Claude purchased me a biscuit. Yeah!! Then he did his grocery shopping so we hopefully don't have any more of that to do until after Christmas.
We came home and put those groceries away. Then outside when the sun was going down to see if we could see the Christmas Star in Sadieville. I came to my sewing room to get some little items off my to do list. I determined I would try and Blog each day until the Marx family comes. Then I can Blog about Christmas after they leave.
This is a picture of the Christmas Star in Sadieville.
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 we opted to take residence on different floors of our home. I stayed upstairs for the most part. Claude took the basement.
I did such fun things with my day as cleaning four bathrooms, filling my cars tires with air, doing the laundry, reading my book, working on my Kleenex box cover, balancing Papa's check register and setting up the new one for 2001, and the list goes on.
Claude woke up with the desire to watch Sho-gun. This was a television mini-series many years ago. Claude really enjoyed it. I had problems with the beginning when a shipmate was boil alive in water after being shipwrecked. Ugh! I just can't handle that. Claude has always enjoyed this set of DVD's. But since we traveled to Japan and saw two of the places in which this movie was shot, he really enjoys watching for those places. He colored in his coloring book while he watched. He paused once to come up to refresh his ice water. I took him a sandwich for his lunch. And, he came up and gathered trash and got the garbage to the curb. It was a good day for both of us.
In the evening, I went to the mailbox to leave a letter from Papa. One of our sweet neighbors left us a Christmas card and an ornament.
I also received an eMail from the Red Cross. It seems our son, Jacob, made a contribution to them in our name for Christmas. This is such a thoughtful gift and so appropriate particularly in 2020. We were both very happy Jacob did this. He is a good son.
Christofer Christensen has made a donation in
honor of Claude & Sandi.
Wednesday, December 23, 2020, I started my day by doing the ironing. Then I came downstairs and wrote a letter to Papa. I also researched and found a talk with a quote I was looking for. I set up the letter to go to our missionaries on Sunday with this quote and also included it in my letter to Papa. I will share what I wrote to the missionaries here:
I came across this
powerful quote from then Elder Russell M. Nelson. I have put it in my
scriptures with the Doctrine and Covenants verse. I felt strongly impressed to
share it with you.
“You were taught in the spirit world to prepare you for anything and everything you would encounter during this latter part of these latter days. That teaching endures within you!” (Elder Russell M. Nelson, Jan 10, 2016, "Stand as True Millennials")
D&C 138:56 Even before they were born, they, with many others, received their first lessons in the world of spirits and were prepared to come forth in the due time of the Lord to labor in his vineyard for the salvation of the souls of men.
It am forever grateful my parents raised me in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am grateful for the Gospel taught and my understanding of who I am, where I came from, and where I am going. It literally affects all of my life, my choices, my ability to deal with difficulty, my enjoyment of so many things life has given me in the way of experiences. So hearing this quote, then going back to find the talk in which it was given and reading it again, made a beautiful feeling of the Spirit in my heart this day. So very grateful for my Savior and my Heavenly Father. I am very blessed.
In the afternoon I received a call from Jessie at Signature Health Care. Jessie is the Social Worker. She is supposed to contact me quarterly and we review how Papa is doing and any concerns I might have. It was good to talk with Jessie. Usually these conversation include other nursing staff. Not this time. With the virus it is all hands on deck and Jessie was doing the calls alone. I asked about their plans now with regard to a resident getting Covid-19. There have been three residents that did test positive. Jessie tells me they kept one at the Georgetown facility. The other two were sent to Fountain Circle in Winchester, Kentucky where they have a Covid-19 wing in their facility. All three residents are well now and testing negative. If Papa were to get Covid-19, he might stay at the Georgetown nursing home or he might go to Fountain Circle or he might be transferred to a hospital. This all depends on how he is doing and if there are other residents with the virus. In none of these situations would I be allowed to visit him unless it was an end of life situation. However, if Papa just took a turn for the worse with something other than Covid-19, I would be allowed to be with him in the nursing home as I was with Mimi. This has been my big concern all along. It has been since March 7th that I saw Papa in person. My hearts desire has been that, when he passes, I could be by his side like I was with Mimi. I have no control over that. But it is what I truly desire. At least now I know that, if Papa has something other than Covid-19, I can be at his side to some extent. He won't be alone. That gave me great peace of mind.
After this phone call, Claude and I jumped in the Jeep and headed to Georgetown. There was the promise of absolutely awful weather for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Very cold. Some snow that would make the roads bad to drive on. I wanted to fill Papa's birdfeeder and take his Christmas gifts to him. I wanted to do that on Christmas Eve but now did not want to drive on those roads. Jessie told me they would hold Papa's bag of Christmas gifts until Christmas Day for me and give it to him then. So we were off to deliver Papa's Christmas gifts to Glen at the nursing home and fill that birdfeeder.
We would also take the time to walk at Moss Park. The clouds were threatening but we thought we could get around the loop before it came. Alas, we got caught in a light shower about half way around. We stood under some trees along the path to wait it out a bit. Claude turned and realized we had a beautiful rainbow behind where we had just walked. It was actually a double rainbow. I posted these pictures of the rainbow on Facebook with the caption "Hope springs eternal".
In the evening I had a Zoom meeting with Pres. Hill to get the interview for my temple recommend. Now it just has to be mailed and signed and then mailed to me. Yeah!! I really don't like being without my temple recommend and it expires December 31st.
Claude and I curled up to watch side one of the first DVD for Season 4 of Northern Exposure.
Thursday, December 24, 2002 is Christmas Eve. Today we spent the daytime finishing up things to be ready for the Marx family to arrive in time for dinner. I changed the linens in the guest room, baked a chocolate/banana cake and made a banana cream pie for Christmas desserts, put away all the things on my nest of a loveseat that I leave out for me to work on, got my shower and am catching up the Blog. Claude has the brisket going and it smells so good. We moved the smoker to the patio which is basement level with the upper deck over it. We are to get weather and we thought Claude using the smoker there might provide him and the smoker a little protection.
When Claude brought in the mail, the newspaper had a front page story about Debra Kumar. She is a friend from Church. How cute is Debra? She really loves story telling. She is very theatrical. She has a gorgeous voice. Being Mrs. Claus is right up her alley.
We are as ready as we are going to be to have family arrive and spend two nights with us. In light of the virus and how it is truly limiting family get togethers, we are very grateful we can do this little bit with family. The grid is on the fridge telling us what we planned to eat. We know food was purchased to make these items. If they need to be tweeked, that is fine, we know what ingredients we have to work with. Andie is making a pecan pie for Michael for Christmas dessert. He likes to put chocolate chips in his pie so I told Andie she could make that one.
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