Friday, December 15, 2023: Blackie disappears when J opens the door, mail Texas gifts, LaCasita, Jared's court day, James's eye, "The Secret Gift of Christmas"

 

Hartford, Connecticut

155th operating temple

Dedicated: 20 Nov 2016

By: Henry B. Eyring

Book of Mormon Reading

Ether 10:17-34

Book of Mormon 100 Favorites

#97 - Mosiah 3:17

And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.

Come Follow Me

Revelation 11-13

October General Conference

"Humble to Accept and Follow" by Elder Joni L. Koch

Blackie was on his lounge chair this morning but as soon as James opened the door, he disappeared. 

I listened to Barbara Morgan Gardner and Elain Dalton discuss two conference talks, Elder Phillips' and Elder Sabin's. So good, especially Sister Dalton.

I spent the morning wrapping Texas Christmas gifts. James spent it looking for his sales tax folder which had fallen to the bottom of the file drawer and working on his bids. He hates paper work! He can never get on the sales tax site so he always ends up writing a letter and never hears back from them. He is so frustrated!

Charlie's Christmas program, the one where she was an angel, was cancelled because of illness. So sad.

Jared had a court date today regarding paying extra for Molly because she is moving to the Bahamas. Kacey sent me a text and asked me if I would pray for the best possible outcome, which I did. After it was over Kacey texted again and said they were grateful that Jared only has to pay $50 more a month and that this was the best possible outcome! Our prayers were answered!

Carmen and her family were going to come for Christmas but now they are not because Sydney has Covid and just can't seem to shake it. Carmen says she can't leave her home alone because she is so sick. Dawn has asked us to please pray for Sydney and Carmen.

This afternoon James and I headed for town with one Christmas box packed with four packages and nine more packages waiting for us to buy two more boxes. James went into Home Depot to get two more boxes. I told him to get either a medium and a large or two larges. He came back with a medium and a large but the medium was smaller than the medium we have so he had to go back. I told him to get another large while I packed the large box he bought with four more packages. He came back with an extra large. It was huge, way bigger than we needed. He asked if I wanted him to go back and get a large but I said no, they probably went by weight more than size anyway. BIG MISTAKE.

We packed up the last box and headed to the UPS store. We took one of the boxes in, I stayed in line with it while James went out to get box #2 and #3. The first box $65.61, the second $58.15, and the third, the extra large $117.26. The extra large box cost an extra $60. Yikes! We should have taken the extra large back paid for the other two and repacked the extra large in a large box but the woman behind the counter said the driver was here for pickup and she wanted to get all of the boxes out. They are scheduled to arrive on December 21st. If we left and repacked the box it probably wouldn't go out until tomorrow and who knows when it would arrive. Next time we will be more careful about the sizes of our boxes. I'm still not sure why James bought an extra large box in the first place but I told him not to take it back so I'm at fault too. Whew! We need some sustenance so we went across the street to LaCasita. 

They weren't busy and we ordered what we normally order: Me - chicken enchilada with red sauce and a side of rice and beans.

James - chicken enchilada with green sauce and a side of refried beans. We had our fair share of corn chips and salsa before our food came. Everything was delicious. I only ate half of mine and took the rest home in a doggie bag. As we left to go home I asked James if we could stop at Culver's for an ice cream. We went through the drive-thru and ordered the ice cream of the day, lemon crumble, two scoops in a waffle cone. I ordered two scoops because I knew James was going to want some. He loves lemon and he likes waffle cones. I was right. We traded bites and he got the last one.

During our walk we listened to "Skye Fall" and in between we watched a Hallmark movie, "The Secret Gift of Christmas" starring Christopher Russell and Meghan Ory. It was cute, but nothing special.  Oh yes, James built a roaring fire for ambiance and warmth.

Charlie ready to play in the snow

Titus was in our ward when he was

a Wolf Scout before his family

moved to Oregon.