The big event last week was the high school musical. The play, Cinderella’s Glass Slipper, was a musical adaptation of the Cinderella story. Hannah was cast in the role of the Fairy Godmother and Josiah played Prince Charming. The play ran two nights, Friday and Saturday. Stacey and I went both nights. The kids did a great job. I’m always amazed to see my children on stage acting and singing. They certainly didn’t inherit any thespian tendencies from me. I was always far too shy to do anything like that. Geoffrey was the first of our children to go on stage. He was in two plays during high school, but none of them were musicals. Rachel played her harp on stage in one of those plays, but had no dramatic part. After that there were a few years during which the high school didn’t do any plays or musicals, so Sarah, and Miriam didn’t have a chance to do anything like that – and even if the school had staged plays, I don’t think they would have participated. It was Daniel who took it all to a new level for our family. The school started performing musicals when he was in his junior year and he was the star of every production done during his last two years of high school. This is Hannah’s fourth appearance on stage and Josiah’s third. We’re proud of them for sharing their talents.
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| Prince Charming meets Cinderella at the ball. |
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| The slipper fits and the Prince and Cinderella declare their love. |
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| The grand finale. |
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| The Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming. |
We were hit by an Arctic blast at the end of the week. Saturday afternoon in a matter of minutes we went from sunny and cold, to swirling snow and rapidly dropping temperatures. This morning at dawn it was 4° and there was an inch of snow on the ground. I’m glad we have a good supply of wood – I think we’re going to need it.
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| Dawn this morning. |
Speaking of wood, we had a bit of excitement on Friday night. Stacey and Josiah were stoking the wood stove just before bedtime and the next thing I knew, they were yelling for me to hurry to the living room. The stovepipe was glowing red hot. We determined the fire had ignited soot in the lower part of the pipe. I stood by with a fire extinguisher and Stacey shoveled out the burning wood and threw it into the road. The stovepipe cooled off rapidly after that. The next morning I took the pipes apart and cleaned them all out. I don’t like that sort of excitement.
Today was our Stake Conference. Thanks to the blessing of modern technology, we didn’t have to drive all the way up to Palmyra to attend. We watched it in our own chapel via the internet. Kurt was asked to speak in one of the sessions, so he and Julie had to go up to Palmyra. After our meeting we had a dish-to-pass (potluck dinner). Some former members of our branch, Mike and Susan Moore, were there and we had the dinner so we could visit with them and enjoy a meal together.
Now we’re home again. We’ve got the wood stove going. Josiah is headed down to do the chores. We’re settled in for the rest of the day. The week ahead should be very nice. We only have two and half days of school and then we’re off until next Tuesday. We have a nice long weekend because of Thanksgiving and the opening day of deer season next Monday.
Our Thanksgiving this year will be a small and quiet affair. It will be just the Howes and the Shilligs. It seems like a long time since it was last like this. The past few years we’ve either been gone at Thanksgiving or we’ve had company. We’re planning to keep things simple and low key and I’m thankful for that. It looks like we will have a white Thanksgiving.
In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, I tried to come up with a list of the things I’m thankful for. I cannot list them all here, there are so many things and it would be too long and too tedious for anyone but me to read. I’ll limit my list here to the top three.
1. My family. I belong to a great family, past, present, and future, that has blessed me every day of my life.
2. The Church. My life has been richly blessed by my membership in the church and all that it brings – a living prophet to guide us and give us the word of the Lord, the Priesthood of God with its saving ordinances, and the fullness of Gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. My country. My ancestors fought to establish a nation founded on the principles of liberty. We have been blessed for generations because we live in a land of liberty. In the climate of these times, I’m thankful for liberty and pray that we will do all we can to remain free.
I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.
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| Winter sunset. |
