The week began with pleasant, mild, autumnal weather. Days in 50's in late November are rare here. I love it when winter gets pushed back a bit. I was not in school on Monday and I took advantage of the nice weather to get some tasks done. I went to the barn in the morning. I had 150 pounds of chicken feed to unload. That didn’t take long. After I’d emptied the feed from the bags into buckets, I took the empty bags and some baling twine and went down into the lower part of the barn to the chicken coop. It was time to catch and transport the extra roosters. Miriam had helped me by going down with me the previous night and grabbing the roosters while they were roosting and putting them in the middle enclosure of the coop. We took five of them, including the old rooster, and left one of the young Buff Orpington roosters to assume the throne. On Monday morning, armed with feed bags and twine, I went into the middle enclosure and amid a great ruckus, caught four of the roosters and bagged them. The fifth one escaped me through a small gap at the top of the pen. I couldn’t catch him once he was out, so he remains at large and has won his freedom through his cunning and determination. The other four, the old rooster and four of the bachelor roosters, I took to Paul Troyer, one of our Amish friends. So now my flock consists of twenty-three hens and two roosters. The Buff Orpington as taken over as the dominant rooster. He established himself quickly and the pecking order was adjusted accordingly. The lucky escapee stays out on the periphery, the place he occupied with his bachelor brothers before the coop coup. The flock is much calmer and efficient now I’m not feeding all those bachelor roosters who didn’t contribute anything but noise and turmoil.
We spent a lot of time at the beginning of the week preparing for our trip west. We made an arrangement with our friend Bob Jones to take care of the chickens while we were gone. On Wednesday I prepped my houseplants for my absence. Stacey worked several days on packing. She had loads of things for us to take with us – food (including 50 pounds of flour, jars of pickles, jelly, and relish, a frozen loaf of sourdough bread, and a ten pound horn of cheddar cheese), gifts, musical instruments, and games, in addition to the essential clothing and toiletries. For the last month she had collected luggage from the thrift store and other places and by Wednesday evening they were ready to go – all eight of them. We were flying Southwest Airlines so she planned for each of us take the allowed two suitcases to check and one to carry on. We did not travel lightly this time.
On Tuesday, the 26th, we celebrated Hannah’s birthday. Since we weren’t going to have a real Thanksgiving feast this year, Hannah wanted a semi-feast for her birthday, so we had roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and sweet potato casserole. Miriam baked her a cake.
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| Hannah's birthday dinner. |
The mild weather left us midweek, but that was good preparation for what we’d find in Utah where it had been snowing all week. We were worried about traveling (me more than any of the others since I am not a comfortable traveler) because the weather forecast for the entire nation seemed to be nothing but dire warnings about winter storms and high winds.
We left for the west on Thursday, Thanksgiving morning. We drove up to Buffalo and flew to Denver and then on to Salt Lake City. Despite dire warnings about poor travel conditions across the country, our flights were good except for some turbulence as we approached Salt Lake City. We arrived there at 5:30 mountain time. Geoffrey met us at the airport and drove us to our Airbnb. Daniel, Raven, Josiah, Sarah, and Tosh were already there. The Thayns did not have as smooth a trip as we did. They had cancelled flights and reroutes, but they finally arrived later that night.
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| We took a lot of luggage. |
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| At the Buffalo Airport. |
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| A view of the plains from the plane. |
We all stayed at an Airbnb in West Jordan – all of us except Geoffrey’s family since they actually live close by, but they were with us almost all the time. It was great being together. The Airbnb was a nice house with four bedrooms and enough beds to accommodate all of us. It had a big living room, kitchen, and dining room, a game room with a pool table, air hockey table, and fooseball. I loved it that from the living room window I could look out at night and see two temples, the Jordan River Temple and the Draper Temple, lit up and glowing. Only in Utah.
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| The Airbnb where we stayed. |
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| Sarah had dinner ready for us. |
On Friday we began the day as we would begin every day while we were there with toast for breakfast. We have a thing for sourdough bread in our family – Sarah got Stacey started with it and Stacey has gotten Josiah and Daniel into it. We had fresh loaves of sourdough the entire time we were there. And Raven brought us strawberry jam she had made, which was perfect on the sourdough toast.
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| We spent a lot of time eating and talking. |
On Friday a group of the braver of us (not me) went Black Friday Shopping. There was lots of time spent with the grandchildren and in preparing food for the big event on Friday evening – the Shillig party. We held it in the cultural hall at Geoffrey and Joni’s chapel. There were loads of aunts, uncles, and cousins there. I got to meet some relatives I’d never met before and spend time with family I seldom see. We had excellent food, fun games, and good conversation. We sang happy birthday to Stacey’s sister, Audrey. It was a great party.
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| June and Sarah making a treat for the party. |
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| Daniel making a pumpkin dump cake for the party. |
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| Stacey welcoming everyone to the Shillig Party. |
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| Singing happy birthday to Audrey. |
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| The whole gang. |
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| The cousins. |
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| Stacey, Audrey, and Kurt. |
Saturday morning was Ellie’s baptism – the main reason we were all there. It was a great event. Geoffrey’s stake has a great program for conducting baptisms and it all went smoothly. After the baptism, our family and Joni’s family gathered at our Airbnb for lunch. The Richards family (Joni’s family) provided the food – delicious soups and salad.
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| The chapel. |
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| Miriam fixing Ellie's hair. |
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| Ellie and her cousins. |
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| Joni, Geoffrey, and Ellie. |
That afternoon we took family photos. We are rarely all together at one time.
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| The Fosters. |
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| The Thayns. |
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| The Utah Howes. |
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| The Washington Howes. |
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| The Howe sisters. |
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| The Howe brothers. |
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| With the grandchildren. |
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| The whole gang. |
On Saturday evening some of the Shillig relatives that missed the party (they’d gone skiing earlier and got caught in a snow-caused traffic jam in one of the canyons) arrived. It was great to spend the evening with Stacey’s brother Bill and his wife Lark and some of their children and grandchildren.
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| Saturday night gathering. |
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| Bill, Lark, Stacey, and me. |
On Sunday we went to church in Geoffrey and Joni’s ward. I forget sometimes what it’s like to be in a big ward. While we were there, I saw someone who looked familiar in the congregation. It took me a moment to realize who it was. It was our dear friend Holley Tolliver who we knew from clear back when we lived in Sylmar. Holley was my sister Mindy’s best friend. Her son and his family live in that ward and Holley and her husband Eric were visiting them. It’s great how the church makes the world a small place sometimes.
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| Me and Holley. |
Later on Sunday afternoon, we had visitors. My cousin Rick and his wife Melony came over. We had a nice time getting caught up on what’s going on with our lives. We had a little Christmas concert provided by Daniel and Hannah on their violins and Rick on his recorder. After Rick and Melony left, our friend Kathy Birch (Tante Kathy to our children) and her daughter Anna came to visit. It’s wonderful to be with people you love and seldom see. Sarah left for home on a red eye flight on Sunday night. Tosh stayed behind to do more visiting.
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| Making music with cousin Rick. |
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| Melony, Rick, Dan, Stacey. |
On Monday we split up a bit. The Thayns drove up to Logan to visit friends and family there. Raven went to visit family. Stacey’s high school friend Ann Emery came to visit. She lives in North Carolina, but was in Utah visiting her parents. She is a violinist and she gave Daniel, who is teaching himself how to fiddle, some pointers. When Ann left, the rest of us went to the movies. We (by which I mean the Gold Howes) go to the movies a lot because Stacey, Hannah, and Miriam work for the man who owns the theater in Coudersport and we get in free. But I was blown away by the Megaplex theater we went to. I’ve been to it before, but I forgot how many theaters there are in one building, how comfortable the seats are, how huge the screens are, how impressive the sound system is. We went to see Ford vs Ferrari. I am not a car person and I don’t like car movies – usually. That movie was great. I especially loved it because it was about real people and events.
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| Daniel gets a music lesson. |
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| Stacey and Ann. |
On Monday evening Ellie and Gwen spent the night with us at the Airbnb. There was lots of game playing, and good food, of course.
On Tuesday the big event was going to see Frozen II at the Megaplex. Some of our Shillig family joined us. The children were especially excited to see it. After the movie we grabbed a late lunch/early dinner and then headed to Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. We walked around Temple Square and went in to the Visitors’ Center. Tante Kathy met us and got to spend some time with us. My dear friend Jay, who lives down in Orem, rode the train up and we got to spend a little time together. Jay and I met while we were on our mission, which means we’ve been friends now for 40 years, which hardly seems possible.
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| The Assembly Hall on Temple Square. |
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| The Salt Lake Temple. |
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| Me and Jay. |
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| Tante and the girls. |
After Temple Square we went over to our niece Kale and her husband Roman’s house. They had a nice Christmassy table prepared of crackers and cheese, cookies, hot cocoa, and warm wassail for us. We got to see their home. Then it was time to go back to our Airbnb and get ready to leave. We had to be to the airport early the next morning, so we packed as much as we could the night before. We said good-bye to all we would not see again.
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| Kale, Roman, and baby Lev. |
We were up at 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Daniel and Raven drove Stacey, Hannah, and I to the airport. Miriam stayed behind because she was headed down to St. George to spend some time with her cousins there. The Thayns’ flight was later in the day. It was sad to leave everyone behind. Our flights went smoothly – Salt Lake to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to Buffalo. We arrived at 5:30. It was snowing. We took our time driving home. When we got here, the house was chilly. Some of my houseplants looked dead – I’m trying to revive them, but it doesn’t look good. It was nice to sleep in our own beds again, but sad at the same time.
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| In the Salt Lake City airport. |
I’m sitting here now, reviewing all of this and it all seems like a dream to me. It was a great trip. Despite not liking to travel, I had a wonderful time and would gladly do it again. It was wonderful to be with my children and grandchildren. I loved being with so much family and seeing beloved friends. It was a great way to start the Christmas season. It snowed while we were gone and it looks like more snow is on the way, so it’s even beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
