Christmas 1997

Greetings from the Lillywhites! Our annual letter is late this year. Please excuse. Our home computer met with some "problems" on Thanksgiving day and has not yet recover. We have enjoyed reading letters from many of you.

Once again we have managed to make it through the year without major happening in our lives. We recently realized that this is our 6th consecutive year of ongoing Smith Family co-habitation. We have had someone living with us for all but about 4 months since we moved to Utah.

Jensen enjoys immense popularity at school. She loves dressing in superhero type costumes or anything that looks like a uniform or Scottish. I ran into one of the teachers from the elementary school at a local store. She said she just loves Jensen. She worked with Jensen on the student council and for months was calling her "Lilly" until finally Jensen told her, "my name is not Lilly." I overheard the kids talking about the holidays. Ailsa said something about Hanukkah. Jensen told her, "it's not Hanukkah it's Chanukah. You have to say it with a "chuh". Making the appropriate heavy ethnic glottal "ch" sound. Right now Jensen is going through a phase where she is completely enthralled with "Hot Wheels" cars. She got the "Hot Wheels Garage" for Christmas. She pronounces it "grage"

Ailsa has matured quite a bit. She took up basketball this fall. She has been bugging us to do this for a year or two. So we signed her up for the community league. At the where they size everybody up she was doing all right until they were supposed to pair off and she got left alone. That was when she fell apart. The anxiety of this new uncomfortable situation was too much. So we left and she was saying it wasn't very fun anyway (sour grapes). Later the coach of her team called and she knew him and all the girls on her team so she decided to give it another try. She ended up having quite a bit of fun. It was very entertaining to watch the little girls play. I'm afraid I haven't been very good at getting my kids interested in sports or showing them the fundamentals. Some of the girls really know what they are doing. Others just go with the flow. Ailsa is real comfortable with the flow. It took her a couple of games even to get her hands on the ball or take a shot. It soon became the team goal for Ailsa to make a basket by the end of the season. They were so thoughtful, for the last quarter of the of the final game all they did was feed Ailsa the ball so she could take shots. Unfortunately, this is a goal we will have to fulfill next year.

Lenore completed her stint as president of Joseph F. Smith family organization with a successful reunion in November. A number of people remarked that they thought it was Marie Osmond who was conducting the proceedings. She has been involved with the PTA and a heavily used and dependable room mother at the school. She says she is as boring as ever. Still the Young Women president in the ward.

I have spent a large part of the year trying to stave off the advance of age. I'm trying to regain the physique of an 18 year old. Unfortunately, I didn't have much of a physique at 18 either. After successfully coordinating the music for three Stake conferences, I was recently released as the Stake Music Chairman and called as the second assistant in the Ward High Priest group. This was generally seen as a move to get me to attend the High Priest quorum. I have continued my cycling and improved my time in the century ride to about 5 1/2 hours. But, because of my reluctance to compete in the rain I was only able to do one triathlon this year. I'm still singing with the Eleanor Kennard Chorale. We recorded our third CD this year. I was privileged to sing a solo during our Spring concert at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square this year.

We had a small family tragedy the day after Thanksgiving. One of our rats (Emmy) fell ill with cancer and died. We have learned that rats are quite prone to cancer. Makes you wonder why they are used to test the cancer inducing properties of products. We buried her under the apple tree in her favorite cherry toastettes box. We have since acquired another replacement rat (RR) whom we have named Reepicheep. She and the other rat (Sunflower or Pinky/Stinky) seem to get along fine. During our summer vacation we had my parents look in on the pets from time to time. Pinky learned to unlatch her cage door and got out of her cage. My parents couldn't find her. So she spent a couple of days free roaming in our bedroom. She sampled just about all of the tubes and creams, etc. in Lenore's bathroom drawer.

Since last year the male cat Ptolemy (Tully) has asserted himself as the dominant one. The two oldest cats, Ruby and Maxine, try to pick on Cleopatra. But, Tully stands up for her. Tully is apprehensive about being too social with people and is quite skittish. However, at least once a day he will come up to our bedroom and "ask" to be petted. Ruby and Maxine have settled into a mid-life routine. Ruby has to lie on my chest with her face only millimeters away from mine when I first get into bed. Maxine sleeps with Ailsa and requires Lenore to give her a back scratch every morning. Ruby invites herself onto the lap of anyone who sits down in our house.

We enjoyed a relaxing vacation in the mountains and at San Clemente again this year. At the beach we ran into a good friend who had recently moved to the southland from Utah. So Ailsa was able to spend a couple of days at the beach with one of her former neighborhood friends. It is amazing how things like this happen. If I had stubbed my toe we would haven missed eachother and never known we were at the same beach. Is this a matter of probability and outcome?

During this year in which we have celebrated the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers in Salt Lake City we have enjoyed learning more about some of our ancestors. We've learned that we probably have an ancestor to fall into every possible type of immigration. Lenore has a great grandfather who was in the first group to arrive in valley. Her Lane ancestors immigrated by boat from England and endured grave risk during the crossing. The same boat sank and all perished when it was returning to England. I have ancestors who crossed with a handcart company. The mother reportedly carried her child from time to time in her apron holding the corners of her apron in her mouth so she could continue to push the handcart. One of my great grandfathers was sent to settle San Bernardino and had a daughter born in the area of Cajon pass in 1850. We have become increasingly grateful for the faithfulness and example of our forebears. We are also terribly thankful for the blessings of our Heavenly Father and for the blessing of having such wonderful friends in our lives as you.