Andys Christmas Letter I did it!!!

Christmas 2015

Dear Family & Friends

Well it’s that time of year where we send letters about our family gatherings, accomplishments and other activities.  Kind of like the “year in review” shows that will be on TV the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  The problem this year is with more people than ever on Facebook, we get a commentary throughout the year and writing these letters is becoming harder!  Marlene’s is asking when I’ll have this year’s letter done and I’m stumped what to write that you don’t already know about.  Maybe we need to make these letters forecasts of the next year.  Wouldn’t that be interesting?!

But instead let me tell you a few things we’ve learned over this past year.

Emily married Chris Blount this past year. Then a few months later, the same time Chris was celebrating the anniversary of his church membership, they were sealed for all time and eternity in the Los Angeles Temple.  We learned that, with the help of our kids, we can still throw a pretty good party!  The two days in a mountains at the first wedding and then the beach party after the sealing were a lot of fun!   

When we have our Sunday dinners there are somewhere between 15 and 21 people who eat at our house.  It’s quite a few to feed, and the noise level is tremendous.  A lot of fun, but noisy!  Old people need hearing aids not because of any health problems, but when the entire family gets together it’s loud and our ears wear out! 

We’ve learned that when we have that many people for dinner, there’s not much left over.  This year for Thanksgiving it was the in-law’s turn to have the kids.  So the Sunday before we celebrated Thanksgiving with the family and I BBQ’d one turkey.  We were invited to Wes and Dana’s but they didn’t have a bbq so we BBQ’d another turkey.  And the Friday after Thanksgiving we had everyone come over to help decorate the house and we BBQ’d another turkey to have something to eat.  It was fun.  We truly enjoy our family gatherings.  So with everyone “gone for Thanksgiving” we still BBQ’d three large turkeys and still only had enough leftovers to fix me two turkey sandwiches.  Not that I’m BITTER or anything.  J  But we will be BBQing another turkey around New Year’s Day.  This time it will be for sandwiches! 

But speaking of leftovers, with the kids gone, cooking for two is a bit harder.  I’ve found I’m not a fan of leftovers.  It seems we fix more than we need for a meal and that means leftovers.  If we could stretch the left overs over, say once a week for three to four weeks, that may be ok.  And Marlene does a great job stretching them out but unfortunately they don’t last in the fridge that long.  So in her kindness, Marlene usually eats the majority leftovers for a lunch.  

Marlene works in the Redlands Temple every Tuesday that it’s open.  Several times I’ve been fortunate this year to be able to arrange my schedule and attend the last endowment session on her shift and then we ride home together.  Thru regular attendance I have learned so many things about the Plan of Salvation, Adam and Eve in the Garden, how nefarious Lucifer really is, and without faith in Jesus Christ how he has the upper hand in temptations he offers to us.  My appreciation for the Atonement has grown and my love for the Savior has deepened.  It has been a wonderful experience. 

We hope this letter finds you better than last year; maybe not in all ways but in significant ways!  We hope your testimony of Jesus Christ as the Son of our Heavenly Father and our Savior and Redeemer is much stronger this year than last year.  We enjoy following you on Facebook.  We hope you enjoy following us.  And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, check with your child or grandkid and get setup and send us an invite to be friends.  As info, while I have a Facebook account, Marlene’s is the most active.  So make friends with her.

Love to all, 

Andy and Marlene

The worst day of the year

This was the worst day of the year.  Andy was up and getting ready for work when I heard a very loud thump, and rush into the bathroom to find him passed out on the floor.  No amount of shouting or slapping his face was getting a response. I thought he was dead.  Lots of prayer and panic, and he came to. Got up went back to bed, and told me to "Leave me alone, I just want to sleep."  I called the on call nurse, said to get him to the emergency room now.  Because of his Afib, they were concerned about a stroke.  Lots of test later, they thought he was fine, that is when he mentioned that his foot really hurt.  So they x-rayed his foot.  The Doctor came in and said that he and the radiologist agreed.  He had some broken toes.  Probably 3 broken toes, but they couldn't agree on which 3. Since the only treatment is to buddy tape toes together, on good one to one bad one, they said you should see a podiatrist.  That Doctor agreed that he had broken toes, but all five were broken in multiple places.So for the next 8 weeks he had to wear a very fashionable boot. They have healed....sort of....they are all pretty crooked.  Just glad that he is ok.  Gave me a horrible scare.

The Tale of Two Weddings

This  is a tale of two Weddings.

Only Emily could pull something like this off.  

In June we rented a lovely cabin in the woods in the city of Running Springs. I can only call this a "planned elopement".  Immediate family only. You will remember that there were major wildfires that month, just one mountain range over.  The cabin slept 26, our family was 18 of them.  So Chris's family was a bit out numbered. There were so many fun thing to do.  There was a Zip line, climbing wall, paddle boat, hiking trails and lots of fun Stuff.  So....we came had fun, met each other and at the end of the day, Chris and Emily got Married!

 Andy's job was to hold the bouquet, until Emily was dressed and ready to walk down the path with him.  He all most forgot to give it to Emily.

 This is my favorite picture, Emily and Andy have always had a very special relationship with each other, and the smiles show it all.

 It was a very nice ceremony, they exchanged rings, Emily wears "bling" very well on those beautiful hands.

 This is the Blount Family.  Captain was the ring bearer, He has doggy "cuffs" and a bow tie that matched Chris.

 Here is Emily and my 4 beautiful granddaughters.

 Like I said, lots of fun activities at this cabin.

 We had dinner outside in a lovey wooded setting.

This is my blog, so there are more pictures of my beautiful grandchildren.


The next wedding happened in October.  Emily and Chris could be sealed in the LDS Temple in Los Angles, after Chris had been a member of the church for a year.  So on that day....all of my family gathered, and so many of Emilys friends from all over the USA came to party afterward at the Beach.

 You could fix your own Gourmet hot dog, how ever you wished.

 Family tradition at the beach is to cook the corn in sea water in a trash can.  The newest member of the family  had to go get the water.  Chris wanted Sam to help him.  They got special tuxedos for the job, needless to say, they attracted a lot of attention.  My brothers kept the corn cooking and the fire going.  It was delicious.

 This is the wedding cake.....S'mores of course, what else would you have at the beach.

 Emily is in her 3rd Wedding dress of the day.  Below is the one she made, and it was beautiful, almost as beautiful as the bride.

 These are my amazing siblings and spouses.  They came from all over to join us for this very special day.

 This picture has a story.  We are holding out the pockets of Emily's wedding dress.  The fabric for those pockets came from my moms wedding dress.  My mom taught Emily to sew, and the plan was they were going to make Emily's dress together.  Mom passed away 6 years ago, but Emily did include her on this special day. On the left are my sisters, Lorraine, and Janice on the right is Holly.

 This is the entire crew.  Brad and Katie and their 3 boys. then Dana and Wes, Chris and Emily, Andy and I, Holly and Sam.  The other 6 children in the front are Holly and Sam's. Nora age 11, Sara age 8, Mia age 6, Theo age 6, Gary age 8, Tracy age 10, Joshua age 4, Kyle age 6 and Derek age 2.

 Aren't they the cutest grandchildren you have ever seen?? Love them so much.

Well, what can I say........