December 18, 2014

December 18, 2014

Today is Layne’s birthday in Tonga, tomorrow in the states.  That is still a hard concept to get my head around, the time zone changes.  The other thing if the flip flop of the seasons, no snow here for Christmas, because it is summer.  It does make missing Christmas at home a little easier, because we are on summer break.  And so far, it has been busy, busy, busy.  But we have limited 8 am meetings.  Yay!!

So I have to get back to Layne’s birthday and Christmas.  So Happy Birthday to Layne.  I can’t believe that Layne is no longer classified as a ‘young adult’.   Wow, time flies whether you are having fun.  I have to stop and think about Layne’s birthday and my dad’s excitement of a first grandchild and a boy to boot.  He was a pretty proud grandpa, but then he was a proud grandpa about all of his grandchildren and great grandchildren. 

I remember one Christmas though when the kids were little and grandpa decided to play Santa at our house on Mill Hollow.  We heard a ‘ho,ho,ho’ as the front door opened into the house and Layne ran from the kitchen to the front door yelling ‘ grandpa, grandpa’  but  came to a screeching halt when he saw a man in a red Santa suit with white hair and a beard. His face was a picture of confusion. Here was a man in a red suit, white hair and a beard who sounded like grandpa but wasn’t grandpa.  There was no way he was going to have anything to do with that guy in red, he knew grandpa’s voice but he was not that guy.  Layne couldn’t figure out what was going on because grandma was there, but ‘where was grandpa?’.   He never did warm up to ‘Santa’ although Brian was super excited that we had a personal visit from Santa. That was the last time, grandpa came to our house as ‘Santa’.  Grandpa was Santa though, for many other children which he loved and loved to be for them.

Remember when we baked Christmas cookies to put on the tree for decorations.  It was so funny to see the cookies disappear slowly off the bottom part of the tree, but grandpa knew for sure that we had made those on the top especially for him.  Grandpa and Grandma didn’t come often, but they sure made everything fun and exciting.  I remember mom telling dad to stop being so loud, he was scaring the kids.  Those of you who were old enough knew that grandpa was all bluff and there was nothing he loved more than hugs and kisses from the grandkids.  When the great grandkids started coming along, he found great delight in teasing them until they realized he was just a big, noisy marshmallow. 

I also remember a time when I was little when we were living in Parker.  Mom and Dad added on to that little house, so when Christmas time came around, we were so excited.  I don’t remember any particulars other than I got up on Christmas Eve to go to the bathroom.  Mom and dad were still up, I thought it was the middle of the night, but the lights were on.  Dad got a little angry with me and gruffly told me to get back to bed.  I remember looking around and could see some packages, and  it looked like there were some piles of stuff around the Christmas tree.  The next morning, I didn’t have any christmas. Everybody else had presents.  My christmas was laid out in the new addition where the washer, dryer, and the new bathroom were.  All dad said to me was, ‘surprises happen even with Santa’.  I don’t think I got out of bed again on a Christmas Eve unless I knew for sure that there weren’t any lights on and I knew mom and dad were in bed.  That took lots of spy trips by the younger group.

Another Christmas that was very memorable was when we had a small Christmas, mom and dad didn’t even have one present.  Dad announced proudly to us that our real Christmas was a trip to Disneyland.  I was a senior in high school at the time and this would be the only trip we would take.  This was the most exciting thing we had ever done as a family.  We had never traveled anywhere before and what a treat. Disney land was such an eye opener for those of us who had never been off the farm.  I don’t remember much about the rides other that we couldn’t believe that all these things were real and exciting. I think mom and dad even went on some of the rides. Again we went to just about every exhibit.  Dad wanted to make sure that we didn’t waste our money, so we walked all over the place.  I couldn’t believe my eyes and how many things there were to do at Disneyland.  I remember dad loving the animation of the bears in adventure land with their singing and the Lincoln exhibit.  They were pretty special to him. I think dad had more fun at the San Diego zoo than any of us kids. Dad would spend so much time just looking at the animals and reading all of the information that was on the signs.  He took his time and I remember getting so tired and ‘we hadn’t seen everything yet, and we’ve got to hurry or they are going to close, can we eat, I’m thirsty, where’s the bathroom, can I have some popcorn’, etc, etc, etc.  Can you just hear your own kids? We went to sea world , another adventure with real, live sea critters. Of course, we loved everything because we had never seen anything like the zoo or the ocean or Disneyland.  I think we even went to Nottsberry farm which was not like our farm.  Who has rides, roller coasters, eating spots, entertainment all over at their farms?  I don’t even remember now how we got to and from California.  I think we drove because I can’t imagine that dad had enough money to fly us.  I vaguely remember that we visited relatives on our way to and from California.  What an adventure, it was a thrill of a lifetime.

So back to the present, Christmas in Tonga, no snow, no cold, no family.  I think the hardest is no family.  Although we will spend an enjoyable day with some of the other missionaries, we will still miss our family.  However we can do hard things and this too will pass quickly.

The Senior Missionary Choir had their public debut on Tongan TV, Tuesday Dec 8 at 2:25 pm.  The Tonga TV/radio station was something else.  The Hamblins, Tupou’s and Meyers’ had been there before, so we knew what to expect.  The other missionary couples did not.  It was pretty scary for all of us though.  We knew our numbers since we have been practicing since October.  However, when there is a TV camera staring at you and the idea of being on TV however old fashioned the surroundings were, was still pretty daunting.  I had practiced early that morning and with the practice prior to our arrival at the station, so I was warmed up and figured we were ready.  What I didn’t take into consideration was the camera.  My hands still shook and unfortunately I was very aware when the camera was pointed at me.  We redid one of the numbers because we didn’t do it as well as we could have.  When we got to the last final ending measure, my hands lost their place and I ended up on the wrong notes.  I got so frustrated when I finally hit the right notes that I shook my head and stuck out my tongue.  Guess who was being filmed at that final moment of glory.  Good grief!  Next problem is that Elder Hamblin has all of that stuff on a DVD that he just loves to tease me about.  I was even part of our movie night featurette.    What a way to become famous!!

Bishop Kamesese (com- a- say-say), who is the manager of the Radio/TV station, also invited our choir to his ward to do a musical Christmas fireside last Sunday.  It was just music, the reading of the birth of Christ from the scriptures and a Christmas story. There was a good number of people who came out at 7 after a long day of Sunday meetings.  Bishop Kamesese told us that when the members hear that the missionaries are singing and presenting a program they come.  If it is ward members, they don’t.  He also told us later that the members really enjoyed the program although it was in English.  It was an hour long, so short and sweet.  The ward then treated us to a little lite snack of sandwiches and fruit.  The fun thing about this event was that Lani, who works at the mission home, Cindy, wife of the bishop and who works at the service center, and Mele who works with the government power agency and who we just met at a government meeting, were all at the fireside.  Cindy and Lani are identical twins and Mele is a sister who looks like she is a twin to Lani.  These ladies are sisters who live in the same ward.  And we know all three of them.  When we met Mele, we wondered if we were crazy because we knew about Cindy and Lani being twins, we didn’t know about her who looks more like the other 2 than they do.  It’s kind of like looking at Natasha, Nitchele and Mikayla and wondering if they are really triplets, they all look alike.

We continue working on our 5 year, donor program for TVET.  Just when we get thinking we might be getting a handle on what the area director wants, we get another directive.  Steve feels like he is working on a school grant proposal which only increases his anxiety level.  He mistankenly thought he was retired and wouldn’t have to write any more grants.  I don’t know anything about grants, so I am just the typist and I have spent many hours typing.  We have a call either today or tomorrow to talk with the director to get more specific instructions.  We have talked, discussed, gone over the information with the teachers, administration, HOD and feel like we know what needs to happen but we are getting conflicting instructions.  So we are still in limbo.  Pray for us, we need all the help we can get.