Christmas in New York--A Mission Christmas

Christmas has come to New York. In our little apartment, we have a small tree, a decorative table cloth with a snowman and Santa Claus sitting in the middle.
Above the window, notice the garland with little white lights and white lights around our other window. It's not much, but it makes us feel like it's Christmas and gives us a nice atmosphere in our living room. We like it.

In our office, we have the spirit of Christmas. Here is our cute little Christmas tree, decorated with ornaments and pass-along cards with bows on top. Two small nativity sets are at the base of the tree.

Sorting and keeping track of all the Christmas packages has been my assignment. Here is our storage room packed with Christmas gifts for our missionaries. As of right now, we still have about 35 missionaries who have not received packages, but President Smith says that last year, alot of them came the week of Christmas. We will take some of them to missionaries in our ward area. Schoutens will take some to their ward. And, the AP's will distribute the rest in their trusty truck. If the packages don't all get out, the missionaries will receive them on Christmas day at our All-mission Christmas party.

It really feels more like Christmas with the first snowfall of the season. This picture is taken out of our office window, looking out on the golfcourse. As you can see, there's no one golfing. It's been pretty chilly here--teens. Brrrr!

President and Sister Darger hosted another couple's dinner. We love going to the Dargers. Sister Darger always decorates beautifully on the holidays and serves delicious food. She serves the main dish, and the couples bring the other dishes. It works out really well. We had very tender brisket with yams and carrots, plus mashed potatoes and the other dishes.

Some of the missionaries. President Darger is at the head of the table.

This is the Darger children table--there are four teenagers who keep things lively. The AP's managed to slip in for a little food towards the end.

Every Saturday, we go to the Family History Center and help people with their genealogy. Here is a picture of some of our patrons. Last Saturday, a man walked in off the street and wanted to do some family history. He saw our big sign outside. He came in and Elder Dalebout worked with him on getting some of his information together. Then, Sister Dalebout took him onto Ancestry.com, where we found out a lot of information. His name is Anthony, and he is not a member, but he wants to come back and do more. He asked about the church, so we took him into our chapel to see the beautiful Christmas decorations they had put up. He talked to us and the Bishop about what we believe. He wanted to come to church, but he has to go to school on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. every week. Our church starts at 11:00 a.m., so he couldn't come to our wonderful Christmas Sacrament meeting. However, he said he would come when his classes were over in a couple of weeks. He DID come on Sunday to Priesthood. We are excited.

These missionaries come to help drum up business for the Family History Center. They are so great! They've even done some of their family history.

Probably the highlight of our Christmas in New York was our visit to Radio City Music Hall to see the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes. Wow! It was fantastic and worth the money. We had a great time. We took our neighbor, Jay Steele, with us. About ten senior couples also attended. We had a great time.

Elder and Sister Wilhite, Elder and Sister Schouten, Elder and Sister Dalebout. Do you love Elder Dalebout's hat? It keeps his head warm.

The Rockefeller Christmas tree. It was really prettier at night, but I didn't get a picture.

Our office staff. We send this picture out, along with President and Sister Smith's, for the missionaries birthdays. The AP's, Elder Fox and Elder Duran (two great missionaries).

We went out for pizza with the AP's.

Winter's Eve in New York City--this was in front of the temple. An ice sculpture did his thing there.

The missionaries served over 1,000 cups of free hot chocolate and pass-along cards to passersby. This was in front of the temple.

This is the poster that was on display.

Dick and I traveled up to Connecticut for a Zone meeting so that we could inspect missionary cars. It was a really nice day and we got all the cars inspected. The missionaries did a lot of the inspecting, so it wasn't just the two of us.

Here is a picture of the Yorktown Zone--some in Connecticut and some in New York. We really do love these missionaries. That's the best part of our mission--working with the missionaries.

So, that has been our December in New York so far. More to come later.

Everything is Just Duckie!

After almost two weeks in Utah, I returned on November 13th, after having a wonderful visit with the Wood family. Jenny is doing much better and gaining strength each day. Lyla is beautiful and still a wonderful little baby. Dick and I took our walk through Garth Woods, which still had some leaves. We love this picture by the waterfall. It was good to be back together.

You all know my fetish with the word "Duckie." I just had to take a picture of this license plate. That is the epitomy of "duckie." I loved it.

On November 16th, my birthday, we had a training conference in Ossining, which is about 16 miles north of Scarsdale. We and the Schoutens took care of the luncheon. The highlight of the day was when about 60 missionaries sang "Happy Birthday" to me. That was fun. Of course, Dick told them it was my birthday.

Here is one of our couples who work up north. They are the Seamons. They're really fun people and we love them.

Here is another couple, the Claytons. They also work up north. Sister Clayton knows Marilyn Laursen in our home ward. Sister Clayton plays the cello in a little orchestra in Provo, along with Marilyn Laursen. They will be concluding their mission February 1st. They are a great couple and have done much for the mission--proselyting and member activation.

These two elders are not brothers, but I get them mixed up all the time. Elder Spencer is on the left and Elder Rimmasch is on the right. They are both great elders.

Sister Lythgoe looks a little pained as she is given a shot at the conference.

We made Elder Fox laugh while he was having his shot, so that he wouldn't faint. He asked me if he really had to have a shot, and I told him "Yes." Elder Fox is one of our AP's. He's a great guy, who reminds me of Billy.

This picture was taken a couple of days before Elder Dennis went home. Yes, he's is related to our own Ron Dennis. I think Elder Dennis even plans a stop in Provo on his way to Rexburg just so he can visit with Ron. Elder Dennis was a terrific missionary. Originally, he went to Brazil for nine months and then got very sick. He had to go home for about six months and get better. Then, he was reassigned to New York. We will truly miss him.

Elder Brogdon also went home. He is a fine young man, whom we have grown to love.

We had sixteen missionaries leave on November 18th. The day before they go home, they all attend the temple in Manhattan. Dick and I were able to go with them. The Schoutens had to stay in the office to make all the arrangements for the missionaries going home. Elder Dennis is missing from this picture. He stayed in the temple a little longer.

Here are Elder Simmons, Elder Brogdon, Elder Dennis (all going home) and Elder Fox.

It was a different kind of Thanksgiving this year. There were only six of us who got together: the Schoutens, President and Sister Smith, and us. So, it was very quiet, but very pleasant. We had them come to our apartment. We didn't see much of the Macy's Day Parade on television. But, we did see a few entries at the end. Here's Santa, who is the last entry and who welcomes in the Christmas holidays.

Our turkey this year was a crock pot turkey with cranberry sauce and BBQ sauce. It turned out really well. Sister Smith brought her famous rolls, and Sister Schouten brother several dishes. We had a semi-traditional Thanksgiving dinner. After eating, we sat and talked four about three hours. It was nice to be relaxed and not have to worry about the demands of the office.

President Smith told us to close the office on Friday, because the church offices in Salt Lake were closed. So, we went to the Natural History Museum. This is the museum where the movie "Night at the Museum" was filmed. It is gigantic and takes up two full blocks in New York City. Here we have a couple of the dinosaur skeletons.

Across the street from the museum is an eating establishment called "Shake Shack. They are famous for their shakes and their hamburgers and hot dogs. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to order our food. The hamburgers and fries were very good. Shake Shack is quite a popular place for New Yorkers. We told the man standing next to us that we had come clear from Utah to have a hamburger and fries. We also had a great shake--banana bread. It was really good.

The man who took this picture was standing in the street. We were glad he didn't get hit by a car.

After lunch, we went back to the museum.

At the end of our visit to the museum, there was a tree that was decorated with dinosaur origami. I had to take a picture of it. I didn't take many other pictures inside the museum, but we saw a most interesting exhibit on the human brain. It was quite fascinating. Also, there was a gigantic room containing ocean life and movies of fowls in the ocean. It's one of those museums you need to go back to see again and again because there is so much to see. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of the day.

We hopped on the train and immediately went to sleep until we reached Scarsdale. All in all, it was a nice Thanksgiving break. We truly have many blessings to be grateful for, especially the blessing of having Jenny and Lyla with us.

Two Tender Mercy Miracles

On November 1st, we got a text message from Ryan saying that Jenny was going into the hospital be be induced for her baby. After many hours of waiting, we got another text message saying that the baby was doing fine, but Jenny had to have an emergency hysterectomy because she was bleeding so badly. Lyla Jennifer Wood was born at 9:36 p.m. on November 1st. She was 7 lbs. 5 oz. and was 19 inches long. Basically she was perfect.

Jenny was in different shape. She lost about a gallon of blood and had to have 8 units of blood. After the hysterectomy was complete, she started to bleed internally, her blood pressure went way down, and she was as white as a sheet. She felt very bad and told the nurse she was fading. This was Tuesday morning early. Several doctors rushed into her room and started pumping her with fluids--about 4 gallons worth. This brought her blood pressure up and they were able to operate again. Before she went into the second surgery, she asked Ryan and their bishop (who was there) to give her a blessing. The doctor went in and put packed gauze inside her to sop up the blood. They did not stitch her up because they had to go in on Wednesday morning and take out the gauze to see if the bleeding had stopped. When they went in the third time, the bleeding had stopped and they were able to take the gauze out and close her up.

You can imagine how we felt being in New York and so far away from our daughter. On November 2nd, we decided that I should go home to be with Jenny. Our mission president said for me to go, so I hopped on a plane and went home. Thanks to Glen, who came to pick me up at the airport. We went to the hospital at 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday so I could see her. She was in surprisingly good spirits. We visited for a few minutes, and then I went to Glen's and stayed over night.

Ryan has been a rock through all of this. He would be with Jenny, and then he would go down to the nursery and feed the baby. He was the surrogate mother.

Here is Ryan with Lyla. This is the ICU unit of the hospital. They allowed the kids to come in to see Jenny. Notice all the tubes. She had a central line in her neck to accommodate several IV's.

Ryan, Milly and Lyla. Milly is five.

Ryan, Zack and Lyla. Zack is eight.

Ali and Lyla. Ali is eleven.

Spencer and Lyla. Look, they both have fohawks. Spencer is almost 13 (December 5th).

What a sweety.

Here is Jenny being transferred from ICU to the surgical floor of the hospital.

Here are the bruises from all the tubes and blood pressure equipment.

Amy Brennan Dalebout (Billy's wife) came to visit Shelby, her sister, who lives in Provo. She was able go to the hospital and visit Jenny and baby. Shelby is on the right.

Amy, Milly and Lyla

Many people sent flowers and gave baby gifts.

Jenny's feeling much better but still is hooked up to IV's, etc.

After nine days in the hospital, Jenny came home from the hospital. Baby Lyla came home on Thursday, November 4th. So, every day, Ryan would take the baby up for several hours so Jenny could be near her.

It was so good to have Jenny come home. Amy flew in from Kansas the day that Jenny was released and was able to help Ryan bring her home. Milly got her new costume for clogging and put it on so we all could see how she looked. Here are Milly and Zack. They did a clogging dance for us.

Here is Ali showing off her clogging top.

I look a little tired in this picture. I think my eyes just blinked at the wrong time. Isn't that baby darling.

Here's baby Lyla and her Aunt Amy. Thanks, Aunt Amy, for coming to help. It was good to see you.

And, look at the great family picture, where the whole family basically helped bathe Lyla. Doesn't Jenny look great!

We had a dinner and birthday celebration for me while I was there. Amy had a nice little Grandma's Brag book made for me, which had many pictures of Jenny's ordeal and a darling picture of the baby on the front. It was entitled: "Lyla Jennifer -- A True Miracle. Indeed, it was a miracle. As a matter of fact, it was two miracles.

I cherish this picture of my girls and Lyla. I love those girls so much. Thanks to Amy for coming and being a great support.

And, thanks most of all to this man. He is my hero. Ryan, you are a rock and such a great husband and father. He truly kept his family together. And, one other person I need to thank is Geri Wood. She has been coming to Jenny's house two days each week to help with laundry, ironing and transporting kids to all their activities. She is an angel.

How grateful I am to have such wonderful children. How grateful I am for the power of the priesthood, for faith in our Savior, and for the power of prayer. Many, many, many prayers were said on Jenny's and Lyla's behalf. Our prayers have been answered. We feel extremely blessed.

I was gone from New York about 12 days. Now, I'm home and have to get back to work. But, I am truly grateful that Dick and our mission president allowed me to be with the Wood family during a very critical time. It truly touched my heart.