SNOW, SNOW, SNOW AND DEEP-FREEZE TEMPS

Last night, it snowed about 12 inches. We have had a snow storm every week for the past five weeks, and it seems as if it isn't going to stop. We get one or two days respite, and then it hits us again. Then, after the snow comes, it clears up and is so COLD. BRRRRRRRRRRR! The forecast is more snow tomorrow and Saturday and then again next week. And, I thought I would go to a warm climate because of my Reynaud's disease. It just didn't happen. Thank goodness for scarves, gloves and hand warmers, which my children gave to me for my birthday. This picture is looking out of our livingroom window. As we drove to work today, this is what we saw. Alot of people just simply don't go to work on days like these. I'm so glad we don't have to dig out our car every morning. We saw lots of people trying to dig out.

Scarsdale has a great snow removal system. They have PLENTY snow plows and a quick to clean roads and parking lots. Here is part of a wall of snow that is piled by the snowplows. It goes for about a block and a half.

This is one of the apartment buildings on our street.

Random shots taken from the car.

Last Saturday, it was SO COLD out--0 degrees in the morning with a high of 17 during the day. We ventured out to one of my favorite toy stores in the village. I always have a good time when I go into the store.

Here is a picture of our new AP's in the office, Elder Garside and Elder Zwahlen. They are the two G's and the two Z's--Elder Gavin Garside and Zachary Zwahlen. They are great elders. Elder Zwahlen is a whiz at computers and got his bachelor's degree in organ performance. Elder Garside is just a fun person to be around. We are enjoying them

We are keeping busy with office work; however, it has been a difficult month for me. I guess I have the January blahs. With all the snow and cold, it's hard when you can't get out and go walking. I'm getting cabin fever. I've been told that winter doesn't end here until mid or late March. Oh well.

It's Hard to Say Goodbye

January has been a wintery month with snow storms about once a week during the month. When it's fresh, it looks beautiful, but traveling in the snow is not fun. Every time we have snow, our missionaries are grounded from driving their cars, usually for a day until the snow plows and traffic clear off the snow from the roads. I must say that snow removal in Scarsdale is very good, nothing like the stories you heard about the snowstorm in New York City the day after Christmas. They literally bring in front-end loaders and huge dump trucks. The loaders load up the dump trucks and the trucks take the snow about three blocks away in back of a playground and pile the snow sky high.

In the office, things really changed at the first of the month. For one thing, our great AP's were released from their callings and sent back into the field to be zone leaders. We have truly loved Elder Fox and Elder Duran and we miss them. Here we are at Piper's Kilt, sending them off with one last meal at our favorite eating establishment.

We often have had missionaries come in the office to visit and pick up their mail. However, starting the second week of January, they have been asked to not come into the office--that they need to be concentrating on their missionary work. We miss having them come. They really sparked up the mundane office routine. Here is a group of our great missionaries.

Elder Dalebout, Sister Dalebout, Sister Hodge, Sister Dunagan, Elder and Sister Schouten and Elder Betenson. Elder Betenson is related to Dad. He is from the same line as Joyce Hemmert. His great grandmother was Martina Duffin, Joyce's mother. Elder Betenson returned home January 7th.

Elder Workman is from Provo. He went to Timpview High School. He's quite a character.

Elder Covel and Elder Ibisagba were transfered to a new area. We got a picture of them before they left.

Elder Duran and Elder Fox, just before transfers.

Before the outgoing missionaries leave to go home, they always take a trip to the temple. We are privileged to go with them. They left the next morning for home.

Elder Worthen (the tallest one) came to New York because he couldn't get his visa to go to Brazil. He was in our mission for three months and we really grew to love him. It was truly hard to say goodbye to him last week. He found out three days before he flew out that he was leaving. Elder Santo had to stay a few days before he left, so he and Elder Worthen were together for those days.

Elder Worthen was companions with Elder Sayao (on the left). They were a good team. Elder Sayao is from Brazil and is the sweetest, most gentle missionary. I really love him. He told me: "I'm crying on the inside," which means he was sad to be losing Elder Worthen as a companion.

We're all smiling in these pictures, but, like Elder Sayao, "I'm crying on the inside." It's hard to see them leave.

Post Christmas Fun

Christmas afternoon, Matt and Stacie left Canton, Michigan to come to New York. They stayed over night in Youngstown, Ohio. The weather was fine. The next day, they began traveling across Pennsylvania and things went well. As they entered New Jersey, the blizzard that was scheduled to hit New York was well into the swing of things. They were supposed to get here at 3:00 p.m., but ended up getting here at 6:00 p.m., just before the very worst part of the storm raged. We were so glad to have them here and know they had traveled safely. We really enjoyed their family.

We opened a few presents after they had dinner. Gumby and Pokey were hits with the kids. Our own kids played with those characters when they were little (not the same exact ones, however).

The boys got some books to read, and Grandpa enjoyed reading to them.

Amy and Billy watched, but when they got bored, they had their own little party. Amy and Billy stayed at Jay Steele's apartment so we weren't all cramped into our little apartment together, just Matt's and Stacie's family.

Of course, it wouldn't be a Dalebout gathering without a little horsing around. Here, Matt and Billy wedge themselves under our desk.

Scarsdale had 20 inches of snow. Here is a shot out of the foyer door.

Monday night, Amy and Billy and Stacie and Matt went to the city to see the Radio Music City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Dick and I stayed home and enjoyed the little boys. On Tuesday, Dick and I had to go into the office, but after three hours, we went with our family to one of our favorite eating places, Piper's Kilt, which has huge hamburgers and other good things to eat. These are shots we took inside the restaurant. Dad, Billy and Amy.

Matt and Owen.

Matt and Stacie

Jacob and Grandma

Matt, trying to get his mouth around that big Eastchester Burger. He really did enjoy it.

After lunch, we went back to the apartment, where we took more pictures. Here is Amy with Jacob and Owen.

Here's the whole group of us together. The cameras did all right by themselves. We love these people. Tuedsay night, Billy and Amy left, taking the Amtrak train from New Rochelle, N Y (about a 20 minute drive from Scarsdale) to Washington D.C. It was really fun to have them here.

On Wednesday, we took Matt's family down to Chinatown for a slosh around in the messy streets of New York. Some of the Chinatown missionaries showed us around Chinatown. This is the court building. Dick is standing with Elder Fan and Elder Barton.

Stacie, Matt, boys and Elder Faulkner and Elder Near.

Matt and Stacie on a colorful street in Chinatown.

The missionaries showed us where a good Chinese restaurant was. We had a nice lunch together.

We bought Jacob a New York hat, which he was very happy to get. Here is a picture of the family on the subway.

The next day, we went into the office for about four hours. Then, we came home and went to the model train show at the Botanical Gardens. It was so fun and really well done. I think I liked the homes, places of interest, etc. as much as I liked the trains themselves. Here is a depiction of Brooklyn Bridge.

This is a model of Penn Station. Jay, our friend, went with us. Jacob and Owen liked Jay and had a fun time with him.

This is a model of the old Yankee Stadium.

Model of the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center. All these models were made out of tree bark.

Matt and Stacie left to go into the city for a nice dinner at a special chef's place. I can't remember the name, but he is on the cooking channel. So, Jay, Dick and I took the boys to see the Gingerbread area. Here's Jacob standing in front of the gingerbread house.

Then, we went into one of the buildings, where Owen and Jacob ground wheat and cinnamon. We had a great time with the boys and they were soooo good. We love those little boys.

The next morning, Friday, Matt and Stacie and boys left Scarsdale about 8:30 a.m. They were able to make it back to Canton by about 7:30 p.m., which was much faster than when they came. The weather was good almost all the way. We had a wonderful Christmas with our family. We missed the other members of our family, but we truly enjoyed having Billy and Amy, Matt and Stacie and Jacob and Owen. It was a wonderful Christmas!

Getting Ready for Christmas

December has been a very busy month for us. There have been parties, getting ready for Christmas in the office, having company, visiting New York City, etc. We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and had great experiences with many people. Here are a few pictures of some of the events that we participated in. Here are four of our missionaries who work in the Inwood 1st Ward: l-r: Elder Rossell, Elder Pearson, Elder Richards, Elder Bandley. They have been great helps to us as we have done Family History.

Inwood 1st Ward has really fun parties. They are a young ward and have lots of enthusiasm for getting together. We enjoy being part of the ward.

After we had eaten, the Primary children reinacted the nativity. It was good to have some children do that this year since we couldn't do it with our family.

Here are the angels, shepherds and wisemen. There was a narrator who told the story while the children acted it out. The audience sang at appropriate times.

As I said before, the office was a bustling place during December, with many packages coming in daily. Our AP's (Elder Duran and Elder Fox) took many of the packages to the various zones to deliver them for Christmas. They worked sooo hard. These pacakges are on a dolly, so they could carry many of them at once.

The whole office staff assembled all these packages for the missionaries. Each packet contained a NYNY North Mission T-shirt, the story of "The Little Shepherd," two Christmas cards (one from the first presidency and one from the NYNY North Mission), a NYNY North Mission key chain and a Manhattan Temple pin, plus a See's chocolate Santa, which one of the parents of one of the missionaries sent for every missionary.

On Wednesday, December 22nd, Amy and Billy came to see us. They came by train from Washington D.C. to Penn Station. They had suitcases that they had to lug around up and down stairs at the train stations and through the subway, so it wasn't too fun to get here. But, they made it here around midnight. The next day, we went into the office for a couple of hours and then were going to go to Ellis Island. However, the wind was strong, so we decided not to go. We spent the afternoon putting together a puzzle that Billy bought Amy. Dick and I were not too helpful. We did a little, but Amy and Billy did most of it. It is a tradition in the Brennan (Amy's family) to do several puzzles at Christmastime.

It took about a day to finish. Here is the completed puzzle. Then, we watched the DVD of "Elf." It was pretty fun.

The next day, we went into the office for the morning. Then, we took the train down to Macy's Department Store and saw the great window displays. Billy and Amy were still trying to catch up on their sleep. Here they are taking a nap on the train.

Macy's store windows had scenes from Miracle on 34th Street. Here are a few of them.

We went inside Macy's Department Store. It was decorated so pretty, but there were tons of people eveywhere.

On the other side of Macy's, the windows were decorated with "Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa," scenes. Very clever.

Macy's is close to the Empire State Building. Here is a semi-picture of it. We walked down 5th Avenue and saw the window displays in Lord and Taylor's and Sacs 5th Avenue.

Then, we finished up at Rockefeller Center, where we took pictures of Dick and I and Billy and Amy.

We then went home and spent a quiet evening with Billy and Amy. We ate dinner, watched the DVD "Joy to the World,"
and read a Christmas story.

Christmas morning, we opened presents and prepared to go to the mission Christmas party. I had to make four batches of funeral potatoes. Three or four of us had to prepare the potatoes. Sister Smith and family prepared ham and green beans. We also had rolls. We enjoyed cheesecake for dessert. We were able to go into the chapel with all the missionaries and listen to each zone sing a Christmas song, as well as hear words from the scriptures about the birth of the Savior.
Then, the President read "The Little Shepherd."

After the program was finished, we went into the cultural hall and ate. The senior missionaries below helped serve the food. They are a congenial group of missionaries.

A slide show taken from missionary pictures was shown as the missionaries ate their lunch.

Here are a couple of cute sister missionaries, Sister Child and Sister Passantino.

All in all, we had a great Christmas. Amy and Billy enjoyed doing another puzzle in the afternoon. It was fun to have them here. Our good friend, Jay, left for a few days during Christmastime, and they were able to stay in his apartment.