On Sunday 22 December we attended the Raleigh 2nd Ward.  However we arrived at 10 am and their sacrament meeting began at 9, so we attended Gospel Doctrine and PH/RS.  Then we took the sacrament in the Hispanic Ward and returned to Heather's.

I forgot to mention that we had brought boiled peanuts with us from Ellijay!  We got Cajun style for Heather and Tom.  It's quite the thing here in Georgia.

"Boiled peanuts are popular in some places where peanuts are common. Fully mature peanuts do not make good quality boiled peanuts; rather raw or "green" ones are used. "Raw" denotes peanuts in a semi-mature state, having achieved full size, but not being fully dried, as would be needed for roasting or peanut butter use. After boiling in salt water they take on a strong salty taste and become softer with the length of cooking, somewhat resembling a pea or bean, to which they are related. The most flavorful peanuts for boiling are the Valencia type. These are preferred in the United States, being grown in gardens and small patches throughout the South. 

"Boiled peanuts are widely consumed and commercially available in an area of the Southern United States from southern Virginia, south to central Florida, as far north as Ohio and west to Mississippi. The peanuts are sold in the hull and either boiled with only salt or with a piquant spice mixture such as Old Bay. The latter are often called "Cajun boiled peanuts" in many recipes.

"Boiling peanuts has been a folk cultural practice in the Southern United States, where they were originally called goober peas, since at least the 19th century." (Wikipedia)

Several football games were on the TV while I read "Tales for Fifteen, or, Imagination and Heart" by James Fenimore Cooper.  An interesting fact about Cooper is that Cooperstown, New York, where the Baseball Hall of Fame is located, is named after his father.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

I finished reading "Yorktown Victory Center A Pictorial Guide."

Of course, we enjoyed our grandson 10-month-old Liam!

Grandmom and Liam

Liam with gift

Grandpop and Liam

Today we have had our Avalon for one year and we are just 51 miles shy of 32,000 for the year!

On Monday 23 December Heather's in-laws, Tom and Donna Dowd arrived from New York and watched Liam while Heather, Eileen, and I went shopping.

I finished reading "The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales" by Bret Harte which I had begun on 27 March.

Bret Harte (1836-1902)

On Tuesday 24 December Tom Sr. and I had some of Eileen's fruitcake for breakfast!  All four grandparents were up early playing with Liam.  

We sang "happy birthday" to Holly Hughes back in Georgia!

Ralph, Holly, and Eileen

Heather made a delicious supper with lamb, new potatoes, asparagus, and chutney for the lamb.

I finished reading "Mrs. Lirriper’s Lodgings" by Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

On Wednesday Christmas Day we had fun opening gifts, primarily those of Liam's, of course.  We enjoyed face-timing with Colleen and her family in Arizona, hearing and seeing their gifts and Sean assembling some of them.

We had a bit of excitement while Heather was making supper when the whole neighborhood lost power for about 10 minutes.

Heather made a delicious supper with boneless rib roast, scalloped potatoes, greens and bacon bits, and roasted brussel sprouts.  She is quite the chef as is Tom!

After supper the power went out again for a couple of minutes!

On Thursday 26 December we left Heather and Tom's about 9:45 am.  We made our usual stop at the New York Bagel Deli in Raleigh just north of Heather and Tom's.  Eileen got an Italian hero bagel sandwich and I got an American hero bagel sandwich.

We ate at The Boiler Room Steak House in Franklin, NC.  We went there for dinner with Laurene Mathis who was on our mission with us in Salt Lake City in 2010-2011.  The train ambience was cute!

The Boiler Room Steak House

Laurene and Eileen

Laurene and Eileen

We stayed overnight at the Comfort Inn in Franklin.

Comfort Inn

I finished reading "Life of Saint Columba Apostle of Scotland" by Frances Alice Forbes.  F. A. Forbes (1869 – 1936) was the nom de plume of Mother Frances Alice Monica Forbes, RSCJ, a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart from Scotland and a religious author. We heard a great deal of Saint Columba on our trip to the U.K.  

On Friday 27 December we checked out after our hot breakfast.  I left them the following notes:

"LDS Church

828-369-8329

33 Pine Ridge Dr.

Franklin, NC 28734

"RLDS is now Community of Christ 

"No TV listings in room 209.  We were told at checkout that they were "hidden" inside the envelope that they put our door keys in!

"Floor lamp shade needs replacing."

The drive home on US64 from Franklin to Hayesville was fun and scenic.  We got a couple of gallons of gas at a convenience store and the clerk said "Yes" to my two questions.  I will mail a Book of Mormon to her on 2 January.  We were the only vehicle heading west and I said that we'd run into a slowpoke sooner or later.  We did (see photo)!

Icy cliff

Lots of ice

Along US64

Log truck on US64

We got home safe and sound about 1 pm.  All well here!

In the evening we enjoyed watching the Christmas Concert 2012 with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Orchestra at Temple Square, tenor Alfie Boe, Tom Brokaw, and Col. Gail Halvorsen, the "Candy Bomber" of the Berlin Airlift, age 92.  He and his wife served full-time missions for the LDS Church in the 1980s in London, England, and in 1995 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City

Alfie Boe and Tom Brokaw

Col. Gail "Hal" Halvorsen

We celebrated Christmas ourselves opening our cards to one another and then our gifts.

Eileen got three Jim Shore figures from the Hallmark store, three Jan Brett books, the 2013 Frosty Friends figure which she has been receiving for over 30 years, a Madame Alexander doll figure, a bottle of English Clotted Cream, and a pearl and diamond ring from North George Diamond in Ellijay.

Along with my camera, which is shown below, I received New York Yankee pajamas and socks, two packages of my favorite candy Chuckles from Cracker Barrel, and Terry Goodkind book "The Third Kingdom."  And, of course, we gave each other very nice Christmas cards!

We put up the two framed pictures of the Dowd's and Liam with Santa that we got for Christmas.

Liam and Santa

Heather, Liam, and Tom

We enjoyed watching the "Best of Andy Williams Christmas Shows" and finally two episodes of "America's Test Kitchen."

I read "Old Ironsides" by James Fenimore Cooper.

On Saturday 28 December we watched the two-hour show on 20/20 about Downton Abbey, which we don't watch.  But the 20/20 show was very interesting.

Highclere Castle

Then Eileen enjoyed an episode of "Cook's Country."  I registered my new Canon camera online that I got from Eileen for Christmas.

Canon PowerShot SX510 HS

On Sunday 15 December we attended our own Ellijay branch and Eileen was sustained as 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency. There were two excellent talks about Christmas by stake high councilor Doug Cox and the young man who accompanied him, Drew Besson.  Gospel Doctrine was about "The Family: A Proclamation to the World."  It contains the Lord’s teachings regarding the family, given through the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve.  It was presented by President Gordon B. Hinckley at the general Relief Society meeting in September 1995.  Priesthood featured President Lorenzo Snow’s teachings concerning  Jesus Christ.  As a new member of the Primary presidency, Eileen attended Primary during Sunday School and Relief Society.  “The Primary is an organized program of religious instruction and activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for children from eighteen months of age until their twelfth birthdays. Its purpose is to teach children the gospel of Jesus Christ and help them learn to live it.” (Encyclopedia of Mormonism [1992])

In the evening we watched the first half of the Christmas Devotional broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City that we had missed the previous Sunday.

When the White’s were here a year ago, we visited the quilt store in Murphy, NC.  They had a table runner on display and Eileen was able to convince them to sell it to her.  It looked very nice on our dining area table.  It was put away after Christmas last year.  When Eileen wanted to use it again this Christmas, it could not be found anywhere.  We knew it had to be in the house somewhere!  We searched all over to no avail.  Finally a week or two ago I sat down on the edge of our bed and pondered where it could be.  I thought of all the places we might have put it and we had searched all of them.  Although not important on a scale of 1 to 10, it was upsetting my wife.  So I offered up a prayer to Heavenly Father that we would find it somehow.  No more than an hour later Eileen found it tucked between six white placemats in the dining room credenza!  It was a wonderful answer to prayer!

On Monday 16 December we had a visit from the Arrow Exterminator guy so that he could go over the inside of our home. 

He has gotten a Book of Mormon from us in the past and today we had a nice chat about the LDS Church before he left.

We went by the Ellijay post office and stopped by the dry cleaners where they have had Eileen's quilt for a month.  They said it was ready but it wasn't as they had mixed it up with another one!  We shopped at Walmart so Eileen could make Christmas cookies, i.e., Wheaties cherry blinks, Russian tea cookies, and shortbread.  She texted our son William, "I'm busy making Christmas cookies. Don't know who can eat them. I just love making them."  She had already made chocolate chip cookies.

Wheaties cherry blinks

We enjoyed watching "Disney's Christmas Carol" that we had recorded. 

I posted the following on Facebook:

"I do not believe in a God who would set up rules and commandments only to wait for us to fail so He could punish us. I believe in a Heavenly Father who is loving and caring and who rejoices in our every effort to stand tall and walk toward Him. Even when we stumble, He urges us not to be discouraged—never to give up or flee our allotted field of service—but to take courage, find our faith, and keep trying." Dieter F. Uchtdorf (member of the First  Presidency of the LDS Church)

As of 5 Jan 2014 20 people liked it and four commented about how they liked it!

On Tuesday 17 December Eileen went to the beauty parlor and I got my haircut. 

Barbara's

City Barber Shop in Ellijay

Eileen took a plate of her four cookies to her beautician Barbara Rittenberry.  I went by the post office to mail more Christmas cards and a Book of Mormon to a lady whom we met at the bakery department of Ingles Supermarket.  She lives in Epworth, Georgia.  We picked up our quilt (the right one this time) and my suit from the dry cleaners.  At home we enjoyed lunch (I had a slice of the fruit cake that Eileen had made) and watched episodes of America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country that I had recorded.  

Christopher Kimball and friends

I read "The Ugly Duckling" by Hans Christian Andersen.

Hans Christian Andersen
(1805-1875)

We visited Sabrina Bayless and showed her our Snapfish photo albums from our U.K. and Niagara Falls vacations. 

U.K. Beefeater

Niagara Falls

Eileen made cornbread using our niece Kristin’s delicious recipe for the funeral the next day of Cora Thomas's husband Charles.

We enjoyed watching a Father Brown mystery that we had recorded. The character was created by G.K. Chesterton and played by Mark Williams.

Mark Williams as Father Brown

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

On Wednesday 18 December we were at the Food Pantry in the morning.  This was the last Wednesday before the Pantry reopens in its new location on 8 January.

The new Pantry east of Ellijay

We mailed more Christmas cards and did some shopping, buying more Christmas cards and Christmas letterhead stationery for my Christmas letters as well as stopping at Walmart and Ingles.  We dropped off the cornbread at Bernhardt's Funeral Parlor in Ellijay.  We picked up the Times-Courier and some apples at R&A Orchards.

In the evening we watched "How Sherlock Changed the World," a two-hour show on PBS.  A review called it “A Study in Forensics, Through a Favorite Sleuth.”

On Thursday 19 December we enjoyed lunch with Ralph and Holly Hughes at Mike's Seafood Market & Grill in Blairsville

and visited with them at their home in Mineral Bluff afterwards.

Ralph and Holly's

In the evening we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

On Friday 20 December we enjoyed the Kids Ferst Christmas party at Paul & Joan Melton-Blomquist's on Walnut Mountain.

In the evening we watched the "Frosty the Snowman" movie with Andy Griffith.

I had finished our 186 Christmas cards and sent 16 e-mails with our Christmas letters attached.

On Saturday 21 December we packed the car and headed for Raleigh.  We took Heather our dehydrator and old FoodSaver.  Before leaving I read "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by Hans Christian Andersen.

Tin Soldier and Ballerina

I nibbled Eileen's trail mix en route and we stopped at the Dillsboro Chocolate Factory for sugar-free chocolates and fudge.

Dillsboro Chocolate Factory

We stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel in Asheville.

Christmas wreath
at Cracker Barrel

Cute display
at Cracker Barrel

Then it was on to Raleigh, a long drive in the rain and fog.  We may go back to doing it in two days in the future!  

Display on the rest stop wall

In Raleigh we went to Crabtree Mall to pick up some outfits for Liam at Baby Gap and Janie & Jack.

Crabtree Mall Christmas decorations

When we pulled up at Heather and Tom's, along they came with Liam and several friends caroling with Tom on his guitar!

Heather and Tom's in Raleigh

After unloading a lot of the car, I relaxed and read "Greetings from Longfellow" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Finally some poetry that I enjoyed as I had enjoyed "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," both by Longfellow.  I had long ago given up trying to read Wordsworth, Byron, and Whitman, etc.