Dorothy

January 15, 2010
Dear Family,
As usual, the Christmas and New Years season was enjoyable and has gone the way of the past all too soon. It was so nice to see Priscilla & Jim, Sarah, Bryan, and Isaiah on New Years, though our visit was brief, as well as Emily’s family. It was also good to have Tom’s and Emily’s family join us at Mom’s for Christmas Eve.

What an eventful time for Emily’s family (and such an astonishing change to their lot) to finally see some progress toward their plans for their dream home. May the outlook get better and better, and less and less frustrating!!

Backing up I’ll review our news and highlights since the middle of November. The week before Thanksgiving, Alan took two days off work to not only celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary, but to also look at possible sites between Salt Lake and Logan for our Tomlinson family reunion of which we are in charge of this summer. We secured a place between Logan and Brigham City. Yea!! We’re also looking forward to the Lindgren Family reunion this year. Thank you Priscilla for finding and securing a place for all of us this coming July.

Our family spent Thanksgiving Day with Alan’s brother’s family in Centerville. The following evening we had another big Thanksgiving dinner at our house with our children, including Jason’s family who couldn’t be with us the day before. It is always fun to find an excuse to get our kids together.

The first Saturday in December I held a piano recital for my students. I had it in the recital hall at Riverton Music for the first time. I usually do it at the church because it is closer and free. I think the students enjoyed the experience of playing on a beautiful grand piano this time.

The following week we drove to Orem and saw Daniel sing with the very professional UVU Chamber Choir and Masterworks Choral in their Christmas concert. Then just two days before Christmas we went to the Libby Gardner Concert Hall on the U of U campus and enjoyed the Christmas Concert by the Sterling Singers that Heather sang in. What would the Christmas season be without all that wonderful music?

When Alan was released as Bishop in October, he was called to the stake high council the same Sunday, so since then, the time he puts into his calling has slowed way down. He prepares and gives a talk in one of the wards every month and has his regular stake meetings and other assignments, but nothing like when he was bishop. Most of the time we leave for church together and come home together. Sometimes he doesn’t know what to do with his extra time…(for a minute that is).

My new calling is Stake Historian. My busiest time of the year for that calling is right now when I collect all of the ward and stake histories for the past year and send them to Church headquarters where they are stored in the archives of the Church History Library. They are also available for people to view if they are interested. The new Church History Library across the street from the Conference Center is very impressive and a place one could spend hours if they enjoy reading the history of anything related to the church.

We enjoyed our Christmas missionary phone call with Penny. Because we can hear better on our old land line phones, I bought a calling card to call her. Someone was at the end of each of the 5 phones during that short 45 minutes. Penny is doing well, keeping busy with lots of teaching appointments. She is currently in Lethbridge, Alberta. Her letter writing address always stays the same which is a good thing because she has lived in three different places since she arrived over 3 months ago, but still the same companion who is from Cottonwood Heights, Utah.

Sister Penny Sue Tomlinson Canada Calgary Mission
7044 Farrell Rd SE Calgary, Alberta T2H OT2 Canada

In the Christmas package from her, she included a box of Canadian “Crackers” which we opened New Years Eve. They are basically a party favor that includes a cracker-jack type toy, a slip of paper with a joke or riddle, and a tissue crown.

If you would like to be included in the list of those I forward Penny’s weekly e-mail letters to, just send a note to me at my e-mail address dorothyeLt@q.com

May your year of 2010 be full of joy and prosperity! Love, The Tomlinsons