Christmas 2012

Christmas 2012 has come . . . and gone!  It was much more commercialized than we remember in the years before we left for Guyana.  Everything, everywhere was about Santa Claus rather than about He whose birth we are supposed to be celebrating! 

Besides shopping, wrapping, mailing and cooking, we enjoyed having Kris here for a short visit in early December and having approximately 70 ward members and neighbors come to see our decorations and partake of our cookies and punch as one of four homes in our annual Christmas Around the Ward!  We put up our village above the stove in the kitchen and spread the Christmas cans around the house.  We also attended our ward Christmas party, a Relief Society Christmas dinner, a fun Rotary Christmas party at the St. George Art Center building . . . and went to lunch or dinner with several friends.

Stacy and her family came from dinner on Christmas Day.  We ate too much and laughed until our sides ached playing “Minute to Win It” – reminiscent of several such YSA activities in Guyana – and Skyped with family members far away!

It was a fun holiday season – our first traditional holiday season in the last three - though we missed having more members of our family here.  Christmas 2012 concluded on Boxing Day (December 26) with cataract surgery – a simple and quick little procedure which is expected to successfully clear up my foggy vision.  Cataracts develop for a number of reasons, but in my case it was as a result of the gas put in my eye to repair the macular hole.  I have had blurry, fuzzy, cloudy eyesight for more than six months and haven’t been able to drive at night because of the glare from oncoming headlights.  I’ve also struggled with a sense of having something in my eye. 

I have hope my sight is now restored.  Skilled surgeons are truly a gift beyond measure!  Merry Christmas.  

Playing by the Numbers

We recently had the opportunity to see our current Fair Issac Corporation score.  The FICO uses mathematical models to determine a lending institution’s credit risk for repayment based on payment history, a consumer’s current level of indebtedness, types of credit used, length of credit history and any new credit. A FICO score above 650 (from a range of 300 to 850) is considered to be a safe risk!

The problem with a FICO score is that it is very sensitive.  Shop for a new car - even if you don't buy one - it goes down!  Miss a payment on something - no matter how insignificant - it goes down!  Have half a dozen credit cards stuck away in a desk drawer - even if you've never even used them - it goes down! 

I always tried to teach my kids – and grandkids – if you have a FICO score of 650 or more and a current temple recommend, you are most certainly on the right track in life!!!

Meeting #11

Kris brought her “lover and best friend” for a first-time visit to St. George this weekend.  Our third daughter came home with tall, handsome Mike Muhlethaler, who is a partner in both a sales/marketing and a mortgage firm in northern California.   The couple traveled to Las Vegas for a Tim McGraw / Faith Hill concert and a quick trip to southern Utah to negotiate the "number of cows" Ed would accept for her hand in marriage.

He and Ed got along famously on the golf course, Kris is happier than we have seen her in a long time . . . and cow negotiations went well!

Together Kris and Mike have just bought a new home in Petaluma, CA (a small town of approximately 15,000 people about a “stone’s throw” from San Francisco). 

While they were here, Stacy, Rick and their family - including Taisley, Kendi and Danielle, Allysa, Josh and Daxton - came for dinner . . . and just as the food was being put on the table, Bruce and Jan Christensen and her daughter Jenny stopped by for "hugs and kisses" with Kris, who they consider their “foster daughter” and “step sister!”  We also celebrated Allysa’s 24^th birthday (December 6) with cake, ice cream and a boisterous rendition of “Happy Birthday” 

We were pleased to see these far-flung members of our family and look forward to an invitation to the wedding some day soon!