HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January is half gone and we are glad about that.  Especially after all the COLD and stormy weather the new year brought us, actually just continuing some of our stormy December days.  We had such a special Christmas gathering on Dec. 17 and 18 with all 19 of our family at the farm.  It really did feel like Christmas then, especially when we didn't get to the Christmas service at Trinity on the 25th due to being blocked in our yard.

We headed to Calgary on Jan. 5 to visit Alan's family.  I had a Dr. appointment in Weyburn that morning to get prescriptions renewed so we only went as far as Swift Current that day.  We got to Derek and Jackie's on Friday afternoon.  The boys were still on holiday 
break and had the city wide Esso Minor Hockey tournament starting on Sat.  It was a good time to visit as Alan got to see both Ben and JJ play hockey.  We went to practices on Friday evening.  I went with Jackie and Ben. Alan went with Derek and JJ. Derek coaches JJ's team.  On Saturday we made it to both the boys' games, in different rinks.  JJ and Derek were off to a practice on Sunday at 7:00 am but we weren't  up for that one!  

3 generations of Lutz" boys" - Alan, Derek, JJ

After a morning game on Sunday we moved to Nancy and Trevor's to visit with them, Bram and Holly.  I even got to play a game of Scrabble with Bram. (I didn't win. A Bingo helped him a lot and is always fun to get with its extra 50 points for a word when you use all 7 of your letters!)  I'm so used to playing the game online so it was fun to go back to playing on a board and using a Scrabble dictionary again.  We left there on Monday morning around 8 as we wanted to get home that day for dental appointments on Tuesday.

There were icy spots south of Calgary, a few cars in the ditch and tracks that showed more trips to the ditch but we made out fine.  We have winter tires on our car for the first time.  The way winter started out it seemed like a good investment this year.  We stopped at Redcliff A and W for lunch and enjoyed supper at Joey's Only in Weyburn and were home by 7:30.  Home sweet home!

The next day we went to Estevan for our dental appointments, stocked up on groceries and headed home after picking up books at the library.  It was good timing as the next three days were bitterly cold with windchills in the minus 40 range.  Playschool was cancelled on Thursday and we couldn't get out of the yard anyway and it was no use to clean it out until the wind calmed down.  It was a good time to do some reading or watch curling from Las Vegas.

On Saturday morning Alan got the tractor going and cleared a path from the garage to the road.  Snow was packed and a few feet deep in places where it had drifted in a lot.  I ventured down to Ambrose that afternoon to get the mail.  There were parcels for Laurel and Shauna and one for me too.  We all enjoy online shopping!

On Sunday we made it to Trinity for 9:00 am service for the first time in a month!  It was my turn to play and also to read the scripture lessons.  

After the service we enjoyed birthday cake with Dorthea Sabin who turned 98 the day before.  Here's a picture of her with some of her family.  Today is Randy's birthday so Happy Birthday to you!

Dorthea with Randy, Arlette and Vi lighting the candles
(she decided not to do 98 of them!)

After coffee and birthday cake we headed for Estevan as Eric was playing hockey at 1:45. We had time for lunch at Boston Pizza (thanks for the gift card, Nancy!) and picked up a few groceries at Co-op.  Estevan was the tougher team today with a score of 5-2.  

Kirk, Shauna and Carter were at the game while Lindsay and Jamie took in a movie.  Carter just got his learner's license so he was the proud driver.

Today Alan went back to the dentist to get his temporary crown replaced.  The permanent one will be ready on Thursday at one. That works out well as I have a haircut scheduled for Thursday at 1

Clare had a snow blower come in the yard this morning to move some snow so he can get his truck out of the quonset. It's a calm day, a rarity this last while.

Thank you to those of you who sent cards, letters, and pictures at Christmas.  I still have some letters and pictures to get off as I wanted to enclose a picture of our family at our gathering on the 17th.  It's so good to keep in touch!

Now it's time to sign off if anybody is still reading my blog after no new post for a month!!  I'm soon at blog post # 600 so I'll have to think of something special for that one.