Janet's Blog

Merry Christmas! The trees have been up and decorated since the end of November. The presents are piled high. The lights are shining brightly inside and outside of our house. This week's blizzard brought enough snow to last until January, so our Christmas will surely be white. And, most important of all, we are ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior, who is with us still, through life's ups and downs. This has certainly been a year of ups and downs. Here are a few highlights (and lowlights): I am glad that my vision is good enough for me to drive back and forth across Nebraska. The beginning of the year found me making that trip more and more often, to visit Mom in the nursing home, and to help Dad make the transition from home to assisted living, and then to the the nursing home, where he was able to share a room with Mom for the last days of his life. It was a privilege for me to spend so much time with both of them at such a difficult time, and to be with my brother and

Levi and Victoria helped me decorate our house for Christmas last week, as they usually do. Levi carried the tubs of decorations up and down the basement stairs, to and from the storeroom, helped me set up and decorate both of our trees, and handled most of the outdoor decorating himself. Victoria set up both nativity sets. We've done it this way for several years, although this is only the second year Levi has decorated outside without Bill's help.  As we were decorating, I noticed just how much stuff we have accumulated these last 48 years. 48 years!  48 years ago, Bill and I were finishing the semester at our respective colleges, before he graduated and we got married just a few days before Christmas. We chose to forgo a honeymoon, instead opting to spend our first few days of married life getting settled in our new apartment in Lincoln. We had been gathering together the furniture we needed--a neighbor of Bill's folks gave us a gently-used double bed mattress, his grand