Thursday, December 12, 1978
Dar Mother, Dad, and Mary Virginia,Hi! Your letter arrived yesterday. It must have taken its time getting here. Of course, it is getting close to Christmas so perhaps it is getting a little bogged down. I guess next week I will probably mail your letter to Phoenix. Glad we got to talk to you on Saturday and hope you had a nice birthday, Mother.
We had a busy day on Sunday. Breakfast with Santa was at 8:30. They were set up for about 100 people and I would guess about 130 showed up. Fortunately we were there in plenty of time so we didn't have to wait for more tables to be set up. They had cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs with bits of ham, and hot chocolate. Wendy didn't eat much as there was so much excitement and she couldn't be bothered. We sat at a table with the church organist and her husband who we found out is the Superintendent of Schools. He started out as a music teacher and she said he "worked his way up." They have two sons in their 20's and an 8-year-old daughter who was there. After we'd eaten Santa came and all the kids got to talk to him. We thought Wendy could wait until next year. After that we went to church and then made a quick trip home to change our clothes and meet this other family that we went with to get the Christmas tree. We took Justin, Judy's (Gerry's secretary/clerk) 7-year-old with us. We went to the Deschutes National Forest – about 40 miles southwest of here. It costs $2.00 per tree for a permit. We got a nice one – about 10 feet high – so it had to be trimmed before we could get it into the house. Justin also cut one about 3 feet high for himself as his mother has an artificial tree. There was about 8-10 inches of snow on the ground there and Justin had brought his sled so we stayed for a couple hours playing around in the snow. There was one little incline Wendy could slide down just in her snowsuit since it is made out of nylon she slid real well. She really seemed to enjoy it. We were sorry we hadn't taken the camera to get some pictures.
We had a snack at a restaurant in Sisters and then came back to Madras and went to the open house at the parsonage. They had lots of goodies – Christmas breads, little pecan pies, horns with whipped cream, etc. Perry (as the preacher likes to be called) said that the institute he is going to in January in Wisconsin runs the 15th through the 26th so he probably won't be here when you are here as he plans to return on the train. I told him how disappointed you would be. He said that the Methodist Church here is so much less traditional than in the East that you might be the ones who were disappointed. I told him you were very open-minded! He also said that the bishop here is Jack Tuell. Do you know him? Oregon and the part of Idaho south of the panhandle are in the same conference.
Wendy gets a little steadier on her feet every day. We went outside for about 1/2 hour this morning and she was standing up and walking around most of the time. There is a concrete slab about 6' x 8' directly outside the kitchen door. That is our patio of sorts. She has a hard time walking from the grass onto the cement and vice-versa but other than that she does real well. There is sort of a cat-in-residence here who is very friendly and Wendy likes to follow it around. She can say "What's that?" plainly enough now especially since she points her finger at the same time. She has also started using her spoon to put food into her mouth. Before she was just banging it around on the high chair. Anything solid she still uses her fingers though. She goes to the health clinic this Thursday for a measles shot. They have shots for tots the second Thursday of every month. We should have our latest pictures developed by next week so I'll send you some at Roberta's.
Love, Catherine, Gerry & Wendy
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