Thursday, December 22, 2016

Brandon continues his quest to get the Peterbilt and its trailer cleaned up.  He worked first on the trailer, then on the Pete itself.

There’s a lot of surface area to get washed on this trailer.

Once this is washed and polished, Brandon plans to use a different truck for winter deliveries of grain…so that this one can stay shiny.

Ross is home recuperating from an operation on his ankle.  He has his feet up as he waits for the healing to come.  He will have a few weeks during which he’ll have to keep weight off his ankle, but knowing Ross, he will surprise the doctors with his progress.

We had a sad call last evening, when Don Hatton called us to tell us that his wife Anita had passed away.  Don is a retired Marine, and spent many years working for us here on the farm.  It’s like Don and Anita are part of our family.  They celebrated a 60th anniversary this year, and since his retirement, they have been inseparable.   We share Don’s grief.

Pat and I are pleased that all three of our sons will be coming home for Christmas.  Philip has arrived in Indy, and will accompany Ben home sometime tonight.  Ben is working today, and will begin his day in New Orleans (or should I say, “Nawlins”?).   I think his day takes him through DC, before arriving back in Indy.   John and his family are having his in-laws this weekend, so we will be getting together on Sunday evening.  At least, that’s the plan, and we hope it all works out.    We have determined that we will be the ‘flexible’ ones.  It is more important that we have some family time together, rather than insisting on our grown sons to conform first to our schedule.

When Christmas lands on a Sunday, that adds a little wrinkle, for we feel it is important to be in church, as usual.  Therefore, we work our day around that, and not put our celebration above or before participating in worship.

There will be no ‘white Christmas’ here in SWIN this year.  Although our pond is still covered in a thin coat of ice, the days have been warming this week, and a high of 58ºF is predicted on Christmas Day.  Perhaps we will also have some rain.  Looks like the ‘white’ part will be here early next year.

We trust your preparations for Christmas are wrapping up.  We hope you’re including in your plans a special way to celebrate the Savior’s birth.

Merry Christmas, everyone!