Merry Christmas

 

December 2020

Dear family and friends,
    As this year comes to a close we have many things to be thankful for. The year started off just like many others. We were busy with activities for the kids; some evenings it felt like we were being pulled in so many directions. Then came March. The schools closed and turned to on-line virtual teaching, church meetings moved to our front room, Neal started working from home, and family life slowed down. Now eight months later, the kids are still doing school from their computers, Neal works most days from his home office, in-person church meetings are limited, and we have enjoyed a lot of great family time. It is a good thing: our family has grown closer and we have enjoyed less stress this year.
    This summer we drove to Indiana to visit Neal’s brother’s family. We had a great trip and the kids loved being with their cousins. Neal enjoyed helping his brother build a play room in the attic. His mother was also there, so we had a nice visit with her. We went to Utah to visit our  sisters and their families. We spent time with each family separately instead of gathering all together. While there, Neal took Andrew and Spencer backpacking and hiking with the best of friends. It was refreshing to be in natural environments. The additional effort required to be there made the trip more special.
    In August, Becky was able to return to Utah to attend her nephew’s wedding. It was a nice trip that afforded time to visit with her mom and her brother, who was also staying at their mom’s home. They enjoyed gathering all together for the wedding, which was a simple one in the backyard of her nephew’s home.
    The kids returned to school virtually. They are doing fine with it, even though they all miss seeing friends and being around other students. It is a different way of learning. The teachers are doing an excellent job helping the kids with the on-line classes. We are thankful that the kids are good independent learners and do so much on their own. It is nice to have everyone home for lunch time and we enjoy hearing what everyone is doing in their classes.
    During the summer, Neal took the boys exploring and fishing in wilderness areas. He pushed the limits of his abilities in bicycling and made some simple furniture at home.
    Becky has worked on sewing a quilt—maybe someday it will get done. She also works on scanning old pictures and organizing them. She has listened to many audio books while going for walks and doing yard work or other tasks around the house. We all enjoy having quiet evenings with our family. We read scriptures together and learn from each other. It is nice to have the relaxed schedule with hardly any appointments.
    We would have to say that even though we didn’t ask to live with all the government restrictions or the pandemic, we are thankful for this year and the things it has taught us. We are thankful for family. We are thankful for Neal’s stable job to provide for us. We are thankful for church and the friends we have there. We are thankful for a prophet who is so positive and kind. We love Christmas time as a time to reflect on the year and on our testimonies of our Savior. We know he was born and lived an amazing life. He died to fulfill the plan of God for us and He was resurrected. We know that Jesus lives now. He is leading and guiding us as we turn to him. We are thankful for that.
    Caleb: This year has been very different. Not only has COVID affected the lives of many, including us, but there has been much more. I have discovered a new program where I can create music, which has been very helpful in my steps towards becoming a musician, but not only an amateur. I’ve hit five feet tall, even a little over, which I sure am excited about. School has been different this year. I’ve started fifth grade, which is the last in elementary school. I have started to get used to going to school on a computer, though it is sometimes frustrating and I very much wish we could actually go to the building. Though I do believe that I am getting along fine with the new schedule. Most of all, I am happy for the coming Christmas and all the fun family time we are going to have together here at home! I only wish that all of you could join our family for the holiday season. Merry Christmas!
    Spencer: I enjoy building with Technic Lego and reading lots of books. I have found a fun driving game on the computer, and I have had lots of free time with online school. I enjoy playing saxophone with the band. I hope that next year I can go more places than I did this year, though I did go on many fun campouts. I also hiked to the top of Mount Timpanogos and Sandia Peak this year. It’s hard to remember everything from this year, so Merry Christmas.
    Andrew: I have gone on some fun campouts and fishing trips this year. We went to the San Pedro Parks and San Gregorio Reservoir in New Mexico, and we camped at White Pine Lake in Utah. I have also been working on other things with the time I have had. I have been doing yard work for my neighbors to earn some money. I continue to work on my model railroad. I had fun growing peppers in the garden and helping with our yard. I enjoy playing trombone and recently made it into one of the New Mexico All-State Jazz bands.
    Ruth: This year has been a unique one, and I’ve enjoyed spending more free time at home. Over the course of the year, I’ve enjoyed trips to visit family in Utah and Indiana. This fall, I started my senior year and have been working on college and scholarship applications. I also spend a lot of time working on my big writing projects. The year has been busy, but I’ve enjoyed the things I’ve been able to do.

Love,
Becky, Neal, Ruth, Andrew, Spencer, and Caleb

October

    I don’t feel like I have much to tell this month. The kids stay busy with their school work. They are still doing everything from home, but it seems to be going okay. Neal goes into the office a couple of days a week, but still works from home a lot. Things are rather mundane and follow the sameness every day. But we are all doing well.
 

    I am thankful that church activities have started up again. The kids have had different times of gathering with their youth groups and doing things outside or in the cultural hall. I had a Relief Society activity in the church parking lot. We set up chairs and visited. It was nice to see people and connect with them. I also enjoy going to my book club. Our ward has started meeting all together again for church. They spread out through the cultural hall and ask families to stay separate from other families. It is nice to be together again. I am enjoying doing some zoom meetings with extended family too. It is good to see people and hear things they are doing.
  

  Ruth had fun going to a party at a friends home. They invited a few people over to celebrate the twins 18th birthday. Ruth also gets lots of mail from colleges around the country. They see her good test scores and are sending things to recruit her. One fun thing was a recruiting packet from BYU that had a car magnet of a Y. She immediately put it on her car. She also did a survey for BYU at one time and won a t-shirt from them. She was glad to get it in the mail and had fun wearing it this week. BYU is still her top choice for university, but she has applied to others as well. Her high school announced the graduation date for May 13. We hope that they can do some sort of ceremony for her class.

 

   I had my birthday this month. It was a nice day. General Conference was that week end. So I basically sat around and watched TV all day. Neal fixed a nice dinner for us. Ruth wanted to make and decorate a cake for me. It was fun to have them do things for me. I enjoyed the fresh flowers and small gifts from Neal too. The evening before Neal and I went to dinner together. We got some take-out and then drove to a spot on the hill that overlooks the valley and watched the sun set as we ate and talked.
 

 

   Caleb had fun going to a friend from school, Evan’s, birthday party. They held it at a park and the boys were running around playing with Nerf guns. It was nice for him to play with a group of boys. I enjoyed visiting with the other parents there.
 

   I am still working on scanning negatives from my mom’s picture collection. I scanned some pictures this week of Rachel playing with Uno cards and stacking towers with them. Caleb thought it was amazing and wanted to try. He has been working at it, but hasn’t reached Rachel’s abilities yet. I enjoy seeing the old pictures and having so many memories come back to me.
 

Rachel, 1988

    The kids had a fall break with a couple of days off school. We didn’t go anywhere but they had fun not being on the computers for school work. Ruth, Spencer and Caleb made wooden swords. They put them together and then painted them. It was a good project for them to work on together and they had some fun with it. After getting a few smashed fingers and whacks from each other we made it a rule that they should probably only do sword fights with imaginary foes.
 

 

   The missionaries in our ward are working hard. I had the opportunity to help them a bit with an investigator who had a baby. I organized some meals to be brought in for her. I also fed the missionaries one evening. Because of the virus spreading more right now, the missionaries can’t eat with us, but they came by and picked up a meal to take home to eat. We missed having them in our home to visit with. It is fun to hear that Peter made it home safely from his mission. It is great he was able to serve. Then last night James opened his mission call. He will be serving in Syracuse New York, leaving the end of December. Missionaries are great.
 

   I had an opportunity this month to go to the temple with a sister who was going for the first time. I had been a ministering sister to her a couple of years ago. She wasn’t attending church at that time and hadn’t for decades. The sister who ministered to her after me started bringing her to church. It was fun to see her at church and to see her change as she tried hard to live the gospel. She was raised in the church but was never very active as an adult. Then at 90 years old she was able to go to the temple. I am thankful I was invited to be with the group. It was special to be there. After the endowment session she was sealed to her husband, he had passed away many years ago. It was a special day. I am so thankful for the temple and the blessings that come into our lives because of it.

September

    We are a few weeks into virtual school now and things are going okay. The kids have gotten use to the routines and doing their work at home. The teachers are doing an amazing job at teaching and giving interesting things to do. Andrew told me tomorrow he has a chemistry assignment to do some experiments at home. I guess we will see what that all entails. I don’t need to help them much, that is nice. They work independently and are keeping up with the things their teachers are asking of them. They all wish they were in regular school, but are making the best of the situation.
 

    Neal is still working from home most days. Today he is in the office. He keeps busy with work. Last week he took a couple of days off and spent time at home. It was the end of their fiscal year and he decided that was okay to take some time off. I keep busy with the regular stuff around the house. It is a bit different having everyone home all day. I try to keep quiet and not be a distraction to their work. That also means I am listening to a lot of audio books through my ear buds. I enjoy the things I can listen to. I am working on my knitting. When I was in Utah this summer my mom and sister Susan showed me how to knit. Mom gave me some knitting needles and I have been practicing on some old yard. This week I started working on a wash cloth out of new nicer yarn. It is a slow process, but hopefully I can get the knack of it soon. Then I can try figuring out other stitches.
 

    We all went to the dentist this month for check ups and cleanings. No cavities, that is good for all six of us to get that report. Andrew is still in braces and wishes they would say he is done. But, they are trying to get his bite just right and will check him again in October.
  

  As a family we went out to the west side of the city to the Petroglyphs National Monument and walked around. It was nice to do something together away from home and I enjoyed a walk through a canyon looking for petroglyphs. Neal and Andrew went camping one week end. They went back packing into the San Pedros area and Andrew brought his fishing things. He caught multiple fish and they enjoyed some quiet time in the mountains.

 

 

 

    We had the missionaries over for dinner. It was the first time in a long time. The missionaries now have approval to eat at members home, if they can eat outside. It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed having our dinner outside with them. We enjoyed visiting and watching the sun set. It was good to have them with our family.
  

  We also had some friends invite us over to eat with them. It was nice to see them and visit with them in their home. Caleb had fun playing with his friend Rafael and the others enjoyed being there too. I am glad they invited us over. It has been hard not to be social for six months and we all need those interactions. I was happy to hear yesterday that we will go back church meetings every week in person, just for sacrament meeting for now. It will be so good to get back to normal activities.
  

  The kids have started having more church activities with their friends. Andrew had fun playing pickle ball with his group this week. Last week Ruth enjoyed visiting with her friends at the church. Spencer’s group is in the planning stages for things. He also likes to go bike riding with Jonathan. Caleb has enjoyed visiting with his friends. Seth and Caleb get together about once a week at each others homes and have a lot of fun playing together. We also went to a park one afternoon with the Aragon family and enjoyed playing there. I enjoyed going to a book club meeting, the first in person one in months, and ended up talking to some of my friends until 11:00 that evening. It is so nice to be around other people. I know that the virus is still out there and that people are still sick, but we can be careful and wise and try hard to stay well. We can’t isolate ourselves forever.
 

    Ruth worked hard and got her BYU application finished in three weeks. It was so nice that all the people she requested recommendations from were prompt in responding. She worked hard on her essays and had Neal and I review them for her. She had a lot of good things to say. She is so excited about attending BYU, I really hope she gets accepted. We will have to wait until February to find out though. Yesterday we did a virtual tour with two nice BYU students via zoom. That was a fun thing too. She is working on scholarship applications now. She has turned in an application for BYU-I and plans on applying to UVU and UofU. Ruth took the SAT at the end of August. I was glad that this testing date didn’t get canceled, like it did last March. This week she got her scores, she got 1490! That is an amazing score. I am proud of her.
  

  Last week Ruth had a friend take some pictures of her for her senior year. I tagged along and gave moral support. It was fun to watch the photo shoot. It is great to see Ruth growing up and seeing her wonderful personality and know that she will accomplish great things in her life.

Fun Summer Activities

    The summer time is coming to an end. It has been a different summer, yet not that different. We were able to do some fun things together as a family. Andrew and Spencer spent some time at Mr. Hovey’s home working on train things too. (He is the adult leader of their train club.) One evening Neal had a fun idea of doing log throwing. We went out into the open space and into the area where water flows after a rain and is full of sand. Neal and Andrew carried down some of the logs from our wood pile. The kids had fun trying to throw the logs and see how far they could get them. I tried, it was hard. Neal was the winner for throwing the farthest.

That is our house in the back ground. It was a pretty evening.

    Andrew, Spencer and Neal did some hikes this summer. They first hiked Sandia Peak, the one we see outside at home. It was Spencer’s first time. Things went well, so when we went to Utah at the end of July the three of them hiked Mount Timpanogos, the mountain we see from my mom’s house. They joined with some of Neal’s friends and they had a great time hiking the mountain, looking at the wild flowers and seeing lots of goats. 

These three pictures are from Sandia Peak. Below are pictures from Timpanogos.

    We enjoyed our trip to Utah. We visited with my mom and were at her home for a few days. While the others were hiking, Ruth, Caleb and I went to BYU to walk around. Because of the pandemic they aren’t doing tours this year. Ruth wanted to see the campus and think about being a student. We walked all over and I told her about the different buildings and things I remembered about the university. Caleb got tired and sat on a bench for a while until we circled around to him again. It was a Saturday and the campus was very quiet. The buildings were all locked and we only saw a few people out. We ended our tour with ice cream at the creamery, at least that building was open. We also drove by the apartment we lived in when Ruth was a baby and in Orem we drove through the neighborhood I grew up in. It was a nice day.

Me with two of my sisters. We celebrated Andrew's birthday early.

    One day in Utah we drove up Provo Canyon and visited Bridal Veil Falls. It was pretty and Andrew, Neal and Spencer hiked up to the falls. It was too steep for me. Ruth, Caleb and I walked on the paved trail for a bit and enjoyed that. We also drove up to Vivian Park and the boys enjoyed looking at some old train cars that were parked on the rails there. 

Another day we visited Grandma Hubbard and had a nice afternoon at her home. We also stopped at the cemetery and visited Grandpa’s grave and saw the nice marker on it. We enjoyed looking at some of Grandpa Hancock’s things. Andrew looked through his tools and organized the tool box. It is good to remember their grandfathers.

Caleb wearing Grandpa Hancock's hat, he loved BYU.

Visiting with Rachel at her home. She fed us lunch one day.

    On Andrew’s birthday, August 5th, we drove to my sister’s home in Hyrum Utah. Jeanie had a nice lunch for us and we enjoyed visiting with her. We went to a park close to her home and her two children came over as well. It was fun visiting with them. Caleb had a good learning experience. Andrew saw some cattails growing and carefully pulled one out and was having fun swinging it around. Caleb wanted to follow along and went over to the cattails and reached out to pull one out and stepped onto what he thought was green moss or funny grass. Well, it wasn’t, it was green algae on the surface of water. Thankfully the water was only about a foot deep. I was worried because if the water had been deeper there could have been serious problems, but, the biggest harm was that he was covered in stinky, slimy mud, algae and water. He was upset, but learned what that green stuff was. Andrew was kind enough to get him a cattail and we continued walking to the park. At the park there was a little creek flowing through the grass, the same one that continued into the brush where he fell in, but at the park the water was clean. Caleb got in the water and played around a bit and was able to clean off. He was fine after awhile, when his clothes dried. 

Playing with dogs at Jeanie's house

    After lunch we drove over to Young Ward, just across Cache Valley, to where Neal’s sister and her family live. Andrea wasn’t home because she had her own adventure that day with Joseph breaking his arm. But, Grandma Hubbard was there and the other kids. We had fun visiting with cousins. When Andrea returned most of the group went in kayaks down a creek. They had lots of fun with it. Caleb didn’t want to go, so he stayed home with Joseph and they talked and watched a movie together. That evening we celebrated Andrew’s birthday with some cake and ice cream. He said it was a great birthday to be able to play with cousins. We stayed over night with them and enjoyed playing at their home and visiting with their horse the next morning.

Ruth, Me and Mom

My sister, Mandy, and her family

    On August 7th we drove to Manitou Spring, CO. We stayed in a motel that night. On Saturday morning Neal met with some friends to ride their bikes up to the summit of Pike’s Peak. I was with the kids and we took our time leaving the motel and then we drove the road up. It is unique to have a paved road up to the summit of a 14,000 foot peak. We met Neal and Jim part way up and refilled their water. Then we drove to the parking lot where we needed to get onto a shuttle to go to the summit. On the summit there is a new visitor’s center being constructed, so parking was limited. They had people using the shuttles to go all the way up. I didn’t mind riding and letting someone else drive that last stretch, it was steep, with hairpin curves and not many railings at the side of the road. The kids and I made it to the top and we walked around and saw what we could see with the construction. We were thankful we had jackets on as while we were waiting for the shuttle it started to snow. It was cold and windy. The views were amazing and it was neat to be up on a mountain like that. I bought the kids a treat and we took our time looking around. Then we went on the shuttle back to the car. While in the shuttle we saw Neal and Jim almost to the summit. When we were at the car we ate lunch, looked around and rested a bit. Then we started down. It was slow driving and I had to be careful on the narrow road. We caught up with Neal and Jim and actually arrived back at the motel at the same time. They were happy they did the ride and said it was good to do.  After the ride we drove into The Garden of the God’s that was near by. It was a Saturday afternoon and the place was too crowded. There was no parking so we just drove through a loop and then got on I-25 and headed home.

    Neal has been doing a lot of bike riding. He is doing road biking and can go 50-70 miles at a time. Pike’s Peak was a 50 mile ride. He has gone on the road to the top of Sandia Peak multiple times now. He likes to go on long rides and push himself with it. Many times he rides his bike to work (when he does go into the office, he is still mostly working from home.) On our Utah trip he took some early morning rides to Utah Lake and around the valley.
    We got home from our vacation in time to start school. It is a different school year. The school district is doing it all virtual right now. The kids received chrome book computers to use. They have a schedule and “go” to class by logging into google meets with their classes. The school district uses the google educational platform, they have for a few years now, but now they are utilizing it fully. We have just finished the second full week of school and it is going well. The kids are getting into the schedule and working on their classes. It has been a bit of a slow start with content, but most of the teachers are getting into their subjects now and really teaching things. Everything is graded and will count on transcripts so Ruth and Andrew are motivated to do well with their high school classes. Ruth is in 12th grade, Andrew in 10th, Spencer in 8th and Caleb in 5th. This is our last year of elementary school!

    In our area the church leaders have given the youth opportunities to meet in person once a month with just their class. Andrew’s group has had some fun with activities once racing their R/C cars in the church parking lot and then playing a frisbee game another time. Spencer’s group met at a leaders home and had fun playing outdoor ball games and eating pizza. I am glad that they can meet in person. It has been hard for them not to be around friends. Spencer has gotten together with Jonathan to bike ride or visit. Andrew was doing bike rides with friends during the summer time. Ruth visits with her friends and goes out with them for simple things, like meeting at a park to eat lunch. Caleb had a friend over this week. He was so happy to see Seth and play with him. It was good for them both. They need more interactions with other kids. That is one thing I don’t like about school being virtual, there is very limited interaction with other kids.
    Ruth is still working at Kumon. This week she was promoted to work more in the office. She also still helps the kids and grades some of the papers. I think this is good to have the office experience. She enjoys working there and being with friends there. This week the BYU application opened for seniors. Ruth was excited to get on and start filling it out. She is working on it and wants to get things turned in quickly. She really wants to go to BYU and has good chances at being accepted. Tomorrow she will take the SAT. I am sure she will do fine.
    Andrew has been working for three people doing yard work. He does a good job for them and they always compliment his work to me when I talk to them. He has enjoyed earning some money this summer.
    I decided to cut my hair. I have been thinking about it a long time but finally did it. And, because I waited so long to do it my hair was long enough to donate. I had a nice 13 inch ponytail that I sent into Wigs for Kids. I hope that it can be helpful to someone. I have enjoyed having my hair shorter. On August 18th I flew to Utah for a visit with my mom and to attend my nephew’s wedding. Tyler and Tasha were married on the 19th at their home. It was nice to be there with the family. It was neat that I was there with my mom and all of my siblings. It was a good time to come together to celebrate. I enjoyed my visit with mom. We had some quiet time and enjoyed visiting. Doug was also staying at mom’s house for a couple of days. I enjoyed visiting with him too. Doug and I went for a walk together one morning and that was nice. I did some yard work for mom and just enjoyed a quieter week that normal. I returned home on the 22nd to a family who were happy to have me come back. Caleb had made a fun “welcome home” sign and I enjoyed feeling loved.

    Sunday was Spencer’s birthday. He was happy to have a day to feel special and loved. I made his favorite peanut butter pie. We gave him some LEGO parts and he was excited to make new things with them. Spencer is in the middle of a growing time and is just barely shorter than me. Give him another month or so and he will pass me up. I am slowly being coming the shortest member of my family.

    I have enjoyed our garden this year. It started slow but it has grown well. We have a zucchini plant that actually grew and survived to produce! I had a friend give us the clue to not plant squash until June. Then it would be late enough to miss the influx of squash bugs that usually hit hard the first of June. Well, something worked well and we have a beautiful plant that keeps producing delicious squash. The tomatoes have gone crazy and are taller than me now. I dug around the vines today and picked 26 tomatoes. That was after I bottled some yesterday. We are picking apples now too and they taste as good as ever. I am thankful we like the apples that grow in our yard. I made a batch of apple sauce yesterday too. I also made bread and butter pickles this week. I don’t think we will get many more cucumbers, but I am glad I had enough for a batch of pickles. Fall harvest always keeps me busy.