Dear Everyone

Or to put it another way:

A Dustpan for Christmas

     I couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 or even younger when Daddy got a dustpan for Christmas. That’s all. Just a dustpan. I remember thinking what a disappointment that must be for him. We children were never disenchanted at Christmastime. We probably didn’t expect much but we always were thrilled and excited. Daddy wasn’t home for Christmas every year. Sometimes he had to stay out with his sheep. If he came home, it would be just before Christmas and then he would have to go back out. The two years before he died, he was out on the Arizona Strip all winter. That’s how I sort of know how old I was when he got a dustpan for Christmas.  I was 10 when he died, 9 and 8 when he was on the Arizona Strip so I couldn’t have been more than seven years old. It seemed to my young mind that when he was home for Christmas so seldom that he should get something he really wanted. Funny thing, Mama probably didn’t get anything for Christmas and I don’t remember being concerned about that.

Every Christmas since, I think about Daddy getting only a dustpan for Christmas.

When our basement was flooded for the umpteenth time in September and we decided to throw the carpet squares away, Amy put foam pads down in the basement. She took my only dustpan downstairs. I’ve got vacuums large and small but sometimes I like to sweep the floor and use a dustpan to pick up the crumbs and dirt. I asked for a new dustpan for my birthday, for Thanksgiving, and finally for Christmas. Santa Claus let me down.

That’s when I openly started telling the story about my sheepherder daddy getting a dustpan for Christmas those many years ago. Now it didn’t seem like such a gloomy gift. It became a coveted entity, worth more than silver or gold. Maybe Daddy loved it. I don’t know what he would do with a dustpan in a tent or sheep wagon. It probably was something Mama needed.

I was young and didn’t know much about sacrifice then. It was just before World War II ended. The economy would pick up later but things were pretty grim during the war, following the Great Depression. The sheep business was faltering. Mama and Daddy had secretly talked about selling out and moving to Idaho where their cousin and sister had bought a dairy farm. Daddy’s brother, married to Mama’s sister, sold his sheep and bought cattle.

In 1947, Daddy was killed while herding his sheep. He had been sick with pneumonia and was very weak but felt he had to tend his sheep. Gathering his sheep on a Sunday morning, he slipped and fell in the Orderville Gulch area of the Zion Narrows.

This is not a story about a dustpan. DeRay ordered my dustpan on Amazon and it came today. This is a story about a father who took his responsibilities so seriously that he would not let his family down. The dustpan is our common bond and helps me remember to honor him and try to be more like him. Even 70 years later.

It's Just My Theory

I have a theory.

Untested.

Unproven.

Unscientific.

It is that children who grow up with pets,

learning to care for something other than themselves,

are not so self-centered.

They learn to love unconditionally

and they learn to take responsibility.

Pets can’t do for themselves.

They depend entirely on their Master for

food, water, shelter, movement in and out.

They demand attention.

They take time.

Sometimes it’s inconvenient.

Sometimes they are messy.

They are a bit expensive too.

You have to budget.

If living conditions are such

that a child cannot have a pet,

if they love domestic animals,

I think they will be alright.

Thinking of and caring for something else,

help them realize that their pet,

not them,

 is the center of the universe.

This little lesson

enables them to reach out to others

and that makes all the difference.

It’s just my theory.

Amy helping decorate stuffed animals.

Naomi, Klarissa, Amanda, Jonathan, Isaak, Brigitte, Karlton - 2008

Maybe our grandchildren will be OK.

White Christmas 2016

We got a wet vac

and three sump pumps,

(plus a son to install them)

for Christmas

 The Esplin Soup Town Sibling Christmas Party

 What did we serve?

Soup.

Then we called Shirley in Cedar City;

DeLoy and Grace in Goleta;

and Jerry in St. George

to sing

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

off-key to them.

Everyone knows Esplins can't sing

and we proved it.

 We're not too old to play

 Telestrations

 Ed & Amy went to the Star Wars movie then joined us

 Carol's car impersonating Rudolph

 The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

 Amy accused us of thinking we were riding in a school bus.

Front of the bus: Verla and Carol.

Middle: Juanita and Lynn

Back: Jeanette and DeRay

The Christmas Eve

Turkey dinner

with Carol and Melissa

 It was only 550 pieces

and they got it together before it snowed.

 Pancake loves Melissa.

 Woman Power

 The Snowiest Christmas in 100 years.

 No one I know has experienced this

much snow on Christmas day.

Not even Sylvia (1920) or Aunt Mar (1921).

1916
Mama would have been 13; Daddy 12.
DeRay's parents 4 years old.

 Fruit Heights is the City of Good Neighbors.

 Unknown neighbor plowing our driveway 9 AM

Known neighbor, Ed Denny, in background.

 The cats got a can opener for Christmas.

 Rudolph, you might disappear.

 Our weather gauge.

2:30 PM

Ed Denny is blowing our driveway again.

 After church, Amy and I head for the hollow.
Ed decided we weren't going to church
because it was only one hour.
Lame.
We talked him into going.
All he could talk about the rest of the day
was how much he loves Heavenly Father and Jesus
and this Ward.

  

Amy says I can't take good pictures.

How come the pictures I take of her

are so much better

than the ones she takes of me?

 

  

  

A robin.

 Our sideyard.

DeRay blew our driveway and sidewalks again

around 6 PM.

 It snowed all night and all day.

And blessed us with this

sunset on Christmas night.

Highlight of Christmas Day
was when Brent, Jan, and Family called;
and Brooke and Family;
and Carol and Verla.

Monday we celebrated

Brooke's and Amy's birthdays

Newborn Brooke December 1971

Brooke  6 or 7 years old

Amy 6 months in crocheted dress her mother wore
and grandmother crocheted.
Below: Amy in another crocheted dress
her mother wore and grandmother made.

We talked about Isaak's birthday.

Isaak is serving an ASL mission in Tucson, AZ
His mother arranged for the Ward Mission leader
to serve him his favorite dinner on Christmas morn.
Steak, of course. And potato salad, German style.

The shepherds with Santa. Elder Hugh on right.

Where's the snow, Elders?

Newborn Isaak with Grandma.

Brooke was born on December 21,

Isaak on Christmas day,

and Amy on December 30.

So much to Celebrate!

Enchanting New Year's Eve 

 New Year's Morn