It was a cold day in Nauvoo today! We walked out for our morning walk with the temperature at 18 degrees. With lots of layers and very little breeze, it was a tolerable experience! We kept our pace up and made it around our walking path in just over an hour. You don't want to doddle in this weather! We hope to keep walking as long as the weather permits.
Today, we were at the Visitors Center for the opening shift at 8:45am. We had a few guests come in and had one wagon ride. The sun came out but it was still pretty cold if you ask me... We had our relief team of missionaries come in at 1:00pm and we headed off to the temple for the 2:00pm session. We got back home by 4:15pm and relaxed until about 5:50pm when we had an assignment to hand out programs at the Christmas program.
The Christmas program was at the Nauvoo Stake Center. I was uncomfortable being there tonight. The community program was held in the chapel and, for this event, they took out three rows of pews, installed overhead microphones and lighting, and had VIP seating. And the audience was expected to clap their approvals. I have never seen this done in any Church building before and it wasn't something I would have expected. The Christmas program is for both tonight and tomorrow night. That means Church services will be held in a chapel converted into a production hall.
Needless to say, we left after fulfilling our obligation to hand out the programs, and we are looking forward to our day off from scheduling tomorrow, and our P-day on Monday! We did get an invitation for dinner with the Skinner's and the Blacks on Monday evening. These senior missionaries are some of our favorite people we have met and serve with here in Nauvoo!
In the interest of equal time, I have to tell you about my mother's father. Grandpa Sykes was a tall and husky Grandpa. (Thomas Clinton Sykes) He was over 6' 3" and probably weighed around 210 pounds. He was strong and he always looked after me. He was the father of three girls. My mom Barbara June Sykes, and my Aunt Beverly and Aunt Gerry. I would sometimes be at his house for the Thursday night boxing matches. You did not mess with Grandpa Sykes on his boxing night, except for commercials... This was around 1958 when we would go to his house when we still lived in Fresno and about a half mile from his house.
He didn't have any boys, so when I signed up to play football like he had done in high school, he was so happy! He an I both played on the line, offense and defense. However, in my senior year of high school I played defensive line backer and that got me into more tackle opportunities. I loved having him come to my games! And he was one of my biggest fans next to my mom! This was when I was at Sierra High School from 1964-1968.
When Grandpa Sykes played, he loved to tell me this story; (this was about 1930) I am not sure how he came up with the ball, but he was running down the field toward the goal line. He said a guy was coming at him full speed and was bearing down on him to tackle him. Just as this guy attempted to make the tackle on Grandpa Sykes, he said he stopped running and the guy who tried to tackle him was in the air and fell right in front of him. There was no one for him to tackle! Grandpa just stepped over him and made the touchdown! That story was told many times to me by my Grandpa Sykes, and I never got tired of hearing it! Now I'm passing it on to my grandchildren!!
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