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We had some snow a couple few days ago.  I guess this is what passes for a snow storm in the mid-West.  In the Sierras this is called a "dusting".  The snow is very dry and can be removed by using a broom or even a lawnmower as one of the locals told me.

Note the bird feeder on the left for the depth.  

View up the road.  It's all gone now as the temps have been in the low 40s this past week but project to be back in the single digits next week again.  Winter is not quite through with us yet but getting close.

Last Monday we had a special Scottish Robert "Robbie" Burns birthday party at the stake center for our Scottish members of the temple mission.  We had Haggis, Scottish eggs, and a flavorful soup plus trifle for dessert.  A very nice Family Home Evening for a "few" friends.

Early gatherers.

Elder McDonald addresses us and talks about his mission in Scotland.  He talked about the similarities between Joseph and Hyrum Smith and Robbie Burns and some of his experiences there then talked about Robert Burns short life and accomplishments.

Several missionaries had parts in the proceedings as well as President McArthur.  Always need to hear from the president.

Next week will be the re-enactment of the final walk the Saints made from Nauvoo to the West through town, across the Mississippi.  We will be working in the temple that day so will miss it unless something comes up at the last minute.  That's the way things get scheduled anyway.  It's supposed to be rather cold next Saturday so I'm good with that.  

We did not hear from Elder Kevin's mission so no info on when he's being released.  Maybe next week.  Our release date depends on that info.  Maybe we'll just stay here for a while...

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OK, attempt #2.  Blogspot is not being very helpful today in posting my picts in the order I want and not allowing me to make corrections.  So, I'll try again.  If not, I'll quit and try another day...

After the Christmas/New Years holidays, it's taken me a while to get back into the swing of things.  Not a lot going on anyway and I've been sort of busy.  I had the opportunity to speak in church last week, not my favorite thing to do, so that pretty much occupied all of my spare time last week.  Maybe I can catch things up a bit this week.

Elder Kevin has moved to a new area in the Gurnee 3rd ward (Spanish speaking, of course).  He is still the District Leader.  We are trying to find out when he will be released so we can pick him up and all come home at the same time.  Our end of things is OK with it.  His end is the hang up.  We shall see.

February starts in a week and we are heading towards our final months of our mission.  A few of the winter missionaries will be leaving in March and we are working on getting ready for the influx of the summer missionaries in late April in time for the pageant and all the activities of summer.  This will be our second summer here and it should be hectic but fun.

The Mississippi River is frozen over and not flowing anymore.  That big expanse is normally water.  It's pretty shallow pretty far out there.  The barges won't be travelling up the river until mid-March.

Remember this scene during the summer?

Just doesn't look quite the same, does it?

I was up checking the condition of the gutters on the temple the other day and did this pano from the North West corner, left to right.  We had some snow a couple of days before so it looks kind of nice.  A couple of inches blanketed most of Nauvoo.

I also got this up close and personal pict of the tower with the gorgeous blue sky behind it.  Course, it was in the teens when I took it and I was not wanting to stay up there all that long.  Not everyone can get this close to the tower but being an engineer, I have the keys to the roof.  Cool, huh?

We had a lecture recently by Brother Dunn that displayed a piece of the original temple.  I'm guess ing this was out front on the steps.  When the temple was destroyed, the stones were scattered all over the countryside and used in buildings everywhere so occasionally you will see small fragments of the original building here and there.  This is actually a very good specimen.

Well, I have more but I am out of time.  I need to get to work.  I will try to get back in a couple of days for the next posting.  Spring is right around the corner, or so they say.  The Nauvoo Fudge Factory opens in a week so we are all anxiously awaiting their opening so we can get some of their luscious caramels...

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Happy New Year to everyone!  We hope you all had a great week of fun and exciting activities to welcome in the new year and are buckling down to start things out right with resolutions that you are not going to keep...well, maybe you are...who knows.  We have had the weather take a bit of a cold direction but nothing like back in Utah.  We're above zero and getting to the teens and 20s at night.  We're supposed to hit the 40s during the day this week then we will head towards the teens for highs for a week or so.  I guess winter is finally here.  They've had more snow back in Camino than we've had here, go figure!

But, this didn't last very long.  It's been pretty dry.

Our New Years Eve get together with food, games, and movies.  Had to watch It's a Wonderful Life and there were lots of games to be involved in.

One part of the game room at the Arrival Center.

The movie room.  It was filled up as the evening wore on.  That is a very long movie!

Last but not least, we had our own feast at home with shrimp and stuff.  Brother Jensen provided deer sausage with jalapeno and cheese in it (quite tasty, I might add) but we haven't seen any teriyaki smoked oysters back here, as well as a few other things.  We did enjoy Sees Candy provided by Nathan and Tabbi, though.  There are a few things we do miss.   

For some odd reason, the Cardinals prefer picking up the birdseed we put out from the ground.  Of course, that is after they have knocked it off the birdseed feeder!

Have a great New Year!