January 1, 2020

There it is---the year 2020.  Now to get adjusted to writing that new year on everything that requires a date.  Don't know about you, but that always takes me a few days/weeks to change my way of thinking.

          The Syringa Camp of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers took a little different approach for their monthly meeting for December. Eight members assembled in Richmond, UT, at LD's Restaurant for the lunch of their choice, enjoyed a historical lesson and shared friendship time.

         We have the big cats, cougars, visiting our yards and fields, here and there throughout the community. Those large paw prints left in the snow raise our awareness of how the creatures accept our presence. It is one thing to own a house cat or two to help keep down the vole population, it is quite another when these big felines come in close. The first is a comfort, the second more of a threat.

          The coming marriage of Celina Crosland and Jesse Grosebeck, a son of David and Jennifer Groesbeck of Worland, WY, was celebrated in a reception at the Mink Creek LDS recreation hall on Dec 20. The following day her siblings and her parents, Robert and Phee Crosland, traveled to Rexburg, ID, where the couple were married in that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Temple. That evening their family gathered at the home of another Crosland daughter, Malia and Jason Kunde in Rigby, ID, for a Christmas party.

          Wynn and Cecelie Costley hosted a Christmas Morning Breakfast, aimed at community residents who would not have family close by on this winter day. It was a potluck affair, resulting in the offering of: a potato breakfast casserole, bacon, banana bread, a french toast casserole, a pull-apart loaf, coffeecake, grapes, ham, and peach cobbler, with beverages of choice, milk, orange juice, and cocoa.

           Regardless of the chilly temperatures there are homes under construction here in Mink Creek. Hansen Hall appears finished on the exterior and the Hansen family has added an outbuilding. It is not quite a barn, neither is it just a shed, a 'storage' unit will suffice for description. Things are looking good. The progress of the Dean and Michelle Wilde home on the brow of cemetery hill is steady. The loop of Valley View drive has several houses in various levels of completion. Just across the lower boundary of Mink Creek another home is going up in the Narrows Estates of Riverdale.

           Happy New Year! One day early, but the Eve is when our minds kick into gear of what we might do with improving---whether it is something tangible, such as our homes, cars, etc. or those things within ourselves that we know could use some shaping up. Lots of people scoff at New Year resolutions because often those lofty plans are short-lived. A short life is better than none whatsoever.

Happy self-reflections to one and all.