2007 December: Bates

NEWSLETTER: The Bates Christmas Claymation Special

This month Tamara's morning sickness has greatly decreased. She still is sick and throws up a lot more than a normal person, but in comparison she feels pretty chipper.
Tamara was in charge of our ward Christmas program this year. She was told she had free reign, so she decided to scrap all speaking and just go with a Musical Entourage. She delegated songs out to the RS, EQ, and primary, and then would have the Ward Choir sing 3 or 4 songs. All seemed to be going well, when about 2 weeks beforehand the bishopric changed a lot of stuff on us. She adjusted and was fine again. Then just over a week before, the stake presidency informed us that they wanted us to have speakers. So, Tamara asked me and one of the Bishop's counselors to speak. She even prepared a talk for the counselor in case he wanted to use it... so once again we were fine and on schedule (but worried that Sacrament would extend and be late).
Dec 23 came, and chaos broke loose. All plans failed and I ended up winging the counselor's talk, and someone else ended up giving my talk. Tamara changed song order to accommodate the chaos, and it all worked out fine... but it was quite the unplanned meeting.

This year we Bateses congregated at the Idaho HQ. My parents have moved into a decently large house, so there was plenty of room for all of us. We had a relaxing Christmas and didn't do a whole lot, which was fine by me since I actually had to work while I was home. Everything went swimmingly, and we were spoiled rotten as usual.

For New Year's, we were with Tamara's family. We talked and teased and celebrated midnight. It was a fun time. We called it an early-ish night because I had to work the next day at 6:30. I awoke and went to work at 6:30 AM, only to discover 2 hours later that my company had miscommunicated and I was in fact NOT supposed to work New Year's day. But, at least no one was there to get in my way. I had a very efficient 2 hours.

Wishing everyone the best,
-Tamara & Rob