Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

We have been having a debate in our church about an event next year at Martin’s Cove. Many want to go there because of the spiritual significance that the spot has for the church. I have a personal stake in this event. My great, great, great, great, great grandfather was carried across the plains and was part of the Martin Handcart company. Many died in that ill fated journey, but that family is one of the few that didn’t loose anyone. I have a picture on my fireplace mantel of the ancestors that were part of that family. I have a great respect for those who sacrificed so much to make a new home in the west. I think today we don’t have near the opportunities to sacrifice like they did in those days. I hope someday to be worthy of their respect.

On our recent cruise we were guests on the Golden Princess, a new class of cruise ships for the Princess line. The ship was huge, to say the least. The guests can number up to 2,600 and I think I heard that the crew compliment was 700 or more. It is a small city on the ocean. It was incredible as they provided food anytime of the day or night for us, made up our beds, and provided entertainment. It was truly a delightful experience for us types that want to be pampered. I read the other day, in an ad from Princess, that you could take a cruise around the world for 107 days, for only $28,000 if you wanted the cheap rooms. I am tempted, if I only had 107 days of vacation time and $28,000 that I had no use for. I am sure you could get bored on a voyage of that length, but think of the parts of the world you would see. It would be a great trip.

This has been a wonderful Christmas. This is my first Christmas as a Grandpa. I didn’t get to have Christmas with Braxton, but we did have Christmas with Miranda. It was so fun to have new members of our family, with whom we can celebrate the birth of the Savior. I was holding Miranda yesterday and thought about what it must have been like to hold the baby Jesus when he was first born. This is a wonderful holiday.

Well, we have the snow, we have the short days (yesterday being the shortest of the year) and the holiday decorations are up. So is the madness called shopping. However, I still look forward to Christmas coming each year. It is a wonderful time to be alive.

Bonnie and I have been back almost a week from the experience of a lifetime. I refer of course to taking a cruise. We had always been told just how fun it was going to be and we weren’t disappointed.

We got to eat a lot of good food, anytime that we wanted to go and get it. We got to go see some pretty decent entertainment, just about anytime we wanted to go and see it.

We got to go ashore and see a new country, that we had never really visited before. We weren’t disappointed and I was very impressed with what I saw of Mexico.

We got travel the open seas. We had the opportunity to look all around us and realize that as far as the eye could see, to the tip of the horizon, was water. There wasn’t a house, a tree, a rock, a gas station, for us to stop at and see. I realized just how prepared a ship must be when it sails the seas.

It was a fun and unique experience. I loved being there. I want to go again.