Christmas Letter to Trudy

Christmas 2012

Elk Grove, CA

Dear Trudy Lu:

It’s Christmas again – your second one.  Last year, about a week before Thanksgiving, your Mom was ready to have a baby.  She was ready for all the right reasons, like loving you and wanting you to come safely into this world.  But she also really wanted to not be pregnant so that she could eat chocolate.  (If you are reading this and eating chocolate, you should know you inherited that love for chocolate from your Mom.)

While your Mom was pregnant with you, though, she developed gestational diabetes; that’s the official name for the can’t-eat-chocolate-while-you’re-pregnant syndrome.  I promised her that, as soon as she had this baby, I would get her a box of See’s Candies.  So she was also looking forward to your birth because of that.

I got a call at work from Grandma Hogge, and she said you had finally arrived.  So I came straight from work to see you at Methodist Hospital.  Alice was interested, but she didn’t really understand that this was going to be a permanent, new sister.  Mari, however, was thrilled.  She got to hold you, and she wanted to unbundle you so she could see all your fingers and toes.  You were calm and pleasant, and we were all very pleased.  (And your Mom got her candy.)

You turned one year old last month, and you are still calm and pleasant.  You are succeeding at walking most of the time.  It seems that whenever you fall there is a piece of furniture or a fireplace to hit your head on.  At church last month, you stumbled in the foyer and hit your face on the leg of a table.  That produced a nice knot on your forehead and a pitiable black eye.  I’m sure you had a good cry at first, but after that it was more walking and more stumbling.  I’ve seen you with as many as three bruises on your forehead, thanks mostly to the fireplace at your house.

You know that I call you Trudy Lu, even though your name is Trudy Kimberly.  You probably also know that “Lu” is what I call your Grandma Hogge.  Your parents don’t tell us before a child is born to them what they are going to name the child, so your Mom always wonders what I will call the child after they announce the given name.  Mari Roann is Mari-ari.  Alice Juleen is Ali-baba.  And you are Trudy Lu. 

When your Uncle Joey was born, I told my old barber (he was about 80 then) that I called Uncle Joey “Beppe” – which is Italian for Joey.  The old barber didn’t like that at all.  He insisted that I should always call my children by their given names.  I thought about it for awhile, but not for long.  He didn’t convince me.  I call it a father’s (and now a grandfather’s) prerogative.

Since you are named after Grandma Hogge, I will tell you about her.  You already know that she is one of the world’s best grandmothers.  And I consider myself quite intelligent for having chosen such a superstar to marry. 

Grandma Hogge and I met at a New Years Eve sleepover and got engaged on New Years Day.  Don’t worry; those two events happened fifteen years apart.  She came to a New Years Eve sleepover at my grandparents’ home when she was four years old and I was six years old.  I felt sorry for her that there were no girls her age in my family because I wasn’t going to play with her.  Our lives were very parallel after that.  My grandfather taught Grandma Hogge’s mother the gospel.  My father interviewed Grandma Hogge for baptism when she was eight.  And my uncle Richard Stowers confirmed her.  But I didn't really get to know her until after my mission.

I won’t tell you here the whole story about how Grandma Hogge and I started dating.  You can read it in my journal if you want.  I’ll just say here that the Lord blessed me with the sense and good judgment to not let her get away.  I didn't fully appreciate when we were dating who she is.  But I know now, by revelation, how beloved she is of our Heavenly Father and how close she was to Him in the premortal life.  Knowing this, it does not surprise me that she is one of the world’s best grandmothers.

When Grandma and I went to the Oakland Temple to be married many years ago, we promised each and Heavenly Father that we would always love each other and honor God.  I was very happy that day, but I would have been even happier if I could have really understood what I understand so much better now – that eternal marriage with children and grandchildren is the greatest thing that could ever happen to me, not just on this earth, but in all the eternities.  Yes, Grandma Hogge is that important to me.  Some day you will be able to go to the temple with your sweetheart and make the same promises.  I hope that, when you do, you will remember that I love you and want you to have every blessing that I have had in an eternal relationship.

Among my most cherished possessions is your grandmother's opinion of me.  Among my most heart-felt desires is to live up to that opinion.

This year, as you toddle around our home and yours, I hope you begin to understand the magic of Christmas and the wonder of its founding event so many years ago in Bethlehem.  When Jesus was born, Mary laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.  For the rest of His life, humble circumstances would be His lot, as he eventually descended below all things.  After he suffered and died, He ascended to His throne in heaven.  Because of His suffering, we can be a family forever.

So toddle on, dear Trudy Lu, preferably upright.

And merry Christmas.

Love, Grandpa Hogge