update - Christmas 2011!!!

Dear famlings,

This week granted us many happy visits with relatives and friends. On Sunday (18^th), we attended church with Brad and Sharon and enjoyed their participation in the choir. Later that evening, we were able to see some of Kirk’s Nordfelt relatives. It was especially wonderful to see his uncle Greg, who is recovering beautifully from a serious motorcycle accident. Our kids really enjoyed playing with their second cousins.

On Monday, we visited David and Kris Kryscynski, some special friends that we knew in Michigan (2001-2003). David recently finished his PhD in Business Management at Emory University and is now teaching at BYU’s Marriott School of Management. It was good to see them finally out of the schooling phase of life and to get to know their cute kids.

Monday evening, Andrew and Kristen invited us and Eileen to dinner. We feasted on tasty soup and caught up. Carlos (5) and Asher (2) were mutually excited to see each other. We were particularly relieved to see Noah (8 months), who suffered a near fatal brain injury in November. He still has a pretty gnarly Darth Vader scar on half of his head, but he is responsive, wiggly, and “talkative.”

Tuesday morning, we went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point (it’s one of our favorite places in Utah). Later that afternoon, we visited with our buddies from Pennsylvania, the Oertles. We got to see Virgil Tyler (“Tygil”), a professional sculptor, deliver an 8.5 foot statue to a bronze casting foundry. In a few months that statue will greet hockey fans outside Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center. Arianna was in awe of the many porcelain and marble sculptures in the premises—so much so that one of the owners presented her with a beautiful statuette of the Wings of Victory.

Tuesday evening, we joined Brad and Sharon in a visit to Craig and Karen Monson. Karen treated us to yummy pizza and salad, and our kids had SO MUCH FUN with Ishmael, Angeline, Stephanique, and Thaeddus—their adopted cousins from Liberia.

Wednesday morning, we took the kids to see Santa, convey their wish lists, and get a picture with the jolly old guy. We then satisfied the family tradition by lunching with Sharon at Los Hermanos—yummy! In the afternoon, we rocked the house with Christmas carols. It’s such a treat to have Sharon in the family, for a number of reasons, but we particularly appreciate her musicality.

Wednesday evening, we visited my roommate from the French dorm at BYU (11 years ago). Elodie and Serge Petelo treated us to a delicious dinner, and their kids went on a rampage with our kids. It was especially fun to hold baby Océane (1 month) and to hear news about BYU’s French department, where Elodie teaches.

Thursday morning, we treated Brad and Sharon to a tummy filling breakfast at IHOP in honor of their 7^th anniversary (this coming week). We were fortunate to spend so many days with them during this special season. We spent the rest of the day driving to Las Vegas.

Friday morning, we took family pictures (our first in a few years). For some inexplicable reason, my “solo” siblings Greg and Maren refused to humor us with a couples’ shot. :-D

Since then we’ve spent the time together playing board games, jumping on the trampoline, watching movies (including the new Tin Tin), singing carols, playing video games, and watching the little kids run around like crazies.

Last night and then again tonight, Carlos presented his adorable solo performance of “Away in a Manger.”

This morning, we opened stockings at 7 and then rushed to 9 a.m. church. After church, we opened presents, moaned about sleep deprivation, and ate a yummy Christmas dinner. We just finished a mini nativity play, which Carlos liked so much that he insisted on three versions (so he could be Joseph, a Magi, and then a shepherd).  

It has been a very happy and blessed Christmas for us, as we hope it has been for you.

Much love,

Lauren and company

Update 18 December 2011

Dear famlings,

This week had a number of eventful happenings.

On Tuesday we had plans to drive to Anaheim and share a dinner with Kristina, Jen, and Liz (Kirk’s sisters). Jen and Liz were cleaning out their mom’s former home in Westminster, and we saw this as an ideal opportunity to see them during the Christmas season. Unfortunately, the water main in front of our house broke just minutes before we were to leave. An astounding amount of water gushed out in seconds, essentially canceling our dinner plans. Luckily, the break happened when we (Kirk and I) were both home to discover it, and we were able to get a plumber to the property within a half hour. Some of our front yard washed away, but the water did not get into the crawl space under our house. I cannot imagine how disastrous the event would have proved had we notbeen home at the time of the break. If we had arrived home around 9 or 10 p.m. as planned, the water damage would have been significant and our luck at finding a plumber would have been remote. So, we can say that the Lord blessed us by making an unhappy situation not as bad as it could have been.

For a couple of weeks, I’ve been looking for a place to take this year’s Christmas picture. In the past, we’ve taken it in front of our Christmas tree. But this year, due to the combination of Grandma Monson’s funeral and Christmas travel plans, we decided not to go through the work of putting up the tree just to be able to enjoy it for a week or so. We’ve also done the Christmas picture in front of holiday displays at malls. Surprisingly, in these past couple of weeks of searching, I found no good holiday displays. Sad was the Lauren without a proper picture background! All this time, Kirk went to work each day, passing a gorgeous Christmas tree in Medtronic’s atrium but not mentioning it to the disheartened Lauren. Finally, on Tuesday night, he remembered Medtronic’s tree. So, Wednesday morning, we dolled up the kids, sat them in front of the tree, and snapped some pictures.  The tree’s ornaments went perfectly with the kids’ outfits, and we finally got our Christmas picture.

Wednesday night, we also finished my--I mean Arianna's--beautiful model of the Santa Barbara Mission. We get to spend Christmas break writing the report.

With the Christmas picture done, we were able to send off our Christmas letter—about 535 copies. I’ve said it before and say it again now: we need to stop moving because we already have too many friends! Still, it has been a great way to keep in touch with neighborhood, church, and school friends over these 10 years. And we enjoy receiving letters in return and hearing friends’ stories and happenings.

The kids participated in LILA’s Winterfest on Thursday. This year’s theme was “Dances of the World.” Carlos’s class presented Brazil’s capoeira, and Arianna’s class mixed dances by the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas (the most famous historic cultures of the American hemisphere). Carlos was so excited about the Winterfest that he treated us to daily teasers of the capoeira leading up to Thursday’s performance. He may not have had the best tricks for his solo during the capoeira, but he was clearly the most enthusiastic dancer.

On Thursday I also paid a visit to the dermatologist to get a cyst removed. Now I have two beautiful BLUE stitches by my left eye, which will be in all of the Christmas pictures this year.  :-P

We spent Friday cleaning the house and packing. In the evening, we finally succeeded in squishing gifts, coats, and people into the car—and off we went. We arrived in Las Vegas around midnight. We spent most of yesterday (Saturday) driving to Orem to see Brad and Sharon. We are tired of driving but were blessed to have good travel weather (yay for no snow).

This morning, we attended church with Brad and Sharon, who sang with the choir as well as in some duets and quartets. The choir presented a very nice musical story of the nativity, and I sat there thinking that every Sunday in December should be musical rather than filled with tedious blah-blah sermons on the “real” meaning of Christmas. (Something like “doing” instead of “saying.”)

Happy birthday today to the late (but not forgotten) Susan Nordfelt Rytting, and happy birthday this coming week to Heidi Wilkinson Bayles and Jonathan Rytting.

To everyone, enjoy a very merry and blessed Christmas.

Loves,

Lauren et. al.  

Christmas Letter 2011!

Update 11 December 2011

Happy birthday this week to Brad, Greggie, Andrea, Kristen, etc.

We had parent-teacher conferences this week, and the kids are doing well in school. Ironically, both Arianna’s and Carlos’s teachers said that they don’t speak up enough in class; I indicated that this news made me jealous since we can’t get a moment’s silence at home!

Yesterday, we went to Disneyland and enjoyed its Christmastime theme. Kirk and I really enjoy the decorations. Thanks to Carlos, we now spend most of our time in the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ in Tomorrowland (Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Space Mountain, etc.). Not very Christmasy but still fun.

Today, Kirk taught adult Sunday School and I taught the women’s class. Technically, I’m in charge of music for the ward, but that doesn’t spare you from teaching, too.  J  I did feel bad though because I had wanted to organize a small musical arrangement for today’s sacrament meeting but simply didn’t have the time (we’ve missed the past 3 weeks of church). Maybe I can still put something together for the beginning of January.

Tonight, we attended a live nativity. One fun (but we’re still not used to it) part of living in the LA area is that there is a lot of musical and acting talent in the local churches. So the people who acted and sang in the live nativity really were very good. At each stop (Herod’s castle, wise men’s camp, angels’ heavenly hang out, shepherds’ hill, crowded inn, and nativity stable), the kids collected a few treats (animal crackers from the wise men, candy canes from the shepherds), so they enjoyed it, too. However, Herod was pretty scary and Carlos nearly wet himself in fear of the operatic tyrant.

Our nightly Christmas carol/hymn activity is going well. Arianna really enjoys learning the songs, and I’ve been surprised to remember/realize how many Christmas hymns there are: you really can do one a night for the 25 days of December!

Enjoy the season!

Update 4 December 2011

This week I felt my unemployment. I sent off my application for my credential and contacted a school district about substitute teaching. Although there were lots of things to catch up on at home, I felt lonely and sad without my crazy high schoolers.

Over Thanksgiving week, Kirk spent some time working on his Master’s thesis from U-Penn. So, this week, my dad and I spent hours reading and editing Kirk’s thesis. I hope we can get it ready soon, because it would be nice to have this off of our shoulders. This particular thesis paper is for Kirk’s M.A. in International Studies through U-Penn’s Estée Lauder program. Alas, it was due 2½ years ago!

Our little man Carlos struggles with seasonal asthma, and this was a particularly windy one: the wind bent our backyard canopy into the inverse of its intended position! Well, with all of the wind, you can expect that Carlos was having some breathing trouble. I was lucky to get him in to the doctor, who added zyrtec and nasonex to his pre-existing regimen of nebulizer-transmitted inhalants. The medicine seemed to make him worse in the short run, but it was actually dislodging some gunk that had settled in his lower lungs. He is a trooper and reminds me about his medicine. It’s nice to see that the medicine makes such a big difference that a 5-year-old Chub-chub will request it!

Kirk was in Canada and Minnesota for most the week. (He really doesn’t know how to pick a party spot in December, does he?) He has been relieved to see the Canada team finally making some good progress—thanks in a large part to his regular babysitting these past 2½ years.

Kirk’s broken pinky finger is still tender but most of the bruising is gone. Hopefully he’ll be able to use it again soon. He’s been very patient and uncomplaining through this, despite the fact that the broken finger complicates the typing he does for work.

Friday afternoon, we drove to the Bay Area for a family dinner with the Monson relatives. It was amazing to see so many of Kirk’s cousins, including my old buddy Shauna, who I met in Paris. (Quelle coïncidence!)  Saturday morning was Grandma Monson’s funeral. The Lord filled us with His spirit and comfort and made the funeral a celebration for all of us. I am happy for Grandma Monson because I know that she is happy. We spent the rest of the day together as an extended family—catching up, going through Grandma’s Christmas ornaments, and enjoying each other’s company. Things were just as Grandma would have wanted them.

Today, our little family began the drive home. However, this time we made a special point of driving down El Camino Real (CA-101) and learning about the Catholic missions. There are 21 famous California missions, and we drove past the majority of them today. We read important and humorous facts about the missions (San Juan Bautista was built right over the San Andreas fault!) and pointed out the bells alongside the road that mark “The King’s Highway.” The state’s curriculum delineates that all fourth graders must learn about California’s history, with a special emphasis on its missions. Each student in Arianna’s class must write a report and create a model of an assigned mission. Happily, Arianna’s assignment is the Santa Barbara Mission—one that we had already visited and that lies along the route between San Francisco and Los Angeles (El Camino Real runs right behind our neighborhood in Encino). It is also a special mission to Arianna because her class is in the middle of Island of the Blue Dolphins, the historical fiction account of Juana Maria, an Indian who lived alone on her tribe’s island for 18 years before being discovered and relocated to Santa Barbara. (She is buried in an unmarked grave in the mission’s cemetery.) We arrived in Santa Barbara with a full hour to revisit the mission. Arianna seemed to come alive as she became reacquainted with the site and imagined her heroine “Karana” walking through the courtyard. We got some great pictures and informational materials that will help Arianna do well on her report and model.

We are all excited about the upcoming Christmas season. I always love spending this special holiday with relatives. I decided this year that I would help the kids appreciate “the reason for the season” by teaching them a Christmas carol each night. It is turning into a fun tradition and really captures the joy of Christ’s birth for us.

Links to this week’s picasa web albums:

https://picasaweb.google.com/113547050139096971693/SantaBarbaraMission?authkey=Gv1sRgCN7F5IXlibLceQ#

https://picasaweb.google.com/113547050139096971693/DrivingElCaminoReal?authkey=Gv1sRgCOfE-OyQnI-C3AE

https://picasaweb.google.com/113547050139096971693/GrMonsonSFuneral?authkey=Gv1sRgCJLL2IHB_N-kfA