Surgery for Eli

Well our young lad Eli had his tonsils and adenoids removed today- he wins the price for the first child in our family to have surgery of any kind. He was actually scheduled to have it done a year and a half ago, but we didn't feel comfortable about it at that time, which was right before we were leaving for NYC- not to mention he was so little. So thanks to our need to switch insurance by Feb. 1st we snuck him in at the last minute. The Doc was very accommodating, we saw him last Thursday and they got Eli in for surgery 4 days later.

So these huge green chairs do nothing for posture!

He wasn't troubled at all about having the surgery- he really liked his hat and crazy clown shirt! He has a new friend from surgery "T" the wolf- in honor of his beloved T-shirt that he made at Pre-school last week; he painted the letter T on his shirt and wanted to be sure and wear it for surgery day.

Sweet boy not feeling so great after surgery with his cool Transformer Head Temperature gauge that he got to see in the bathroom later on- "What's that?".

Though Eli was the one to have surgery, Bella is the one who looks a little medicated! (She gave the O.K. on that comment).

This afternoon our good friend brought Eli a bag of treats- coloring books, games, pudding, popsicles, and ice cream. She is the greatest- thanks heaps!

Not only that but we learned a little bit of family medical history as well- it must be a manly thing since Joseph had his taken out, as did both Grandpa Nielsen and Carter! Who knew, I had no idea that either of our fathers had theirs removed. The things you learn!!!

The Holiday Flurry

Alas the holidays are coming to a close, and Joe has gone back to work today and the kids are anxious to go back to school tomorrow- or perhaps they are not so anxious.

Since we didn't travel long distances this year for Christmas we were able to do some fun things together as a family and with our friends.

After our fun experience at the Moon Marble Co. we devised a plan for our gifts to our parents, and created for them handcrafted marble game boards and the huge marbles to go along with it! We had so much fun working together at the wood shop, where we used some extra scraps of cherry, birch, and walnut to create the boards.

We then had a lovely time celebrating the traditional Norwegian Holiday of Lille Julaften, or Little Christmas Eve (Dec.23) with several couples from church- I am sad that I didn't take a single picture of the evening, but suffice it to say that we enjoyed everyone's company and hopefully they enjoyed the food and the Norwegian tidbits that we threw in there- I know Joe did, and that was what really mattered to me, since that was my present to him!

(hors d'oeuvres with lox/smoked salmon, and dessert- Krumkake- to be filled with cream and berries-yum!) Our only 2 pictures of anything from that night.

Christmas day was wonderful- it snowed so we had a white Christmas, we had a fire going and just enjoyed being together- we waited until later on in the day to head down south to spend some time with family.

Kaija and Bella were all smiles, Eli was busting some catwalk moves in his new slippers, and Zach got a cool guitar which he is very excited about!

We spent some great quality time with the Kirkhams and the Calvins- (our sisters and their families) down in Springfield MO. We had just a fantastic time as we always do- we played lots of games, ate yummy food, played some more games, spent some time at the community center for a walk, then again for 3 1/2 hours of volleyball, fixed our van, saw a couple of movies- (which by the way, don't waste your time seeing Where The Wild Things Are; what a disappointment).

We are just now rounding out our vacation- Barb and her kids came up for a few days to finish off the holiday with us. We had a great time and got some electrical work done in the basement- we are such fun aren't we, putting our guests to work like that! Oh well, little by little we get the necessary work done and someday it will be a great spot to hang out!

Our last piece of news is................. Joe has found an organ to go in the house again!! I have drawn a line this time____________!!!!!!