Christmas Letter 08

How cheap are the Ericksons?

They are so cheap that they are posting their Christmas letter online instead of sending it out. On top of that, it doesn't even rhyme this year and it uses contractions. Yeah, tacky, we know, but everybody kind of already knows that about us anyway. Given that Katie has a success rate of getting me to write a Christmas letter once every 4 years, this is actually pretty darn good.

January through April saw the end of my course work, the completion of my Master's degree, and the end of Katie's pregnancy with Andrew. In some ways it was the best pregnancy so far, and in other ways the worst. Just to make sure that we didn't get away with thinking it was the best, Andrew gave us a scare by contracting congenital pneumonia and spent his first week and a half of life in the NICU. If you want to know how that was, consider that the Doctor who delivered him told us that his own infant son died of congenital pneumonia because they didn't have the same medical equipment 20 years ago. The highlight of this period was showing up to visit Andrew and finding a neonatal ambulance outside the door and a team of specialists and nurses surrounding Andrew's bed in the NICU. Luckily, it happened to be a transfer from another hospital and they had moved Andrew to another part of the facility. How's that for starting off a Christmas letter on a merry note?

Needless to say the year really picked up from there. Just weeks after Andrew came home we found ourselves driving to New Mexico, the "land of enchantment". I think they call it that because it's just "fascinating" that people manage to live there. Truth be told, we really loved it and had a fun time. Throw in a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, and all of the national parks you can imagine along the way and it was one great summer. For a great national park story, by the way, you may want to check out the Petrified National Forrest story in this past post.We had just returned from being enchanted, unloaded the uHaul into our front entryway (very disenchanting), and turned around, when who should come walking through our door? Why, Katie's family about 3 days earlier than they were supposed to come and with no warning. The first thing they said (I think it was even before they said hello) was, "Ha, Ha, we caught Miss Molly Mormon off guard. Look at her house!" As if we always have a small uHaul's worth of stuff in our entryway except when they come visit. After a whirlwind of swimming pools, fashion shows, and the Ellsworth family reunion they were off again, too soon and too short.

Before we could turn around and clear out our entryway, however, we got invited to go spend some time in Yellowstone National Park with the Ericksons and a few Hiltons. It was gorgeous, and so much fun. That is until Katie mistook a fellow camper's dog for a coyote and we all had to sleep in the minivan. Note to self: if ever homeless, a cardboard box is more comfortable than a minivan. The highlight of the trip for me was french toasted homemade Grandma Erickson cinamon rolls. Oh baby. (Yeah, I know, we visited one of Nature's most amazing places and I remember what we had for breakfast....) Unfortunately, it wasn't until we were driving through the park to go home, that Katie realized there was ALL THIS COOL STUFF SHE DIDN'T HAVE A PICTURE OF YET. Longest drive through Yellowstone in history, look it up on Ripley's.

After that, we finally cleaned our entryway, Ben and Dad got to go canoeing down the Provo River, and Kallie had her 3rd birthday! She was so cute. Can anybody guess what the birthday theme was? Anybody? Princesses of course! If there was a gift that wasn't a princess, it had a picture of a princess on it. I wonder if real life princesses learn how to become princesses from Barbie training videos too....

This year was a big year for Kallie because she started dance lessons as well! She loves to dance and is always willing to bust a move for complete strangers and Walmart greeters alike. Unfortunately, we started her on lessons with a dance teacher who retired a couple months later due to arthritis. In the meantime she's picked up gymnastics, but she still dances around whenever we have music playing.For the first time this year we also visited the Utah State Fair, spent time with Mike and Brittany, managed to get one of the kids to only use ONE Halloween costume, spent time with Emily and Hailey, and went to Cornbelly's. That brings us to the next REALLY big event.... Ben's 5th Birthday. Talk about a kid who couldn't wait to be 5. He spent the whole day walking around on a cloud saying things like, "I can't believe I'm 5!" The theme for this birthday was definitely military, and included a matching hat and glove set with skulls and crossbones on them. The highlight was a motorcycle ride with Grandpa for a special lunch. Certainly he doesn't get these tendencies from his bearded, motorcycle-loving father. (By the way I've decided to shave and stop talking about motorcycles before Kallie becomes interested in boys... lest she think those are the boys to go for...)

The year started winding down (or up) with a trip to California for Thanksgiving and an early Christmas with Katie's family, 2 family and 2 ward Christmas parties, sick kids, blizzards, new church responsibilities, a special trip with Grandma and Grandpa (and not Mom and Dad!) to Las Vegas, and the realization that we can't possibly keep going at this rate without a complete meltdown (not to mention we're only half way through December). Needless to say, things promise to continue getting crazier as the year comes to a close.

We hope as much fun and joy comes your way. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!