Nothing much in the new year

So just to get our new year and newly updated blog kicked off, here is our first post.
First off, our new family picture was not taken in our home but in a friends who is pro-photographer. It is a nice pic, and shows our family at this stage. I actually like our previous years outdoor pics better but we didn't have time to do one this year.
We spent New Years at my (caleb) parent's home in Ephrata, WA. we had a nice time and ate WAAAY to much good food. Driving home on Monday the 4th was quite the ordeal as we unknowingly timed our departure with a huge storm. (it came in much larger than they predicted) At times we couldn't see the road, but out trusty Trooper got us through. Man I love that truck.
We now have Christmas taken down, and my class has started back up. I am trying to figure out what to do for employment from here on out. I am contemplating starting my own design firm, although the "safe" and easy way would be to find another company to work for. I don't know.
Any how, we have lots of projects to get done around the house and I continue to have lots of time with my wonderful kids.

I am growing continuingly worried about the sate of our "union" I say union because we are supposed to be unified, and we are supposed to have a government that represents us. But this health care reform deal has shown that our government is corrupt to the core. Congressmen were bought out with shady backroom deals and coercion. The final ratifying of this bill will take place in secret without any Republicans and half of the Democrats and NO C-span. What is going to happen in there that they need secrecy from the American people. I think that the mass of Americans have been apathetic and silent for too long and I fear that we may not wake up and speak out until it is absolutely too late. It's already the 111th hour and the 59th minute. I think that I will take this free time I have to call my congressman and speak my mind. I would encourage you all to do the same.

Any how this is a depressing subject, and I wish that you will have a happy and prosperous new year.

Enjoy a pic of Henry's latest development.

Christmas gratitude

So we have had a few things happen over the last several weeks. First of all my Henry had his 6th birthday. I can't believe that I have a 6 yr old. Henry is the coolest kid. I tell everyone that i am grooming him to be my best friend. I love to hang out with him one-on-one. On his B-day we went to Ruby's Diner for lunch. (we had a free B-day meal certificate) We sat at the bar and had a nice lunch. Then we went over to Bellevue to see a movie. (we had free admission tickets [Thanks]) We saw The Fantastic Mr Fox. It had George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray. It was a great movie and we had a lot of fun laughing and enjoying treats (snuck in, we can't afford the stupid prices of theatre fare) Then we went by an arcade and played a couple of games of race car driving and then hit the Photo Booth. the pics turned out great.

Then we went home for B-day dinner. Henry had asked for broccoli! We added on some salmon and wild rice to make a meal. Henry received some real tools and a fishing pole (one for me too) After he opened presents, we had cake. Henry had requested a volcano cake, so I took on the construction of it. I had to find a pump, and some tubing... Let's just say that it might very well be the only erupting birthday cake ever! Christmas has been alot of fun. As much as it sucks being unemployed, I have seriously enjoyed the time to be spent with my family. We have breakfast, lunch and dinner together. We play cars, dolly, and watch movies. Love it!!!!
So Henry has been asking us questions about this homeless dude that he sees on his way to take Fernie to her speech therapy every week. I explained that he does not have a home or money, nor food, nor family. A couple of days later he came to me with the idea that we should help him. I asked him what he that would be good to do. He said that we should give him some money, some socks and some finger nail clippers (?!) I thought that it was a good idea. He cleaned out his piggy bank and donated it all. $3.27. That's alot for a kid, especially when he gets it from finding it on the ground! Anyhow we added in $5 and some cookies, wrapped it up and took it to the guy. I don't know what the guy did with the money. [ i hope that it renews his faith in humanity and in God. Henry told him in a letter that God loves everyone and that praying can help you feel it] I hope that this experience helps to re-enforce Henry's charity and compassion for fellow human beings. I am reading a book tight now, The Unprocessed Child, and the gist of it is that kids inherently have many attributes that will serve them well in the world. It is our job as adults to not spoil or crush those things out of them but to give them lots of room to develop them on their own.
The kids were very excited about Christmas. The amazement of Santa and elves was palpable. We have received so much a pouring out of love and generosity to us in this season. Each of you knows who you are: Thank you!
We even caught someone leaving an envelope at our door. We drove up and I saw a guy jump into our bushes, then a couple of seconds late he comes running out with his hood over his head and runs across the yard and disappears. Very random, and cool. I think that it was one or more of the young men that I have taught. (thanks guys).
Christmas eve brought a nice dinner and the story of Christ's birth. Christmas day, of course, brought toys and fun. The coolest thing that i can think that anyone got was that Lyn took an adult, lightweight 25 degree sleeping bag and remade it into one that is sized for a little boy. They only sell 'sleep over bags' in that size. Any how now Henry can go backpacking with me in harsher conditions and it can extend our hike-able season by several months. Actually we are planning on going snow camping in Jan. We are going to build a snow cave to sleep in. It's lots of fun. (done it many times).Fern got a new dolly, and the family got the Planet Earth series.
Any how we are headed over to Ephrata to see my (Caleb's) family and spend New Years over there.
We hope that you all have had a beautiful Christmas and that the new year brings you more joy and peace. God bless you.
love the Nelsons

bonus bonus post...

Caleb has been telling the kids that they should be thankful for good food to eat and that in some places (Haiti) people have to eat dirt (clay cakes) [it's true! look it up...] There has been some complaining here and there about items of food, so we told them that we would be having dirt for dessert. (Of course, Caleb had told me exactly where to get the best muddy dirt in the driveway and the kids kept looking at him and telling me not to do it.) While Caleb supervised bath time, I prepared dirt (chocolate pudding with oreos crushed on top and mixed in, along with a gummy worm also covered in the dirt/pudding). Fern acted tough and when I called them for dessert, she asked where the dirt was casually and ran up to the table. She was fine until Caleb scooped up a bite--she clamped her mouth shut and looked quite concerned...then when he dangled a "muddy" worm over his mouth, she just about lost it. Henry tried to run away and was very nervous. I could hardly contain my giggles. Caleb and I had a bite or two and then got Henry to try it (only after he cried...and smelled it). Of course he ate all the rest of his, including Fern's worm. Fern, on the other hand, still didn't trust us and wouldn't eat it.

bonus post

So this week Lyn and myself went to the famous 5th Ave Theatre in downtown Seattle. It is our city's premier venue for Broadway performances and top tier plays. It is the coolest building I have seen in a long time. It was built in 1926 and was restored in the 80's. Perhaps one of the coolest things is "Perhaps the most impressive feature of the theatre interior is the nearly exact replica of the dome from the throne room of the imperial palace in The Forbidden City. The magnificent chandelier, located in the center of the ceiling is twice the scale of the original.” It was really neat.Any how we went to see, Irving Berlins WHITE CHRISTMAS!!! It is so iconic of the season. We took the bus down town and it dropped us of 2 blocks from the theatre. We also were kid-less so that made it fun too. (although I think that Henry would have sat thru this thought) Seeing it live was really an experience to be had. The sets were so amazing. For the train scene when they sing 'snow' they have a train car cut in half lengthwise and after they get off at the station the train takes of across the stage!
The musical numbers were great, and they even encouraged signing along during White Christmas! I think that my favorite part was the very end when the granddaughter declares "It's snowing!" and they open up the barn doors at the back of the stage and there is snow coming down. It really showed up nice. It was very sparkly and the flakes drifted down ever so slowly. The next scene was outside of the barn and it was snowing on the whole stage, but before you knew it I looked up and it was snowing on the entire audience! The snow was in fact little bubbles that floated down on the currents of the room and glittered in the spot lights. There were coming from bubble machines on the ceiling. For a small moment I was caught up in a sense of wonder that made me feel as if I were 6 again.If you live in the Seattle area, I would so highly recommend this play, it was the best play that I have ever experienced. It plays thru the 30th I believe.

Other than that we are busy trying to finish making the kids Christmas gifts and get all the baking done for our annual Christmas Open House. We so love doing that and love visiting with all of our friends. Some of our friends live afar, we wish we could see you too, but know that we are thinking of you during this season.

Merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving and Christmas set-up

Every year we go up beyond Leavenworth the day after Thanksgiving and get our Christmas tree. Here is a picture up in the mountains where we found our Christmas tree this year. (pretend the power lines aren't in the picture...) It was a beautiful day--there was snow, but it was sunny and not too cold. The kids played on sleds and made snow sculptures until they were freezing (which actually was a long time--funny how having fun makes you forget about discomfort!) Caleb's mom brought along the traditional picnic, complete with card table, tablecloth, plastic champagne glasses for the ginger ale, and Thanksgiving leftovers.
Caleb wanted a picture of his beloved Trooper, so here it is. :)
After returning to Grandma's house, the kids all had hot chocolate. Henry and Fern had so much fun with their cousins. It's so nice to have them living in WA now so the kids can see each other more often.
This is how I've always wanted my kids to be with the Christmas village. They love to lay down and look at the buildings and the dancing couples in the ballroom. We set it up under the fireplace hearth and it is a perfect cozy (and safe...) spot for it to be.

The kids are really excited about Christmas. Fern hasn't quite got the surprise element of the season yet...we were out the other day and I found a couple of presents for Caleb. We wrapped them up and when Caleb came home Henry excitedly told him we got him presents. Caleb said "I wonder what it could be" and promptly Fern runs over and says "It's a hat!". Needless to say, we have been keeping anything else out of sight. Caleb has been coaching her on how to respond to "what did you give me?" and she says "I can't tell you". We'll see if that sticks!

We let them each choose something to give to each other and then they got to wrap them up. (I think Fern's gift to Henry has a 1/2 roll of tape on it and perhaps 3-4 times the amount of wrapping paper required, but she is so proud of it.)

We have been preparing Henry for the disappointment of not receiving a real penguin from Santa (which is the only he wants). When asked what he wants for Christmas, he replies, "I just want a penguin. A real one." I think we need to re-read "My Penguin Osbert"... (It is a story about a boy who DOES receive a real penguin for Christmas, only to discover that he doesn't like taking ice baths and eating raw herring for breakfast, and how eventually he lets him go to the zoo.)

As a side note, Caleb has been laid off again and is recalculating trajectory...(as he says), but December is a nice time to have no work.

Halloween

Random Pic: fern by tomatoes. [check out those baby blues!]
Well Halloween has come and gone. We had a good time.
Friday night Lyn and I went on a very nice date. We went into Bellevue and saw a movie. Couple's Retreat. It was OK. We had gift certificates from a friend of ours so it was worth what we paid for it. Then we went to a very swank and expensive restaurant called Maggianos. Plates were $30-60. We had seen it before and it always looked so warm and inviting. We received a gift certificate for there. So we made it a date. The service was top notch. The food was so good. So good and so rich that it gave us both a stomach ache. Were not used to that kinda of food, but we would definitely do it again. The only downside of Maggianos was that there was a large group of 19-21 year old debutant girls having a B-day party. The were so drunk that they were actually falling down. The were loud, and stood on tables to get pic of the event. Ridiculous. Question why is it when people get drunk they exclaim to each other "I love you man!" ??? I thought that it was just in movies, but repeatedly I see it in life. WEIRD.
Henry wanted to be a pencil for Halloween. So we bought some concrete form tube and poster board and made one up. Fern wanted to be a purple kitty, so Lyn took that one on. Here are the results:We only went o maybe a dozen houses, but between the 2 kids we received exactly 6lbs of candy! We found a website that gives you a tone of fun experiments to do with candy, we hope to dispose of a good fraction of their candy through this. I continue to sell jobs at work, to the tune of $32K this month! which is phenomenal for Oct. But I am always faced with un-employment thru the winter, so things are really stressful, but we have got through worse, so don't worry too much.
Kids are doing great, and we are getting used to the cold weather. Don't like it but used to it.
Drop us a line.