Lindsey Clan: December 2009

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

For family home evening on Monday, Matt taught the kids about Christmas with a powerpoint that he put together in about ten minutes. He showed them pictures of presents, and Christmas trees, and then asked Eben, "Do you know what Christmas is?" Eben said, "Yes," so Matt asked, "What is Christmas, Eben?" Ebs replied, "Christmas...is...singing."

I thought this response was cute, since his only Christmas experience this year has been the hymns at church and the holiday music we played Sunday afternoon. And yet, isn't this season all about singing praises to our King?

Love you all! Merry Christmas!!

We've moved...

We made it to New Hampshire and are still getting settled in. The weather has kept us wet, whether it's rain or sweat. We love most things about small town life. Everyone is surreally friendly. For example, we went to a yardsale a few weeks back, our main goal being to find a couch, since ours was too big to get it into the apartment. We thought that if we found something good we might mark the furniture as sold and then frantically find someone in the ward that owns a truck to help us out. Saturday morning at our first stop, we walk into someone's home and all the furniture is marked $1, $2 or $5 !!! We stood there looking at all the things we wanted to get. I looked at a loveseat couch and said to Matt, do you think we could strap it to the top of the car? The guy selling the goods overheard us and volunteered to throw everything in his truck and drive it to our house. We suggested we might reimburse him for his service, but he refused. When we got home, he helped us carry it up the steep stairway as well! This is just one of many kindesses we have experienced from total strangers thus far. I've included pictures of the furniture, as I have lately been consumed by the goal to recover it all, and am not quite finished, but excited about my progress. The kids are happy. Eben still asks about his old friends and where they have gone, but he and Zoe have a lot more room to run around inside and they are pretty well-adjusted to all the changes. We will see what happens when Matt goes back to school, but I don't want to dwell on that right now. What else do you want to know about our journey?

Happy Birthday Girl!!

Zoe turned one year old this month. She can walk, tries to talk, screams a lot, and laughs at her brother when he imitates her. I was really blue about leaving right before my daughter's birthday. It would have been nice to celebrate with friends and family. To make the day special, we inflated 30 or so balloons and covered the kids floor so that when they woke up it was the first thing they saw. Eben liked that part more than Zoe did. then we opened a package from grampa and grandma Pearson and Zoe is sporting some of her gifts in the pics. We watched a movie and ate spaghetti and popcorn at the party. Then we put a sparkler in the cake, because we had no birthday candles handy. The kids were impressed and near the end all Eben could say was an emphatic "COOL!"

P.S. I meant for all these pictures of the kids to be big, but don't know what went wrong.

Looking to the future...

We are off to New Hampshire, Dartmouth that is, to study medicine. For months we planned to move to Houston, but heard from DMS in April and felt we would be happier there. We are sad to leave family and friends and hope that some of you will find an excuse to visit! Come hike the Appalachian (I still have to use spellcheck for that word) trail. Visit Boston and we'll meet you there! Or plan your vacation around the Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory (it's nearby). Don't these sound like excellent vacation ideas? Please!?!