A truly warm welcome from a snow-less Iowa. The grass is green with balmy upper 40 degree breezes. Holiday cheer abounds--only to be interrupted by the incessant phone calls from various political hopefuls campaigning for the upcoming caucus. This is the time every 4 years where we Iowans exercise our first right to choose our nation’s supreme executive. Lord help us....
Owen, now 6, is enjoying first grade. He has been working on a first novel entitled, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid of the Lost Tooth.” For those of you in the publishing industry looking for a new author this is a fascinating spin-off which is inspired by Owen’s first brush with dental maturity. The cheese touch returns again and hilarity ensues. Owen should be available for book tours after school gets out but only until the state fair begins. For certain his biggest accomplishment this last year was mastering both the original and double finger slaps several weeks before his older brother. Owen’s favorite event of the year was zip-lining in Costa Rica.
Zachary, now 10, has recently learned that in Iowa kids begin driving when they are 14. He has made his future car preferences known. Sounds like a lawn mowing business is in order. Z played his first season of tackle football, and it only took him 12 weeks of the 14 week season to figure out 2 things. First that he was bigger than all the other kids. Second that you can legally hit and tackle your opponents. Zachary’s biggest accomplishment was getting his first save in his first appearance as a little league pitcher this summer. His favorite event was, surprise, zip-lining.
Hillary, still 28, is in the throes of building a new home. This year the project has evolved from its existence as a hypothetical idea, to an idea that offended the future neighbors, to a moderately deforested mud hole, and to its present state as a giant mud hole with stones and boards. Hillary may have set our family record for travel this last year with trips to: England, France, and Iceland, followed by separate trips to Costa Rica and Panama in August. She still suffers from volunteeritis. If you have a cause and need a volunteer just ask Hillary, she probably cannot say no. Hillary’s biggest accomplishment, wining the freezing glacial water endurance test in Iceland. Her favorite event was our ski trip to Utah.
Jared, is very close to 40--and quite frankly it shows. First was his obsession with weight loss. Then he barely survives a small backpacking trip in the Uintas. Upon returning he had a nice encounter with his own renal calculus. (That’s a kidney stone for the rest of us.) The not so young doctor apparently has an unnatural fear of other doctors and all things medical. Fortunately he was able to have general anesthesia for the procedure where they use sound waves to pulverize the stone into “passable” chunks. As an anti-horder Jared is hopeful that we can simply throw away most of our possessions rather than have them moved to our new home when/if it is completed. His biggest accomplishment: boring academic stuff--papers and presentations that are so uninteresting to non-vitreoretinal surgeons that most people would rather scratch out their eyes than be subjected to them. Favorite event: watching people eat freshly deep fried sticks of butter at the fair.
We wish you a safe and sane 2012. Please feel free to drop in when you are in the vicinity. If not come visit.
Merry Christmas,
The Nielsen’s
Jared, Hillary, Zachary, and Owen
Thursday, December 22, 2011
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