Let the Merry Bells Keep Ringing

I am going to brag about Forrest for long enough to say that he made straight A's in his Fall 2008 classes with the exception of, well, chemistry for which he earned a......B-. Not bad at all, eh?

Anywho, forward and onward to our commentary on the "happy holidays" of 2008. For Thanksgiving break, we drove to Frannie and spent 4 days with the Roberts' family. It was delightful. Good food, good football, an air mattress that did not deflate, a Thanksgiving table that spanned two entire rooms, a captivating niece, an adorable nephew, and a mom and dad that sacrificed their own bed and room so that their children could sleep in the same house.

Then Forrest headed into finals week and Elin helped her entire office move from the southern tip of campus to the southernmost tippiest building on campus that exists.

Before long Christmas was upon us and we flew to Houston and Houston would not let us leave. Literally. It was 11:00 p.m. and our connecting flight to Dallas was long gone and Continental threatened to not let us leave Houston until Sunday- two days hence. Unwilling to stay the night in an airport chair, we jumped on a shuttle headed for a Days Inn (which Elin mistakenly believed was taking her to a Holiday Inn.) The shuttle driver was insane and talked incessantly about the O.J. Simpson trial (the first one), all the time craning his head back to talk to us face to face while the road went swerving ahead of us. Elin almost had a heart attack. Luckily, the crazy man did not take us into the dark woods. Instead he safely delivered us to the "sorry we are under renovation: please excuse the mess" Days Inn. Roughly translated, that means ghetto, television with 3 working channels, a wonderbread with peanut butter and jelly continental breakfast (not packets of peanut butter and jelly but costco jars of pb & j), and huge, gaping holes in the hallway floors.

Happily, the following morning around 11:00 a.m., Daddy Jenson showed with Elin's faithful sister Laurel who rescued us. They left Allen at 7:00 a.m. to drive to Houston and save us. Christmas Miracle. We love them. Christmas in Allen was delightful. Good food, good football (the Allen High School Eagles won the state championship for the 1st time ever), bad football (BYU....), a pregnant sister, the two oldest Jenson boys, a family volleyball match, a digital camera (thank you Nathan), a new wardrobe for Elin (thank you mom Roberts and mom Jenson and Rachell), and lots of ping pong. (Thank you to the Bills family for the wonderful dinner and magical game night!)

After spending time with the Jensons, we felt like it was time to return to Frannie for some more fun. We very happily spent New Years with the Roberts. We learned how to play a pirate game and an Incan gold game and we went sledding! On our way home, South Pass decided to become treacherous. After a noble effort by Forrest to put chains on our tires (they were too big), we were forced to stay the night in Lander. Luckily, the Best Western was considerably nicer than the last hotel we stayed in. The following day we eventually made it back home. Our little chevy metro is a hero and took us through snow and ice safe and sound. However, it made some scary noises on the way home from work today so who knows if it will start tomorrow. It probably gave us all it had. Well, it is a good thing car prices are so low right now, eh?

The moral is we love our family a million!

(bytheway...My laptop would not let me post pictures but I will post them soon, nonetheless!)