The Nielsen Family Adventure: Christmas, New Year's, and the Winter semester

I've not been great at keeping up on this, so I'm going to sum up a bit. We went to Boise for Christmas where we were joined by my Grandpa Hulet. He was at almost every Christmas I remember growing up so it was extra fun having him there. Chad livened things up because he'd just learned to crawl a week and a half before Christmas. He loved playing with the presents, pulling on all tree ornaments and lights within reach, and scrambling towards the stairs whenever he thought we weren't looking. His main present was a motorized trike which he thinks is great fun, however we have to push the button for him so we get a good workout pacing back and forth across the house with it.

Probably the best part of Christmas was being able to talk to Chelsea via Skype and Nick on the phone. They were both happy and healthy. It's crazy to think Chelsea is over halfway done already. Nick's already been out 3 1/2 months which sounds pretty good as long as I don't think about how long he still has left.

Chad on his new ride

New Year's Eve we spent with our good friends Andrew and Lucy. Chad was awake and fairly happy for most of the time, but midnight was just too late for him to reach. He fell asleep two minutes before the stroke of 12. We had fun though playing games, eating chips and dip, and watching the ball drop in Time's Square.

Now we're a week into the winter semester. I'm back teaching 7:45 and 9:00 AM classes of FDENG 101 and loving it, as always. I started the semester off by sitting in one of the chairs as though I was a student myself. No one questioned it in either class and in the second class we had a pretty good conversation going between 6 of us. I asked if anyone had heard if the teacher was any good and one kid said, "I heard she's really good. My fiance had her." I held back a smile and asked, "Do you know her name?" He said he thought it was Sister Nielsen and I said, "Oh yeah, that's me!" then walked up to the front of the classroom. That certainly surprised everyone. I have an interesting classroom--it's in the geology building and is a lecture hall with room for at least 100. I have just 25 students so it feels a little empty. Not my favorite place to teach.

Justin is taking 15 credits finishing up his Bachelor's degree. He is also back volunteering with the sheriff's office so he can continue gaining experience to prepare him for his future career. In April he'll be graduating and we'll be moving, though where to we have no idea. His first step will be taking the law enforcement exam the first of February. I'm excited to move on to the next step in our lives but will also miss Rexburg and all our friends here. After living here for most of the last 6 years I won't know how to live outside the Rexburg bubble. Wish us luck!