Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It may come as no surprise that we are not sending Christmas cards this year as we have been a bit busy the past five weeks.  That doesn't mean that I can't fire off a holiday missive, or a double negative!  Veterans of this Christmas letter know that I go through the year in excruciating detail, so to the letter!
We ushered in the new year at a hotel in downtown St. Paul.  It was so cold on New Year's Day that it was painful.  Then less than three weeks later, we were in Austin for a KU-UT basketball game and it was in the high 70s and sunny.  This is when Anders' love for the University of Texas was born.  A couple weeks later, we returned to the Hill Country for Anders' Christmas present, a trip to Sea World in San Antonio.

February was also a sad month as Anna's beloved grandma, Joyce Vivian (Ytterboe) Lokken, passed away after a long illness.  She flew back for the funeral.  We found out around that time that Anna's grandpa, Dennis Arthur Lokken, had terminal cancer.  We had hoped to drive up in March and see him during Spring Break, but Anders got sick and a blizzard swept across Minnesota.

Brad made his yearly trip down in April.  Anders and I took him to Galveston for some island fun, then on the way back we got caught in some Nightly News Flooding, flooding so bad that the areas through which we drove ended up on the nightly news.  The Chapel Guild chose me in April to be the speaker for Faculty Chapel.  The Class of '13 then chose me in May to be their Baccalaureate speaker.  St. John's gave me an endowed chair in history in May as well, but I could not be at the banquet to enjoy receiving this honor as I was home proving that one does not die if one's stomach and bowel are evacuating their contents at the same time!  Yes, the stomach flu swept through the Peterson home on Mother's Day weekend.  Anders kept a running tally of the hurling, 11 times between the 3 of us if you are interested.  Also in May our landlord kicked us out, but we found a better place to live so it was another blessing in disguise.

The cancer moved quickly and took Dennis at the end of May.  All three of us flew up for the funeral in June.  I booked a day later because I wasn't sure if I could miss the AP reading without owing them money for a plane ticket, but I found out I was off the hook, so I booked the next day.  We departed on a Saturday, driving up to Bush Airport to catch our flight.  Anna and Anders got through security, but the TSA agent would not let me through.  I couldn't believe it.  I have a remarkably easy time with security lines.  Anna's the one who always gets waylaid, probably because she looks like a Democrat.  The agent told me I could not proceed because me ticket was for Hobby Airport not Bush Airport!  Not being used to living in a place that has two airports, and in a hurry to book, I did not notice which airport, I just tried to make sure I was on the same airline as them, American, which might be the only airline that flies into both airports.  I muttered a few words to Anna and then sprinted in the other direction.  I found a cab to Hobby, hopped the plane, then was reunited with my family four hours later in Dallas at which point we got on the same flight.  For the way back, I used Anders to charm the gate agent so that we could all be on the same flight home to Houston.

The funeral was lovely.  It's impressive when a funeral for an 85 year old can fill a church to the point that it's bursting.  Anders was great.  Anna explained to him that everyone would be sad and that it was his job to cheer them up.  He grabbed his grandma Dorene's hand unprompted and escorted her to the front of the church with the family.  There were Lions, and teachers, and Norwegians, and the living members of one of the first basketball teams he coached almost 60 years ago!  We even saw a guy who looked just like Dennis, it was like seeing a ghost...  eerie.
 
I took a group of students to Eastern Europe in the middle of June then we returned home at the end of June for our usual month plus stay.  We visited my family in Kansas, my mom in Iowa, and Anna's parents in Minnesota.  Anna and I made our yearly trip to Grand Marais, MN for the three best days of summer.  I attended my 15 year class reunion and Nordic Dancers' reunion as well as a wedding in June of a friend from high school that had so many former classmates that it was more like the class reunion than was the official one.

Somehow during our horrible May, Anna managed to get pregnant, which we discovered in July.  We then headed back down to Texas in August to prepare.  We joked about having another preemie, but we took many precautions against it.  Anna visited a high risk OBGYN during the late summer and fall along with her regular doctor.  We learned in September that we were having a boy, which Anders had predicted.  Anders wanted to name him Anaranjado, Spanish for "orange," Anders' favorite color.

So Anna began another year at Armstrong Elementary, I at St. John's, Anders at Kids R Kids, and we waited.  Anders was moved up from pre-K to Kindergarten because he reads and does a lot of math.  It's been a good lesson in maturity, with low stakes--Anders calls it "Kindergarten" because it's kinda like kindergarten or kinda-garten.  Anders also began Sunday School this fall, and briefly joined the children's choir until it conflicted with nap time on Sunday afternoon.  We officially joined St. Martin's Lutheran Church in Sugar Land.  They have been great to us over these past five weeks.

We also had a last hurrah little vacation to the Hill Country in September.  We managed to time it on the only cool September weekend I remember in our three years in Texas.  We visited Austin where Anders and I attended the K-State v. UT football game while Anna relaxed.  Then the next day we drove down to Sea World to get more use out of our season pass.

October brought cooler weather and Anders' Halloween costume as "Jack-o-Letters," a jackolantern of letters.  Greg and Dorene flew down to watch Anders trick or treat.  Little did they know that they'd be returning so soon.

Then November 18th came...I can see why Garfield hates Mondays.  Anna left school around 1 pm with "indigestion."  She did not really believe it was indigestion, but she also did not think it could be happening again.  I finished messing with Texas aka teaching the Texas Revolution my way, when I checked my phone, which I don't usually do right after class.  When I heard how calm Anna was in her message, I knew something was really wrong.  I remember leaving school that day, walked toward the bus stop, wondering when I would return and in what state I would return.  The rest of it you can read about in greater detail on this blog, I've rambled enough.

The last five weeks have been a blessing in disguise.  We have seen the kindness and generosity of our friends, colleagues, and church over that time.  We have also been shown the love of our visiting family.  Henrik Arthur has been a steady traveler, so much so that he was transferred two days ago to a less intense, closer NICU, with free parking!  While we feel loved and cared for, there will be no Magnus Olaf Peterson because he would be born at 24 weeks 2 days, and weigh 1 lb 3 1/2 oz.  We are retired from childbirth and further children.  Our family of four (plus Trudy Goodshoes) is set.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Anna and the Peterson Boys: Anders, Henrik, and Jon.