(Great-) Grandma Dorothea

My dad's mother, Dorothea Willemina Catherina Henningsen Rampton, was born in 1908. If she makes it to August, she will be 100 years old. Her health is weakening, though, and so I fear that David may be our only child who is able to meet a great-grandparent (since all my other grandparents, and all of Taylor's, have passed on).

Grandma Rampton's hearing is weak and her eyesight extremely poor. But her mind is still quick, and she follows conversations (as long as she can hear them -- I know about that!). We were sick on the first night my family visited her, but luckily got to see her last night.

Cousins!

One of the fun things about seeing my sisters Anna and Sara over Christmas was getting to see their little boys! I had met Jasper (Egbert) before, but had never met Johnny (Fowler). Johnny had undergone his 2nd cleft surgery only days before, yet he was cheerful and smiley and fun. Jasper is also so full of laughter. He's a big kid, and would, with a smile, steamroll right over David if not held back!



Jasper and Johnny were born 5 days apart, so I call them "the twins". They're now 9 months old, and it's amazing what they can do: pulling themselves up, crawling, enjoying toys immensely, and engaging with each other a lot. Makes us very excited to see David grow! And David even tolerated tummy time when placed so that he could see his cousins playing together. It's fun to have so many cousins close in age. Taylor's sister Kim has a boy 2 months older than David, and his brother Ryan will have a son next May. Very fun!

Johnny Fowler: "I had surgery only a few days ago!"

Jasper Egbert the Elf

Jimmy turned 3 on the 29th, so we had cupcakes and presents for him. He was missing his spoon, and my dad (?) gave him a big ladle...which he promptly started to use on his mashed potatoes! By all accounts, Jimmy is going to have the gigantic appetite of his dad...so perhaps it's wise for him to train on the larger size!



Jimmy's favorite birthday present, which engaged his attention for minutes on end, was his Star Wars birthday card, which played the theme song. He kept opening the card again and again in order to hear it play!

Teppanyaki!

NOTE: I stole all these photos from my sister Sara's blog!

Back in Corvallis, my mom and dad treated the couples to a night on the town. First we went to a teppanyaki restaurant called the Tokyo Steak and Sushi House (I think). They were going to come with us, but decided the babies might do better with Grandma and Grandpa for the first few hours of the night (though sitters came later and Mom & Dad joined us for the play).

What a blast! I had never been to a restaurant like this before, and loved it. You get a real performance by a chef as he prepares your food at your very table. I ordered salmon, and he even gave me TWO whole fillets! (See my "Yes!" upon discovering this!) I hadn't eaten much for a few days, because of the bug, but managed to stuff everything in!



The chef had set aside a few pieces to toss at us, too. I don't have much hand-eye (or mouth-eye) coordination, but did get my piece on the first try. Sara took about 3 tries, and kept getting hit in the eye!




Afterwards we went to the Majestic Theatre to see a community production of Anne of Green Gables. How I loved those books! There was another series by the same author (L.M. Montgomery), called Emily of New Moon. Once I slept-walked when about 10 years old and my parents, for kicks, asked me "Who are you?" I said, "I'm Emily of New Moon." How I wished!

So it was a delight to see the performance. That is saying a lot, since we've had bad experiences with past performances at the Majestic. But the girl who played Anne (a senior at Corvallis High School) did a fantastic job and really made the show very fun.

Finally we headed home to the babies. It was Sara and Rob's first time leaving Jasper with a sitter! He had had a little bit of a hard time -- but even David was crying as we got home (though he went immediately to sleep). I had left a note about David. I had him in a cloth diaper and instructed them to just put it in a plastic bag for me to take care of later, and to put him into a disposable for bed.

This morning, when I went to change him, I was surprised to see his cover was still on. I thought perhaps he hadn't needed a change. But after I took that off, I found him in a disposable...with the Snappy adding extra security in case the sticky tabs gave out! I guess the cute sitters tried to recreate what they'd found! Made me laugh.

On the Oregon Coast

My Aunt Merrie and Uncle Jon offered us their beach cabin for 2 days following Christmas. It was quite cold and wet most of the time (though we got a few minutes of sun, while down on the beach, Friday morning). So we spent most of the time inside, playing guitar and games, and reading. I finished Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish -- "quaint", many would say, but a good reminder of how self-sufficient families were only 80 years ago.



Now it was Taylor's turn to get the bug. He had taken care of me and of David for 2 days straight...and now it was my turn.

Dashingly handsome,
even when threatening to puke.

Here are some photos from our time there.

The Fowlers: Jimmy, Anna, and James
(Dad watched the babies up in the cabin)

Pepper, Drama Queen (I mean, Mom :), and Rob

Anna and Jimmy

Sara and Mom

Kim's Photos of David

Kim (Baumgartner) Greenfield, a friend of mine and especially of my sister Meta, took some photos of David over Christmas break. Here's a link to her blog where she has posted a few of them. She did a fantastic job! Thank you, Kim!!

Christmas in Oregon

We drove up to Corvallis to spend Christmas with my parents; Sara, Rob & Jasper; and Anna, James, Jimmy & Johnny. Fortunately, the cats Yoda and Thor are being watched by the same friend who watched them over Thanksgiving -- and they love her!

We got to Ashland Friday night by 9ish, and decided to stop, stay with the Croppers (Marcus's in-laws, and family friends), and drive the rest of the way Saturday morning. You know Taylor -- he loves people so much that we didn't actually get to sleep till midnight, the time by which we almost would have been to Corvallis had we continued on. But he was super tired, and talking is easier to do when exhausted then driving. Plus it was wonderful to see the Croppers. Mary Anne oohed and aahed over David and he loved her attention.

My mom, sisters and I took the kids to see a train at one of the downtown banks; Jimmy was so excited. It will be fun when David gets older and becomes so excited about things like trains and planes and trucks! We girls also went to a fun toy store. Meanwhile the boys played some basketball and did some of their own shopping. I dislike having Christmas so close to when school gets out for me, as it leaves me so little time to think about Christmas presents. (I know, I should be able to do two things at once.)

Jimmy & the Train!

Sara & Jasper

My family has done a 12 Days of Christmas to a needy family for the past 20 or 25 years. So Christmas Even, James dressed as Santa Claus and, accompanied by elves Sara and Anna, dropped by with a gigantic bag of gifts. All the grandkids but David sobbed while Santa held them, even James's son Johnny! (See Sara's video on it on her blog.) He was too hairy, I guess. David did cry at first when meeting Rob, who has a beard. But he got used to it quickly.

David & Santa James

I got sick that evening, though, throwing up all over the kitchen. I take some vitamins and supplements, and the fish oil capsule I had taken hours before came out, undigested. My dad picked it up and, while I was heaving more into the sink, asked, "What's this?" I guess this doctor hadn't seen that in vomit. I tried to get out "Fish oil", and he said, "Fish eyeball?" Taylor has been laughing and laughing about that scene now. Yuck.

Mom and Dad got sick that night, and so Christmas Day consisted of a simpler Christmas brunch, and the kids opening stockings and the presents we'd given each other. Our tradition is to take turns giving the gifts you have for others, so we didn't want to open anything from Mom or Dad without them. Finally at 9 pm they came out to finish the gifts off. Taylor thought it was great to have the gifts last all day. He wasn't sick -- though he came down with the bug a few days later!

Christmas Letter 2007

Hopefully you received this letter from us already. If you did not, please do let us know your mailing address and/or email. We had a bit of a mess with our lists this year! This version doesn't include any photos...but if you've been reading this blog, it's all old-hat to you anyway, and you've seen these photos -- and a lot more! -- on the blog.

At this joyous time of year when Christians throughout the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, we are doubling our celebration because of the birth of our son David Halverson. Somehow the Christmas holidays have so much more meaning when we ponder the miracle of birth as we look at the precious gift that God has given us. Soon after our attempts to have children on our own failed, and before we had completed the adoption paperwork, a doctor friend approached us and asked, “Would you be able and willing to adopt in 5 weeks?” We enthusiastically said “Yes!” and David came into our home in late August, just three days after he was born. So at this Christmas season, I feel a little bit like Joseph, who found himself to be an adoptive father, perhaps somewhat unexpectedly.

We have been blessed in abundance and in so many ways.

Lisa continues to enjoy teaching English and Communications at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, lowering her class load to part-time with David’s arrival. She is the chairperson of our ward’s activity committee, with the weekend of December 7-8 wholly spent putting on a Christmas Party with dinner and nativity program for 225 people. Now to the grading! She needs motivation to start training for another triathlon – anyone want to sign up for one this spring? [At this time we wrote this, the big Christmas party was all I could think of...but looking back, it wasn't that much of my year! Oh well!]

Taylor as kept himself busy, and for the most part out of trouble, teaching early morning seminary classes, team-teaching with Lisa a Book of Mormon class at the Stanford LDS Institute, working at Cisco in San Jose, collaborating on a New Testament Commentary and Translation project at Brigham Young University, and spending two summer months teaching in BYU’s Religious Education Department. The activity that means the most to Taylor is spending time with Lisa and David.

David is now more than three months old. He recently discovered his hands and uses them to try to grasp objects…we’re now trying to figure out how to train those hands to do dishes, clean the house, and write the Christmas letters for us. So far we haven’t been successful. David has also discovered the virtues of sleep. In recent weeks he has logged a few nights of 12 hours or more, which makes us anxious to have our own Christmas break to see if we can match his sleeping skills.

And in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of our lives we are technically homeless in the Bay Area. In the past 16 months we have lived in more than a dozen different locations, most of them house-sitting opportunities. (Remarkably our storage unit here in the expensive Bay Area costs nearly half as much as our home mortgage did in Bloomington, Indiana.) Our friends often ask of us, “So, at what address can we come to visit you this month?” Despite the fluid nature of our housing, our P.O. Box in Palo Alto has remained stable.

At this holiday season we feel so grateful for cherished friends and loving family. May you and yours find peace and joy now and in the upcoming year!

With warm holiday wishes,

Taylor, Lisa & David Halverson

Candid Camera

Let's see what else I can find to stick in my mouth...

Sometimes I get so sick of her pointing
that darn thing at me & shouting, "Smile!"

I think I'm going to be ill if she makes me pose
with one more "cute" suffed animal!

I said "Enough already!"

Big Boy

A week back I took no pictures of David, and thus had none to send his birthparents when I send them a weekly letter. So this week I was more active with the camera. We also just bought a tripod, which I thought might help, though in the end I couldn't maneuver it well enough to use it.

He looks so big in the overalls -- well, he's still swimming in them. But he doesn't look very newborn-ish when he wears them!

These are a few of my favorite things...

David loves bathtime, and he loves to suck on his hands (preferably both at once). I finished bathing him and while I dried him off he lay there scrutinizing his hands and sucking, quite loudly, on both of them. Here are a few fun pictures.


And a cute one when he got tucked under the hood of the towel (made for him by Annie Sherry!).

Away in a Manger

As the Ward Activity chairperson, the big event of the year is our Ward Christmas Party, which we held last night. This year we decided to banish Santa Claus (though Wise Men did hand out candy canes to kids at the end of the evening) and have a brief program centered around the Nativity. Keturah Legler did the bulk of the planning for that, and it came off beautifully. Someone suggested to her that Taylor, David and I play the Holy Family, so we did. It was fun, though I was not being a very gentle, meek or mild Mary all the time: we had set up no photographer for the evening -- a big mistake, since everything was really lovely! -- and I wanted photos of the cute kids dressed as shepherds and angels, and of the Wise Men. So I hissed at Taylor to shoot a photo with our cell phone while the Wise Men were kneeling before the Christ Child. It was the perfect shot, and my Henderson genes were screaming for a photo, but Taylor (wisely) didn't think it would look good for Joseph to be pulling out a cell phone to snap photos. He was right.

We did get a photo of ourselves on our cell phone. We can see that it's not great, and we accidentally erased the program for downloading it. So a friend sent me files which she shot. They're super blurry, and in no one shot do we look like a perfect Holy Family. Still, you get the picture.



It was fun to hold David up there. He was super tired and the bright lights were in his eyes, but didn't make a peep -- he played his role well! As he smiled up at me, I thought of Mary. On that first night Jesus would not yet have been smiling back at her. Maybe by the time the Wise Men got there, if that was indeed months later and not the very night of His birth, the He could smile up at her as David was smiling at me.

The evening was lovely, with good food (people brought lasagna and cookies, and we provided salad, pies & cake, and rolls) and beautiful music in the program. Our decorations were simpler than last year, easier to set up and take down, and I thought lovelier.

But it is a relief to have the event done! I haven't graded much in a long time, and the students need to get their work back!

Digital vs Paper: The Christmas Card Survey

Those who read our blog are probably among our more tech-savvy friends and family. So I want your opinion on this tech-related question. Does it make a difference to you whether you get your Christmas cards by email or by postal system? It's clearly cheaper and faster to send cards the first way, and for some of our friends, we've lost their snail mail addresses but still have emails. Still, my traditional side says paper/postage is the way to go, at least this one time in the year.

Does it matter to you? I just want to hear people's opinions.

Also, if you have moved recently and we might not have your snail mail address, would you send it as a "Comment"? I will NOT publish this comment (unless you want me to), so that your address isn't publicized. I'll just note it, and then "Reject" the comment.