Julie Louise

I am enjoying my month long break from college immensely, reading books of my own choosing, completing projects of my own designs. The Crown is almost completely finished (and that redundancy is to intensify the length of the wait and the magnify the frustrations of the obstacles). Sheryl's and my closet is reorganized. I have finished Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, Life in Christ by Edward Donnelly, and am almost done with Perelandra by C.S. Lewis. Just getting caught up on life in general is a rewarding feeling and the best way to prepare to get back to the employment of my life - school!! I've also relished the unhurried "people time" with my family and friends, which this break has afforded. The picture is from one such time on the second, when the Morrisons, Becky and Phil came over for some game time while all our parents attended the TBC staff Christmas party. The result of hurried or neglected relationships is the worst effect, in my mind, of the privilege of formal education, and I am always thankful for respites that allow for reaffirming friendships.

Sheryl Kathryn

Happy Sweet Sixteen to Sheryl! The New Year had barely been brought in, but Sheryl celebrated a new year of her life. Her special day began with our tradition New Year's breakfast (see picture), four days late! We went to California Pizza Kitchen for a birthday lunch and family celebration. She opened her gifts while we waited for the food to arrive, and we enjoyed the time together at lunch. With a few available minutes, we decided to stroll around the mall adjacent to the restaurant and were all surprised by how much it had changed since the last time we had visited, three years previously to the day!
School restarting is difficult, but are not many good things accompanied by a small pain at the departure of a previous good thing? Sheryl is neck deep in history and progym writing, but with her chin up, she's ready to attack the upcoming weeks of school with vigor and energy.

Andrew Barton

Presently, Andrew is practicing and re-practicing a speech for co-op tomorrow. He will seek to persuade his entire class to engage in household emergency preparedness. He is well warmed to his topic as he is presently seeking to get the boy scout merit badge for that very topic.
On New Year's day, he ventured out into the cold morning ready to brave the cold, sleet, hail, snow - and all those other things mailmen - ahem - I mean, boy scouts are supposed to endure to become great men and leaders. (I will refrain from pointing out that many men have become great and useful and truly manly without enduring winter camp outs.) He did indeed return much more weathered, experienced in the art of rudimentary survival, and otherwise tired. Whether greatness will be the result, only the unturned pages of history can reveal that. . .

Sir Tirian

Much to the joy of all, Sir Tirian is alive and well, although somewhat steadier with old age. His fear of his tank's cleaning has, if not lessened, wizened, so that his terror subsides more quickly and he relapses into blissful reign of his tank with ready alacrity. He occasionally entertains himself by flinging himself against the marbles and sides of the tank in a frenzy of energy, but he refuses to allow me to take a video of him to put on the internet. Something about royalties. I, in turn, refuse to believe that he knows what he's talking about.

Trinity Youth Days

An annual event at TBC are our Youth Days, a two-day "conference" for high school and college students. This year's Youth Days landed on the 28th and 29th of December. Pastor Domm from Englewood, NJ preached twice on Monday morning on the subjects, "Know what you believe" and "Live what you believe." His messages were excellent and applicable.

The afternoon began with lunch, laid out by Mommy and Mrs. Adamo. Organized group games followed. Julie and a friend of hers played a significant role in planning, organizing, and running the games. On the whole, the afternoon went very well. Games included a flashlight scavenger hunt with candy, a block maze, "Poison Popcorn," wrapping a gift as a team with everyone's dominant hand behind their back, finding words from a box of alphabet soup, and word puzzles. The afternoon ended with an hour of playing "Steal the Bacon" - excuse me, "Borrow the Bacon!" - a youth day tradition packed with rug burns, action, and loads of fun. Below are a few pictures from this game. The first two show the opposing sides preparing for action.

And then the action . . .

After a delicious dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread, we gathered around the cleared tables for a question and answer session. Many of the questions sought to practically apply Christianity to our everyday experiences, temptations, and problems.

The next day, we all gathered early at the church and caravanned over to Camp Shiloh, a Christian camp in Northern New Jersey. Although the outdoors revealed all the pain of below-freezing temperatures coupled with wind, we participated in multiple outside activities: rock wall climbing, archery, ropes courses, and a zip-line. Then some again bundled up to brave the cold and ventured out on a hike, while some of us more frozen specimens chose to remain in the fellowship hall to do what else? - play more steal-the-bacon!

Holidays at the Carlson

Finally, we are catching our breaths after the busy holidays. And without further delay, we wish to bring you an update about those fun occasions:
On Thanksgiving, we had several families from church - reaching a grand total of twenty-five people to fit around three tables stretched out between our dining room and living room. For dinner, we enjoyed a true feast of both traditional Thanksgiving food and also some delicious Puerto Rican dishes, compliments of the Larrazabals and Gaitans. After dinner, we all remained at the table to engage in the Carlson traditional version of giving thanks. Each person received three kernels of corn, and for each kernel, we had a chance to tell something for which we are thankful. It was a wonderful time of giving God thanks for all the rich blessings we daily enjoy. After leveling some of the mountain of dishes, the parents gathered in the living room and the teenagers retired to the garage to make use of
the ping-pong table, while some of the younger children played play-mobiles and horses in the girls' room. The evening concluded with a hymnsing.
The day after Thanksgiving, another day of fellowship commenced at two o'clock, when we headed over to some friends' house for a hike and games.

The hike was fun, but cold, and we got lost several times. When we all returned to the house, we played "Telephone Pictionary" and loved it. The point of the game is to have a laugh, but it isn't very competitive. Everyone starts with a pile of small papers equal to the number of players. They write a phrase on the top paper, and then pass the entire stack to the player to their right. For the next round, everyone looks at the phrase they've received and try to draw a picture to represent that phrase. They then place the first paper under the pile, so that the next person will only see their picture. On the third round, everyone looks at the picture and tries to write a phrase that they believe summarizes the picture. The rounds continue to alternate all the way around the circle, until you receive your original phrase in some mangled form. Then, everyone shares their train, and work off dinner by laughing hysterically! In order to prolong the fun of the evening, all the girls remained for a sleep-over.
Well, moving onto the next holiday, zooming past finals, the departure of the Birketts after their eight week stay at our house, and last minute preparations, Christmas arrived. We had a very quiet Christmas Eve with the Rimbachs. Our traditional Christmas eve dinner are some Swedish dishes reminiscent of my dad's childhood Christmases. The next morning, we had a delightful family morning, opening gifts, playing games, and preparing for our guests, who arrived at four for a delicious Christmas dinner of cranberry-stuffed acorn squash, stuffed pork loin, mashed potatoes, and a variety of rolls. Daddy led a profitable devotional, and then we all enjoyed a hymn sing with Mrs. Chanski playing the piano. Afterwards, we gathered in the living room to play our new favorite game, Telephone Pictionary. To give you a taste of the game: Daddy started his telephone message with "Mephibosheth," and it ended "Snowman in front of a house." Julie started with her historical hero, "President Teddy Roosevelt," who quickly became "King David" and ended with a "Jester King." (I bet you never knew that Roosevelt was a Jester, or a king - despite his dealings with Columbia!) After a brief ping-pong intermission, those who remained began playing Catch-Phrase, and we played until one in the morning, by which time no ones' brains were working properly, and easy words were unprecedentedly difficult! The festivities finally ended, leaving us happy to have had an evening of fellowship and a day of celebrating the wonder that God would humble Himself to be born as a man.
One week later was New Year's Eve. We spent that evening with a group of thirty people at the church, playing games and eating. At about 11pm, we gathered for a devotional about "Remembering." We sang some hymns and then "prayed in the New Year." Working together, we all cleaned up the food and games fairly quickly and headed home in the falling snow. New Year's day itself was a quiet family day. Andrew headed out to a winter camp out, and the four of us who remained played some games we had received at Christmas.
On the whole, this break from school has been packed with fellowship, food, and wonderful family time. We hope and pray that each of you have also had a wonderful break.

Something Fishy

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable. - C.S. Lewis

Although the populous have requested details regarding daily life, school, and college, a story about a new member of our family is in order. Sir Tirian of the Lateral Lines is the sole survivor of a most tragic fishicide. For VBS (which, by the way, was about Jonah), I, Julie, bought forty feeder fish in order to gift two fish to each student in keeping with the water theme of the week. By the very next morning, twenty-one fish had perished from lack of oxygen. Fellow passengers in the Carlson bus subjected the nineteen survivors to brutal jokes. One helper at VBS even became the ultimate "floater fish" in honor of the deceased. Susie and I judged that placing an emotional bomb into the laps of dozens of mothers would be cruel and unusual. Not wishing to break the eighth amendment of our national Constitution, we agreed upon a plan which would place the burden of the emotional trama upon the shoulders of the main perpetrator - I was to adopt all nineteen fish. The subsequent scarring will require both time and counselling . . . Within the following week, I sent fifteen innocent creatures of the sea back to the sea (or the septic, as the case may be). Equipped for such difficulties with the quote above, I endured the agony of this situation with outward composure and a peaceful countenance, and sought to bury myself in work in order to reduce grief. After a week, I allowed myself and my siblings the pleasure of naming the remaining specimens, and so Alex, Cal, Gumpus, and Tirian joined the growing ranks bearing the name Carlson. When you name a pet, the line of disattachment is permenantly crossed. Further, I realized that I was becoming particularly attached to Tirian, the runt who was transparent (i.e. You can see right into him). This would not work. And so, to help the situation, I bought another beta fish for our bedroom, hoping that this one would steal my affections since beta fish generally have a longer lifespan than feeder fish. Unfortunantly, the beta fish did not help. True love would not be displaced. As Gumpus, then Alex, and finally Cal joined the swimmers invisible, Tirian remained the sole feederfish survivor of the forty unhappy victims.

Since Sir Tirian of the Lateral Lines was promoted to king of the bowl, he has honestly become our puppy guppy. His bowl sits on our ledge window right in front of the sink, and he will NOT allow us to forget his royal highness. As soon as a family awakens and turns on the kitchen light, he darts about the bowl hoping to draw our attention to him. Once he's gained an audience, he pantomimes eating food and then darts to the edge of the tank in hopes that our eyes will rest upon the bottle of fish food on the right of his bowl. If, during this state of frenzy, his feeder speaks in high, excited tones, and moves their finger around the rim of the bowl, Tirian's excitement pushes beyond bounds. Finally, food is sprinkled onto the surface of the water, and in his extreme extacy, Tirian often jumps out of the water feasting his eyes upon the entrees laid before him.

However, Sir Tirian has a well-hidden secret - he suffers from acute lavophobia (fear of cleaning). Everytime his tank needs cleaning, Tirian acts in his melodramatic way like a fish out of water. Somehow, the Chinese food container filled with old water straight from his tank is not good enough for nobility. It requires a whole day and a half for him to recover from the tramatic experience, because although the whole process takes only thirty minutes until he is returned to his natural habitat, he hoplessly fears a recurrence of the cleaning and almost looses his otherwise voracious appetite. Finally, after his short term memory effects blockage of the painful memory, Sir Tirian returns to his usual self - ravenous, egocentric, and otherwise adorable!