Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

December 2015

Merry Christmas, my faithful bloggies!

Many moons have passed since the last blog post in the fall of 2012, a few months since we moved to the Fargo/Moorhead area.  And to be succinct, much water has passed under the bridge.  Many of you are aware of how our lives have changed over the last few years and this Christmas letter isn't long enough to express how our family has grown- both literally and figuratively.  

We decided this year to reprise the blog post in lieu of a mailed Christmas letter.  Joe continued his Master's in Music Education at North Dakota State University throughout this year, taking 9 credits over the summer and leaving him with no time to work as he usually does in the summer.  He also wrapped up teaching orchestra and choir sectionals at Carl Ben Eielson MS as he was transferred to the new elementary school in Fargo, Ed Clapp, to teach general music.  Rounding out his contract is a first period adaptive music class at Fargo North.  Increasingly, Fargo/Moorhead is becoming home to new waves of immigrants from Nepal, Somalia, China, Liberia, Iraq (to name a few) and many families have settled in the Ed Clapp area.  Not only has Joe assimilated to a new elementary age group and a new curriculum, Ed Clapp is a Title I school, with 40% ESL students. Joe rises to the occasion each day teaching elementary students, but pines for his days as a choir director at the middle school level.  Heading into 2016, Joe looks forward to his practicum classes and comprehensive exams until the summer and fall, respectively. Then, GRADUATION!  Additionally, Joe helps hold down the fort at Peace Lutheran as Director of Vocal Music.

We like to keep many irons in the fire, apparently.  Katy is giving it the old college try again at nursing school, this time at Minnesota State Community and Technical College in Fergus Falls, with intended graduation in May 2017.  After a much needed respite from Concordia over the past couple of years, the time came to return to school.  Katy commutes to Fergus Falls, a small town of 13,000 in Otter Tail County about 45 minutes away, three times a week.  She finished this fall semester strongly and enjoys learning more than ever.  She continues to work part-time at Sheyenne Crossings, a nursing home in West Fargo.

While Katy studies and Hope naps during the day, Sonja attends preschool three days a week at Oak Grove Lutheran School.  It's interesting to witness how differently she socializes this year compared with last year in preschool.  Her nine other classmates and her teacher, Mrs. Cordes, comprise her little world.  Everyday she chatters away about her new friends and funny things that happened.  She really is thriving in her school environment as a student and friend.  Sonja is spunky, quick to share with others, and is very perceptive about her surroundings.  She adores being read to and is becoming more and more competent with writing her name and learning the sounds of letters and words.  She is an artist like her mother and loves to sing hymns in church like her father.  On Mondays and Fridays, when she doesn't have school, Sonja goes to Grandma Kathy's house.

Miss Hope also keeps Grandma company at her house when mom is at school or work. She is our sweet baby of the family and kept us all in suspense when she just started to walk at nearly 15 1/2 months.  She is more of a cuddlebug than her sister was at her age, but every bit as curious and a master of destruction.  Hope loves to be sang to as she goes to sleep and she is immediately calmed when her daddy sings "Red River Valley" before putting her down.  We've lost track of all the new teeth she's popped this year!  Hope's first birthday celebration coincided with an housewarming party we hosted last August.  

That's right!  We bought a house in March and moved the day before Joe and Sonja's birthdays in May.  Our little twin home is perfect for this stage of our lives.  We've been blessed by 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a low volume of neighborhood traffic, and a safe, quiet environment in a thriving community.  From the deck, we can see a wheatfield, and just out of the development is a cornfield and a soybean field (before it was plowed under in September to make way for new housing).  We love living on the very edge of suburbia, where we can easily go for a bike ride by the wheat and corn on a summer's night or drive into Fargo/Moorhead for shopping or eating out.  The elementary school Sonja will attend eventually is around the corner from our neighborhood too.

We are so grateful to God to be able to live the lives we do.  Sometimes at night after the kids have gone to bed, we sit in the living room with a glass of wine and take a little time to catch up with one another.  We realize we come so much farther each year than we initially think.  We look forward to 2016 and all it may bring.

With love, 
The Lindquists

Joe, Katy, Sonja (4 1/2), & Hope (16 mo.)