Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Remembered I was planning on posting our Christmas letter on the blog for anyone who didn’t get one but during the holiday blur must have forgot… (Couldn’t get the actual map to post but you get the gist.)

When thinking of sharing our past year, the only logical way seems to be with a map. In the past year and a half, we have put over 50K miles on our vehicles! Every trip reminds us how blessed we are to have the time, resources, and ability to visit our family and friends (and how comfortable our own beds are!). With Andrew traveling so much for interviews and externships, I relied very heavily on our Vermillion family. Without their love and support, this past year wouldn’t have been possible. Huge thanks to you all!

In March of 2010, Andrew will find out where he will attend residency for the next 5 years (we will keep you posted!). Also, our family is finalizing plans to spend April in Kenya working with Africa Inland Missions. We are very excited for the experience and opportunity to learn more about medical missions. Another big event we are looking forward to is Andrew’s graduation from the USD Sanford School of Medicine on May 7^th. Medical school has challenged and shaped Andrew and our family more than we could have ever imagined. We serve an amazing God and He is the only way our family has flourished these past years!

Tears flow freely at the thought of closing our chapter in Vermillion but we are equally excited to discover the next chapter God has planned for our family!

Love Andrew, Christine, Elizabeth (4), and Alexander (2)

St. Paul, MN: I continue to lead a women’s small group. In October, we ventured to the cities to a Women of Faith Conference. What a great time with amazing women!

Portland, OR: Andrew’s first 4-week externship was at OHSU in Trauma/ Surgical ICU. He rented an apartment for the month and commuted everywhere on a bike he bought and sold while there.

Bozeman, MT: One of our favorite places to visit is Andrew’s parents and brother! Elizabeth and Alexander spent 2 fun-filled summer weeks playing, swimming, and gardening with Nana, Papa, and Uncle Thomas!

Chicago, IL: Family vacation filled with a trip to the zoo, Children’s Museum, and Navy Pier. Oh and a big test for Andrew!

Burlington, IA: We love dropping in to visit our Iowa family. We are looking forward to another trip with the entire crew in March.

Wall, SD: During our many visits, we squeezed in trips to Wall Drug, hunting for the guys, and walks for the ladies. Plus don’t forget the amazing ice cream!

Rapid City, SD: This past year we headed home for multiple birthdays, Andrew’s brother Michael’s wedding, and I even worked the Sturgis Rally. Thanks to my parents for always having open beds and time in their schedule for us!

La Crosse, WI: Andrew completed a 4-week externship at Gunderson-Lutheran in general surgery. Our family got to spend a wonderful weekend together exploring, hiking, and swimming in La Crosse.

Vermillion, SD: At home we stayed busy swimming at the pool, road biking, camping, and canoeing. Elizabeth started her 2nd year of preschool and loves writing her alphabet, singing songs, and dressing up as a princess. Alexander never stays still, perfecting his bike riding, car crashing, and sister-chasing skills.

White Christmas

Once Mom and Dad arrived safely a day earlier than planned, we let ourselves get excited about the predicted blizzard bringing 22” snow! Each day Andrew and the kids spent at least 2 hours (sometimes 4!) outside enjoying the winter wonderland.

My family does well being snowed in and took advantage of the plethora of opportunity for games, puzzles, movies, and of course our favorites, eating and sleeping!

Dad had his second cornea transplant a few months before the holidays. The second procedure seems to be taking longer to heal and Dad alternates between having a super sensitive and sore eye. Here is a pic of Stevie Ray and his girl…

“Uhhh, durrhh.” That’s about all the conversation you get here.

Once we decided to buy our Christmas tree, Vermillion was plum sold out of trees. On to WalMart we trudged to scope out our options…. Of course the tree I feel in love with was ridiculously expensive and knowing that it would be at least half that in a couple weeks, we decided the nice tree was a no-go this year. We compromised and checked out the cheapest 6’ artificial tree in stock (which turned out to be only 6’ according to a fisherman's calculations!). Deciding the kids could have it in their room after we move, we bought the slightly ridiculous looking tree…

Christmas Eve, per tradition, we opened Grandma Maloney’s presents!

Christmas morning we all surprised ourselves and slept until 9am! Elizabeth was completely shocked by the toys in her stocking! She ran upstairs yelling at me, “Mom, I WAS a good girl this year!” Elizabeth and Alexander are really the perfect age for gift giving… they don’t get distracted and play with just the boxes and at the same time, each present is THE BEST! It was fun watching them get so excited over each gift.

Mike and Sam conveniently “forgot” Rusty’s squeaky toy in Rapid during their last visit… Lucky for Rusty, his Grandpa was thoughtful enough to wrap it up and bring it as a Christmas present. The dang toy is so annoying, your ears start ringing after the first 5 seconds! Rusty was so excited you’d think it would’ve been more difficult for us to “misplace” the adored toy… but it wasn’t! Thanks Andrew for making it disappear.

Had to include this picture to show Aunt Barb just how excited Mom was for her Black Hills Gold bracelet… :) Wonder why I have such exaggerated expressions? I love it!

“The turkey keeps leaking on me!”

The snow was a continuous distraction for the boys… Is it really my fault that the shrimp and deviled eggs were gone once you decided to stop playing? Oh, stop feeling sorry for them... I hid some in the fridge!

It was fun documenting the snow accumulations with the drift in front of our dining room window. Sarah texted us that it was snowing in Texas and proceeded to send a picture of a slight sprinkling of snow alongside her sidewalk…. We responded with this picture:

Her response, at least the edited version, was that she’d never live in in South Dakota again.

This is the drift that Mom, Dad and I watched Andrew take the kids to the top and, after he pushed Alex off on the sled, hollered out, “Be Careful!” Being his fathers son, at the bottom he stood up with a big grin on his face and yelled, “again!”

And the snow kept coming…

….and coming!

Mom, Dad, and I stayed inside for most of the weekend. Early in the holiday we decided we should do a puzzle since it’d been forever since we’d all done one. Dad went to the store and debated between a 3-D glow-in-the-dark tiger and the “simple” cabin scene. Mom scoffed his decision, informing him that the cabin puzzle would be simple and complete in no time. In fact, she thinks we might even have time to put together the tiger puzzle too..…..not so much! We stayed up super late every night trying so hard to complete the puzzle before they had to leave just so mom wouldn’t eat all of her words! Forgot to take a picture before I started putting it away but here is a good portion of the puzzle we spent hours over.

We only took breaks from cribbage, sequence, and eating to warm cold cheeks!

Christmas 2009 in Vermillion, SD was perfect, relaxing and fun!

Family, friends, semi-trucks and a dog party?

The weeks before Christmas we spent our time chill’axin with Dad on his birthday weekend…

…. dancing with semi-trucks during blizzards (well at least Andrew did, he came out unscathed but doesn’t recommend it)…

…hanging out with good friends…

…enjoying Uncle Mike post-finals…

…and celebrating the 5th birthday of our good friend Anne with a dog party!

Never a boring moment with the Van Osdols, that’s for sure! We are actually looking forward to residency; if only for the daily routine we’ve seemed to lost during 4th year of med school!

Always behind…

I am enjoying Andrew being home so much, I find myself putting off normal activities. We won't discuss the kitchen floor but maybe me posting pictures on the blog!

Earlier I mentioned our crazy Black Friday shopping and had to share. Shirley, Sharon and I left Wall at our new record time of 2am. (I munched on left over turkey dinner before we left; breakfast/midnight snack right?) These pictures are for 5 ladies but keep in mind this was only 8am and we shopped until 4pm! Boosting the economy. :S

Thanksgiving in Wall was wonderful as always! The weather was gorgeous and the kids ran around outside and ate their lunch in the garage (if you’re a mom, you’ll appreciate this one!)

We left the holiday weekend early to travel to Wisconsin for an interview. On the way home we visited our favorite free zoo, the Como Zoo. Visiting a zoo is only fun when one goes with Andrew. Seriously, a blast!