A Christmas Letter

I am very proud to announce that the very last (I hope) of the Christmas cards made it into the mailbox today.  Hey - I got them out before Christmas, so I consider myself having mastered the near-impossible! I did not include a letter this year, feeling as if there was really nothing worth retelling this year.  2009 will come to a welcome close in a few days and I hope that 2010 holds better things for the Jensen family.  Not that 2009 has been bad, but it could have been better on many accounts.

The economy took its toll on everyone around here.  Arizona had seen a meteoric rise in all things financial a few years back and was kicked in the teeth pretty hard as a result.  The good news for us is that we are both still employed, thank goodness, but it has made for some frustrating times in both our jobs.  Fewer sales and larger class sizes come immediately to mind.

This spring, Parker played baseball again, and is getting really good!  It warms a parent's heart to hear folks in the stands wonder when they will put Parker in to pitch, because he is good!  He loves every moment of the game, and was even invited to play Fall Ball this year - a first for him, and a very fun honor.  Even with a fall sport, he managed to get all As and Bs for the first 2 quarters of school!

Matthew continues to amaze us with his love of science, and space, and you can now add architecture to the list.  Legos have replaced Thomas the Tank Engine as his addiction, (given his age, this is a good thing) and there are more Legos around this house than one can imagine.  He builds what he is supposed to build with whatever kit he has, then he takes it apart and builds something totally unique. 

Christopher left the care of Nada this fall to venture into the big world of Preschool.  He goes to Laguna with his two older brothers, and loves every minute of it.  His only complaint is that he is not old enough to ride the bus!!  He is reading (way too well - we can no longer spell things we don't want him to know about because he can figure the words out!) and doing math and making new friends. 

We had one big, rather unpleasant surprise this fall.  As we were planning our trip to Disneyland over October break, Matthew seemed "off".  We decided to take him, one weekend, to the MinuteClinic at CVS.  We have the nurse his symptoms, and she said she wanted to test his blood sugar as his symptoms sounded like Diabetes.  His glucose levels were 474.  In a very calm voice, she looked at me and said,  "I think you are going to be going to the emergency room now...".  Matthew was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  He is, so far, doing great with the whole thing... we still have the occasional "Whoops - forgot to test before I ate" but overall he has adjusted to this new way of living better than I would have, that is for sure. 

We delayed our trip to Disney, and plan to visit the Land of the Mouse between Christmas and New Years.

May the blessings of the season be with you and your family this Christmas, and follow you into the New Year!!

If you give a man a mission...

A Jensen Ode to "If you give a mouse a muffin..."


If you give a man a mission
of putting up the Christmas tree
First he will have to move furniture
and will see dust on the ground.
Then he will have to vaccuum,
and will see the window is not closed
Then he will have to take window out
and will see the screw stopping the window from closing.
Then he will have to get his toolkit out
and try to dislodge the screw.
Then he will have to find a way
to replace blinds without the screw that held them in place.
Then he will have to replace the window
only to find it still won't close......

Anyone want to guess whether or not we get the tree up today??