Christmas Greetings

Merry Christmas from the Nelsons!

In an effort to save trees (and printer ink) the Nelsons are posting their Christmas letter online. Plus, doing it this way allows us to add so many more cool pictures... 

Jan

Welcomed in the New Year at the Nelson Sr's home in Greenville, TN with Kristy (Eric's sister) and Tyson. Tyson and Kristy also celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary! Amy and Michael enjoyed "playing" with the 9 month old twins.

Michael and Enoch, Amy and Caleb

Feb

Month went faster with birthday parties for friends and family. Also enjoyed a brief, but fun snow storm!

Catching the rain

Our only snow fall for the year

Mar

Michael turned 3! Enjoyed celebrating his birthday with friends and family at a nearby YMCA.

Playing with birthday gifts

Apr Busy Month

We participated in Your Best Pathways to Health in San Antonio, TX Your Best Pathway to Health
Eric's parents joined us and wow, quite the event. Hundreds of people were treated completely free of charge. Rachel worked in the pediatric department and Eric helped in both GI and surgery departments. Eric's father did women's health. Eric's mother did health counseling. We appreciated the all-day childcare provided!

Amy turned 5! We celebrated with a "Helen Keller" themed birthday party. 

Michael had a repeat endoscopy which showed recurrence of his EOE. So...he was restarted on a very restrictive diet and oral budesonide. He has subsequently had two endoscopies (total of 5) which show disease remission on this therapy.

Rachel, Eric, Harry Nelson

Amy opening her birthday gifts

May

Enjoyed a way too short camping trip with friends. Cool (but not cold) and no bugs. Doesn't get better than that.
Our adopted daughter Stephanie graduated with honors from SAU. She is well launched in her career and we are so proud of her.
Philip Mills (Rachel's brother) tied the knot with Lindsey Longo. We are glad to have her in the family!

Quick trip with Eric up to Boston for ASCRS conference allowed us to visit Heather Goodwin Mancebo (Rachel's college roommate from Southern days) and Rachel's cousin Tym Farley and his family. The kids LOVED getting to know their second cousins (Gareth and Anika).

Camping with friends

Lindsey and Philip tying the knot

Jun

The kids will tell you this month was great because our community pool opened and yes, that did make it fun. We also took a family vacation down to Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. We camped on the beach with Wetmores (Eric's best friend and college roommate) and Nelson Sr. It was hot (lows in the 80s) and there were lots of bugs but we still had a wonderful time!

Swimming in the ocean with friends

Swimming in our pool

Jul

Eric and Rachel celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary. We spent the 4th at the Nelson's home again. We were saddened when Great-grandpa Nelson passed away suddenly not long after we left. 

We became parents again but this time to a dog when we adopted 3-month-old Timmy Billy Charles Nelson. He was the runt of the litter and we (had) enjoyed his gentle personality. Now he seems to have adopted a "teen" attitude.

Timmy Billy Charles Nelson

Aug

Bittersweet family reunion at Grandpa Nelson's memorial service. Nice to see family but sad it had to be at a funeral...

Big Change! Amy started homeschool kindergarten and Michael started violin lessons. Definitely adds more variety to our days!

Eric's grandmother (newly widowed) fell and broke her hip. She was visiting our area when it happened and was admitted to a rehab hospital close to our house. She has recovered nicely.

Eric celebrated his birthday (he's closing in on 40!)

Enjoyed a visit from Heather Goodwin Mancebo and family. It was fun to reconnect with Marla Samaan-Nedelcu as well!
August was also the start of Southern's academic year. We've enjoyed two wonderful college "daughters" this year (Emily and Tami) that spend many happy Sabbath afternoons with our family.

Sep

Our church plant launched. Eric and Rachel have been heavily involved in the process. It's been very excited to see a church from the ground up. We love the opportunity to be involved and are learning a LOT! And we are so thankful for the wonderful friends that have been part of this process with us. 

Also fun to can applesauce with both Mom Mills and Mom Nelson. We had done peaches and tomatoes earlier. Rachel's becoming a pro at canning!

Tami one of our adopted daughters

Oct

AMEN in South Carolina's Hilton Head was definitely the highlight of this month! Great meetings, great friends, great accommodations...Definitely plan to go again next year.

Playing in the sand

Nov

Thanksgiving with Mills in Blue Ridge, GA was definitely a highlight. Rachel's brother and sister with their respective siblings were both able to come down. We had a full house.

Ruthie convinced us all to bring these...

Family Christmas photo

In general: Eric is enjoying his job as a colorectal surgeon more and more. Rachel also keeps busy working part-time at a pediatric urgent care and full time as mommy, music coach, and kindergarten teacher. We love our church family and enjoy working together for our community. We are sobered by what is going on in the world and believe that Christ's coming is imminent. We are doing everything we can to be ready and have our children ready. We are living in uncertain times and are thankful for every day that we are given.

God bless each and every one of you in the new year!

Eric, Rachel, Amy, Michael and Timmy Nelson