Best Christmas Present Ever

Our family is celebrating the arrival of the first grandchild. My sister and brother-in-law welcomed John Alexander into the world after some considerable effort and beckoning.

He was born at 3:58 p.m. on Dec. 20, a solid 9lbs 6.5 oz and 20.5 inches in length.

Life is truly the greatest gift.

The Applegate's 2007 Christmas Letter

Hey Friends,

We've gone high-tech/low-cost on our Christmas Letter this year. Like Radioheads new album, we are online only.

Please click this link to access our 2007 Christmas Letter

Perhaps when I get a job someday, we can send out those fancy cards again! :-)

Merry Christmas to all. Please keep in touch!

Brent

Passing the time...

Kat, here. One thing's for sure. When you have mono, you have a lot of time on your hands.
Feel the pace of my day for a moment: First, you wake up about two hours later than you normally do. You get up just in time to have breakfast with your husband before he runs out the door.

You then decide to embark on reading multiple pages of Matthew Henry's gi-normous commentary to try to understand one of Jesus's more difficult parables, but it makes your eyes hurt and so you just sit for a while on the couch. It's ok to just sit. Then you wander into the kitchen for a snack and are pleased to find you still have a much more civilized appetite than normal: half a banana will do.

Let's go check our email. You actually sit down and type several longish emails, because it's only 11:30am, after all, and you still have much time in the day. You check the New York Times for the headlines and read the good science stories, and then you check out the Scripps News & Views (normally you just skim, but today you read--intently--all the articles).

Your husband calls at 12:30pm on his lunch break. You still haven't done anything on your mono-approved to-do list, but hey, you're supposed to be resting. You then suppose that yes, it is time for lunch, so you fix half a sandwich and some soup and start a movie. But you can't actually finish it when there's so much to do!

So you start typing up your travel journal from your August trip to Uganda. It could be a great Christmas gift to your dad and grandparents--basically the only folks who will actually read it. And it's been on the to-do list for weeks. Well, soon your back hurts from resting so much, so you take a walk. And you see this! A frightening sight at first, but you're now getting used to the idea that your neighbor is probably a professional yard man, not a crazy out trying to intimidate the neighborhood with his wide array of torture devices. The air is crisp, the day long, and you've learned how to handle not being...busy. What a gift this holiday season!

Mono-Vision

First, my apologies for the appalling lack of recent content on our blog. I can only offer two excuses:



1. Brent has been mono-focused on his first round of Final Exams in 6 years. Accounting on Monday summed up nicely, but Econ on wednesday appears to have had the supply of knowledge unequal to the demand of the test. Final exam for Quant is this afternoon...



2. Kat has been mono-ridden. Her tiredness, headaches, and sore throat were finally diagnosed as mononucleosis. :-( Not good, but at least we know what she has. Say a prayer for renewed health and lifted spirits, if you have a chance.



More to come... Merry Christmas!

B

December Showers

So I entitle this post as such, for two good reasons.

1. It rained this weekend - hard - for like the first time in 10 years or something. OK, not exactly that long but its been a LOOOOONG time. We had to rummage around to find an umbrella, and honest to pete, I had to actually blow the dust off of it before using it (However this could be a function of my housecleaning abilities... Hmmmm?)

2. Kat attended a Baby Shower for our dearest friends, Gordon and Lis



Now, thankfully, this wasn't one of those "couple's showers" that an increasing number of weak-willed husbands are getting talked into. As the ad campaign pounded into our heads, "Just say NO!"

I went with Kat just to pick Gordon up so we could go hiking, in order to allow the ladies to do... whatever the heck it is that ladies do for 3+ hours at a baby shower. Gord was delayed for a bit, and I was the only male present for a very terrifying 15 minutes. I finally elected to go out to their garage, just to feel a sense of solidarity with the paint cans, tools, and other such manly items.

When it was all said and done, Gordon and I went on a great hike, and Kat enjoyed the shower immensely. She praised "the attention to detail, beauty of the mom-to-be, and the individualized attention 'showered' on each guest." That and the cheese. Mmmmmmm...

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One week from final exams for me... Here we go!