Finally- A Recap!

Hey everyone! This a long-overdue post, and we are so sorry for the delay! Once Christmas break started, we kind of forgot that we had a blog. During the times we remembered, we would say, "Oh yeah, we need to do a blog", but when there was actually time to do one, were we on top of it? Noooo! So, we'll give you a quick recap of the holidays and let you in on the inner workings of our college adventures.

First off, we are so excited to announce the birth of our new baby cousin. His name is Ellery Duncan, and he was born on January 5th. He's so little and cute! It's amazing how you forget how tiny newborn babies are. Congratulations to our cousin Andrea, her husband Chris, and big sister Stella!

Ok, so our break. We both made it home in one piece. Our family from Boise showed up just after we got home, followed by nearly all of the extended family on our mom's side. We had a great time together; it's so nice to see everyone and hang out with them, especially around Christmas time! However, it's always nicer to get together when there is not a funeral involved. As most of you already know, our dear grandmother Dorothy Duncan passed away on December 1st. She had been ill for a long time, so her death was sad as well as a kind of release. Her funeral was very moving, we're sure she would have thought it was beautiful. It was very personal, most family members got a chance to speak or share a memory about what an amazingly incredible woman my grandma was, and my cousin Jessica shared her beautiful singing talent with everyone. We had a lot of fun, especially in the snow!

After the funeral, the extended family left in order to make it home before they were snowed in! We were surprised to have a 2-week period of time where the temperature rarely made it above 27 degrees, and it snowed almost everyday! Christmas was kind of low key, but it was certainly fun. We spent Christmas Eve with our grandma and grandpa Braun, and then went to church. Christmas day, we did our immediate family thing, and then had Boompie (our grandpa) and Uncle Pete over for breakfast. They ended up staying the whole day, of course, and we played several rounds of "Picture Sentences" which turned out to be hilarious.

New Year's was pretty fun. Chelsea went to a pajama party at her best friend Kaylie's house, and Eric hung out at home and watched a Monk marathon. He also hung out with his friends a lot for the remainder of the break.

So, we're now back in school. This quarter has only been going on for a week, but it's already both of our favorite quarters! Chelsea has only two classes, Italian and Ballet. However, Italian is a 10-credit class, and it is a lot of work, but it is SO much fun. She has only been learning the language for 1 week and she's already pretty good at it! Probably the best part of the class are her new friends, which make all the difference. They had a fun study session today because their first major quiz is tomorrow, already. Yikes!

Eric has a very alliterative quarter, class wise, he's taking Swedish, Syntax, and Sound. He has Swedish everyday at 9:30 and is not used to having to get up around 7:00. Ha ha, I know. So early, right? For those of you with schedule envy, you can take solace in the fact that on Mondays and Wednesdays Eric is in class from 9:30-2:00 without even a break to eat lunch! Those days are nice though because he starts out with his easiest class in the morning and the classes get progressively harder as the day goes on.

On Saturday, we got picked up by our parents, sister, and grandpa and we went to visit our new baby cousin Ellery! We were so excited to meet him, as well as hang out with quite a few other family members. It was a family and fun filled day! We're so glad that baby Ellery is healthy and doing well! After our aunt Chukkie, uncle Al, and cousin Nathan graciously dropped us off at the UW, Chelsea hung out with her friend Freddie for awhile. On Sunday, Chelsea literally spent most of the day doing homework. It was quite tiring.

Today, tutoring starts up again and Chelsea has to leave soon to meet some of her student athletes at the Conibear Shellhouse were she works. Yippee...

So, there you have it. You're pretty much caught up. We'll try to get a few pictures up later.

Edited Version. Here are a few cute pictures from the break. Stella playing in one of my old tutus from the original Six Swans, cousins in the snow, my dad exploring the flora of the UW...