Christmas 1999

December 1999

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, yet another year has passed and we have reached the time for "The Annual Cyle & Laura Christmas Letter".   If you don't remember where our last Christmas installment ended, let me refresh your memory: Cyle, Laura and Margaret are in Phoenix. A few months earlier Cyle had just taken a job that necessitated the entire family moving to the "Valley of the Sun".  The Nelson family had been living in an apartment. And now to our story….

1999 began with all of us basking in a warm Phoenix winter. Things were going quite well. We started the new-year by looking for and purchasing a house in Gilbert, Arizona. We also discovered we were going to have a new baby and were thrilled at the prospect!  Laura was taking an Interior Design course at the local college, work for Cyle was going well, and thoughts of Potty Training danced in our heads. We were going along our merry way when Cyle got a call from an old work colleague. He wondered if we were interested in moving back to Dallas and working for a company called PMJ. Well, that made us think. Even though we liked Phoenix, we had decided before going that we would stay no more than 5 years. We had been there only 8 months, and we get a job opportunity back in Dallas!

 We negotiated with PMJ for a few months and eventually accepted a position. Once we accepted, though, our lives were thrown into a minor chaos. We quickly painted our newly acquired house, put it up for sale, packed our belongings, moved back to Dallas, and started living with Phyllis and Charley Brandt. When we got to Dallas, Laura was 8 months pregnant. Throughout all of this, we were working to make sure the insurance from the new company would cover a pre-existing pregnancy. Fortunately everything worked out and the people at PMJ were very accommodating.

Our move back to Dallas went remarkably well. We enjoyed staying with Laura's parents. They were very generous to us. We quickly sold our house in Arizona and started looking for houses in the Metroplex. After looking at maps detailing where Cyle's work and Laura's family are located, we started looking in Grapevine. Very quickly we located a great home and put a contract on it. Meanwhile, Margaret had conquered the potty and started preschool and Laura was about to give birth to our second child! In fact, Laura and Cyle had the baby 3 days after closing on the new house.  While Laura was in the hospital, Cyle spent his time taking care of Margaret and getting the house ready to live in.

Our darling baby boy was born on September 13. His name is Jay Calvin Nelson III. We call him Cal. He weighed 9 Lb., 13 oz. and was 22 inches long. He was very healthy and quickly Laura and Cal were released from the hospital to join Cyle and Margaret in their new home in Grapevine. So, we end 1999 in a very similar position as 1998. Things are comfortable and we are doing well. The only difference: We're back home….

God Bless,

Cyle, Laura, Margaret and Cal