About

Hi. I’m Nicole, a midwestern mom of three – ages 9, 6, & 2. Two sisters and a baby brother. My best friend and I had a saying growing up: “If you don’t know, make it up!” That’s my approach to motherhood. Sure, read some books, but for God’s sake not THAT many, and just trust your instincts and know that you’re mostly going to turn into your own mother. I feel like the best way to get to know more about me is by way of my annual Christmas letter. So here’s the one from 2019.

A few years ago, Faith wrote a song for her school talent show. The title was “Look on the Bright Side.” Rob and I sing it to each other (off key of course) whenever the time seems right, and never have we needed it more than in 2019. In short, it’s been a hard year for our family.

In January, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. During the course of chemo, she lost her hair and her signature energy. It was devastating for all of us, but Grandma Jan put on a master class in positivity. The bright side: she’s in remission (Hallelujah!) her hair is growing out, and she and Papa are babysitting a lot more! (Maybe that’s only a bright spot for one of us.) Bonus: Gabby loved wearing her wigs for dress up.

As mom was finishing treatment, I decided to become the patient. After 18 years of service, my liver turned in its resignation after my immune system went on the attack. Maybe that’s not the official diagnosis, but we’re journalism majors here. The bummer is that I have to take immunosuppressant medication likely forever and no booze at all for yours truly. The bright side is I can blame my irritability and desire to eat cereal at 10 o’clock at night on steroids. Also, turns out my dance moves are not fueled by alcohol.

Our hearts were already hurting when we found out Howie’s was giving out. Our 12-year-old Maltese puppy has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and we’ve been told he has less than six months left with us. It’s hard to find a bright spot in knowing what’s coming, but we’ve had a dozen, incredible years with him as our resident crumb cleaner and you better believe his stocking will be stuffed on Christmas!

Our three children have been the best distraction ever from the heaviness of health issues. I’ll try not to brag about them too much, but life is short so what the heck?! Faith turned nine shortly after spending a week at sleepaway camp in Okoboji. She’s our independent kid whose enthusiasm shines in sports (volleyball, basketball & soccer). Not surprisingly, she wakes up chipper at 6 a.m. (5:53 today) and still loves the limelight of the talent show. Because her performance was the day after I got out of the hospital, I was the one crying and clapping like a fool in the back row. Not my proudest moment, but I was just so glad to be there.

Gabrielle Grace is now 6.5 and spends most of her time at home upside down doing back walkovers, one-handed cartwheels and handstands. She impressed big sister’s class with her literacy skills earlier this year and ranks in the 99 percentile of the whole school district for reading (total mom brag). This is also the child who, when applying chapstick one day, said: “This might be a glue stick, but that’s OK!” She’s on Gabby time all the time, but the kid loves nothing more than a good “huggy” and her laugh is contagious.

Super Cal is in his “terrific twos” which means he took a Sharpie to our bed sheet recently. He also learned how to work Alexa, (“Yexa, play Baby Shark.”) so that’s been life changing for him. By far his biggest accomplishment has been potty training, which he basically did himself. In the event this is also too braggadocious, please know that he shouted, “Night, night poopy,” into the toilet one evening so we went wrong somewhere along the way. He loves his friends from preschool but throws them under the bus the minute he gets home: “Logan push me!” For real, this age is precious. Just don’t ask me about the meltdown at Target because we forgot his Batman cape and therefore he couldn’t fly around the store.

And now for my husband. I’m the first to critique how Rob drives, his taste in television, and those god-awful shoes I can’t seem to hide well enough, but this man has been my rock for the past 15 years and especially this last year. I am grateful for his calm to my crazy, his ability to make me laugh through the tears, and the fact that he is an amazing, hands-on dad.

Despite the storm, I managed to finally finish my thesis and earn my master’s degree from UNO this year. The bright side for you is that you won’t have to hear about my disdain for academic writing in subsequent letters ever again.

And now to get all philosophical on you. If this year has taught me anything, it’s that the life you know can be turned upside down in an instant. Unfortunately, we cannot control what happens to us. But we can determine what happens within us. My advice: Look on the bright side.

-Nicole