The Nelson Narrative

We did things a little differently this year.  We alternate sides of the family every year, and this was a Paul's side year.  Usually we will go to his parents' on Christmas Eve and they have a good friend and her daughter over and we all have dinner and open presents (just the ones from us to the friend/daughter and theirs to us), then we spend the night and have Christmas Day with just Paul's parents and sister. But this year we decided to stay home on Christmas Eve.  I had to work but I left early and got home around 2.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at church at 4, and then went out to dinner.  When we got home we opened a few presents and just hung out as a family.  The girls got up bright and early Christmas morning (6:45) and we opened the rest of our gifts to each other, had breakfast and then went to Paul's parents' around noon.  We took 2 cars because he and the girls are staying there until tomorrow but I have to work and wanted to ...

The Sheraton Hotel in Seattle does a gingerbread village every Christmas season.  They have a big display of fancy gingerbread houses and other things made out of gingerbread and it's quite a big draw every year.  It's been over 20 years now I think and I have never gone (although I think one year I was able to see some of it from outside on the street).  I've been wanting to take the girls for the last several years but we just never have so this year I decided we were finally going to do it.  And bonus, it happened to be a Star Wars theme this year. So on Saturday (the 19th) we drove to Seattle, paid $11 to park and walked into the Sheraton, where, of course, there was a long line to see the gingerbread display.  As we got near the end (which we thought was only the beginning) we could see the 6 (one for each episode, not counting the latest of course) Star Wars-themed structures and thought that was just something extra to look at while we were waiting to g...

So yeah, I started the month thinking I was going to blog every day until Christmas, but not surprisingly I totally haven't kept up with that.  But here's what's happened since I last updated.   On Friday the 11th I chaperoned the girls' field trip to an edited-for-school-children-on-field-trips performance of the Nutcracker at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue.  Olivia really liked it but Kayley said it "didn't make sense".  I didn't get any pictures but this one was taken at school on a different day (Olivia wore a nice outfit to the actual event).  That evening we went to my work group's Christmas party.     On Saturday the 12th we did our annual drive around the neighborhood to look at lights.  I just love doing that.   The girls had a Girl Scout meeting/Christmas party on Wednesday night and they went caroling in the neighborhood.  Fun.   On Thursday there was another work party, this one for the...

I knew I wasn’t  going to keep up with the whole daily thing, but here’s an update for the last few days.   Saturday evening we went to a private party at Enchanted Village/Wild Waves (an amusement/water park) put on by Alaska Airlines for their employees’ families and friends.  One of our good friends works for Alaska and invited us.  It was cold and rainy, but we all had fun anyway.  Santa was there and there were tons of lights everywhere.  It was cool.   The girls with Santa The girls and their friend with Santa Olivia, Kayley and Lindsay as Rudolph     And yesterday was Weight Watcher’s Monday.  I was obviously all gung-ho last week and did really well until Friday, but then fell apart over the weekend like usual.  I managed to be down 0.4, but I had been down almost 3 pounds on Thursday.  Sigh.  And I haven’t been diligent about tracking like I said I was going to be, althou...

Just a quick, short, boring post.  I can tell this isn't going to last (blogging every day until Christmas).  I'm burnt out already.  But I was down another 0.8 pounds this morning.  Just getting back to normal after a few bad weeks.  I hope to be able to soon pick up where I left off and end the year at my lowest yet since starting WW in July.  I'm also toying with the idea of starting a separate blog for all things WW related but not sure I want to juggle.  We'll see. These pics don't do them justice but I wanted to share some new Christmas decorations I got this year. Love this pillow from Pier 1 And this metal tree from Crate and Barrel.  So cool.

I'm going to try and blog everyday between now and Christmas just to have something to look back on, not that anything particularly exciting is supposed to happen in that time but whatever. Today was one of those days that, even though I had dinner made ahead and ready to go in the oven, it was well after 8:00 by the time I got home from work, ate, cleaned up, etc. and could get onto something else.  I didn't even have to make lunches or anything or it would've been even later.  I mean, I know I'm not the only one who deals with that but sometimes I just wish I could come home and just do something besides cook or clean or make lunches or help with homework. Anyway, the girls watched Rudolph on TV tonight.  We usually just watch the DVDs but it happened to be on so they watched it.  I would have watched it with them but I wrote my Halloween/Thanksgiving post instead.  Then I put the girls to bed and started writing this post, and I never did m...

Wow, I'm late with this one but that's obviously nothing new.  So Halloween fell on a weekend again this year (Friday last year and Saturday this year) so we trick-or-treated with a bunch of friends in the neighborhood and then all went to one of those friend's house for a little after party.  It was pouring down rain but everyone toughed it out and still had fun. Olivia was Maleficent   Not sure where she learned this pose...sheesh...   and Kayley was a Star Wars "Rebel" I guess?  I think that's what it said on the package.  We were just looking on Amazon and that's what she chose.     Oh, and Maisy was a Beanie Boo     We did Thanksgiving a little different this year.  It was our year to have it with my side so we went to one of my brother's homes about an hour and a half away.  Normally we would just go for the day but we decided to spend the night at my Dad's because we wanted to maybe do som...

As you know, I started WW back in July.  That was a 17-week session that ended on November 2nd, and then I renewed for another session that I am now a month (almost) into. I've been terrible about updating (obviously I am bad about blogging in general), but I have decided to commit to giving a WW update every Monday for at least the month of December, hopefully longer.   So, at one point, back in like early October I think, I was down 9 pounds at home, 7.2 at WW.  Since then, however, what with Halloween and Thanksgiving and all, I have regained some and as of today I am only down 2.6 at home and 2.4 at WW (weird, usually the difference between my weight at home and at WW is about 2 pounds, give or take.  Whatever).  Pretty pathetic for almost 5 months.   But today is one of those days where I'm all motivated and recommitted (but like always I will probably lose 2-3 pounds by Friday only to gain most or all of it back by Monday.  Sigh)....

The girls have half-days this week for parent-teacher conferences.  Our conferences were yesterday so I took the day off.  That means I had 4 blissful hours in the morning to do whatever I wanted.   One thing I had been dying to do was to go through our house room by room and document everything I want to do, like paint or get a certain piece of furniture or whatever.  Another thing I'd been dying to do was go through all of their toys and purge and organize.  They have SO many toys that they never play with but whenever there's a garage sale or consignment sale and I try to get rid of stuff they never let me.  So I went through and put a bunch of stuff away to see if they even miss them and if not, they are out of here at the next consignment or garage sale!   Anyway, it was so nice to have a few hours to myself, at home, and to actually be there when they got home from school.  They loved it, too.  It was just like back in Kinderga...

Time for a WW update!  As of last Monday which was approximately the 3 month mark I was down 7.2 pounds.  I had been down 9 the previous Friday at home, but I think I gained a little over the weekend, plus I’m always a little bit more at WW because I get weighed in the middle of the day fully clothed and having had food, water and coffee.  So, I had hoped to be down about 15 by now, but I still consider it a success because normally in any given 3-month period I would lose and regain the same 3 or 4 pounds about 4 or 5 times and still weigh the same or even more.  I'm really not even following the program as far as tracking all my points and all that, I just like the accountability and motivation I get from going to the meetings.  That has really helped me be more consistent and get back on track quicker after a slip up. Speaking of slip ups, last week was not so good, so I'll probably be up a little at my meeting tomorrow, but hopeful...

So other than yesterday I haven't posted in almost a month.  Not that that's anything new, but here's what we've been up to in the meantime. The girls have been playing soccer twice a week, on Mondays and Wednesdays.  They have just a few more weeks of that and then they'll be done. Kayley as goalie Treats after a game Olivia ready for action Last week they did the mini cheer camp again.  They had to miss one of the 3 practices due to soccer, but they went to 2 and then performed at the high school football game last Friday night.  So fun. Walking out on the field.  I think that's Olivia kind of facing backwards and left of her is their friend and then Kayley next to the real cheerleader. Kayley acting goofy   Olivia     Our stove was down to 2 working burners, plus it had all this burnt on black stuff around each burner than I couldn't get off no matter what I did, and the window part of the microwave door...