The Nelson Narrative

We had an actual white Christmas this year.  That is pretty rare.  It occasionally snows on Christmas but if it does it doesn't usually stick.  It was so pretty and festive. We got up early and opened gifts, then had breakfast and started getting things ready.  Paul's mom and sister came around noon and we opened gifts with them and then had turkey dinner.  They actually stayed the night because they didn't want to drive home in the dark, especially with all the snow. Olivia made these beautiful appetizer trays Later in the week we got even more snow.

Day 4 of the Christmas season.  I took the day off and drove up to Lynnwood to take my ring to Shane Co for cleaning/inspection etc.  Then I did some Christmas shopping at the mall.  Like I mentioned yesterday there are some stores there that aren't at the mall closer to home that I needed to go to.  I managed to get a few things and now I have a really good start to my holiday shopping.  Now I'm watching the Seahawks on Monday Night Football.  They are having a bad season but there's a chance they could win this one. Fingers crossed! Back to work tomorrow, and I have to take a long lunch to pick up Olivia from school and take her to the orthodontist.  Always so many appointments.

Today we went to church and then got gas and did our grocery shopping for the week on the way home.  Just Paul and I because Olivia rode there and back with a friend and Kayley had a friend spend the night last night and they ended up not going.  Once we were home we had lunch and then we walked Kona but it was a short walk because it was raining.  After that I just did a bunch of chores like cleaning the litter box and laundry.  I watched part of a movie and then had to go pick Kayley up from a friend's house.  Then we ate dinner, cleaned up and now I'm finishing my movie.  They all have to go back to work and school tomorrow but I took the day off.  I was originally planning on just doing things around the house but now I'm going to go to a mall 40 minutes away because they have some stores I need that the closer mall doesn't have and I might as well take advantage of the less crowded weekday.  Also, I need to take my ring in for cleaning/inspec...

28 days until Christmas.  I don't think I've blogged since school started!  I've started several posts but never get around to finishing and posting them.  So between now and Christmas Eve I thought it would be fun to try and write everyday just a few sentences or paragraphs about what I/we did that day.  I've attempted similar in the past and never got very far but I want to try again anyway.  I may not actually post every day, I may just write something and then post something every three or four days or something like that.  We'll see. Ideally, I would have started yesterday, being the day after Thanksgiving and the official start of the Christmas season and all, but I didn't think about it until today. Yesterday we were still at Paul's mom's house.  We went there on Thanksgiving and then spent the night and helped her put up all her Christmas decorations and stuff on Friday (yesterday).  This was the first Thanksgiving since Paul's dad died, s...

Our Christmas celebration started on Christmas Eve morning.  We let the girls open a few gifts from us so we'd have less to haul down to the in-laws.  Then after breakfast we headed down and got there around 1:00 PM.  We had lunch and then went for a short walk.  Then we changed clothes/got the girls in their Christmas dresses and went to their church's Christmas Eve service, then home for dinner, presents and dessert with their good friend and her daughter.  We finally got the girls to sleep around 10:00 I think, and they slept until 8:30ish on Christmas morning. We had brought their stockings with us, since Santa wouldn't have been to our house yet before we left home, so we did stockings and Santa presents first, then had breakfast (eggnog french toast-yum!) and then the marathon present opening began.  Paul's parents (well, mom) really goes overboard with gifts.  The girls were actually tired of opening and losing interest toward t...

There they are-front and center in the green dresses The girls sang in their very first Christmas program at church last night.  They did so good!  I really wasn't sure what to expect--I thought maybe they'd get up there and freeze, just staring out at the audience and not singing a note.  But they sang the whole time and did the hand motions and everything.  I was so proud. I took some video with just our camera (we don't have a camcorder) and had a little trouble zooming and holding it steady but at least I got something.  Most of the pictures I took didn't turn out because I had the wrong setting-grrrrr.  I swore I checked.  But we did do a photo shoot before we left.

We are officially in full-on Christmas mode.  Yesterday was our annual trek to the tree farm for our Christmas tree.  The girls were really into this year and did a great job helping us pick the perfect tree. This is it! Enjoying  a post-tree hunt oreo We spent the whole afternoon decorating it and the house, then at 5:30 we headed to our town's annual Tree Lighting and Santa arrival.  We had a carriage ride, some cookies, warm apple cider and hot chocolate, and the girls got to sit on Santa's lap for a picture.  Last year Kayley was too scared but this year was no problem. Window clings Photo op with Rudolph On a carriage ride Tonight we tried to get some pictures of the girls with the cats.

Wow, I can't believe it's December already.  Today's Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge topic is favorite Christmas movies/specials, and now I'm totally in the mood to start watching them all, and I'm also going to try to find a bunch I've never seen on TV and watch those, too. My all time favorite is Charlie Brown.  Every year my mom would make popcorn and my brother and I would curl up with our favorite pillows/blankets and watch.  And I love that they still play it on TV in this day and age of political correctness even though (gasp!) it mentions the birth of Christ as the real meaning of Christmas.  I'm surprised it hasn't been banned from network television. Anyway, I have a couple favorites that most people probably don't think of as Christmas movies, but hey, they take place at Christmastime. And then there's Christmas Vacation that we watch every Thanksgiving weekend, and one of my latest favorites, Elf. Of course...

Today I'm joining Amber and Neely's Fabulous Holiday Blog Challenge where the topic is Favorite Holiday Traditions.  Paul and I have enjoyed creating several Christmas traditions since we got married.  First, we always watch Christmas Vacation sometime during the Thanksgiving weekend.  Next, all 4 of us go to a local tree farm to select, cut down and purchase our Christmas Tree (aptly refered to as the Nelson Family Christmas Tree).  We used to do this the Friday after Thanksgiving, but in the last few years we've waited until the first weekend in December.  We spend most of the day the first Saturday in December getting our tree, putting it up and decorating it.  We also put up our outside lights that weekend. Last year we took the girls to see Santa for the first time, and that will become an annual tradition.  Finally, we always take a drive around the neighborhood one evening to look at all the lights.  And, of course, it woul...

I think I'm the last blogger to post about Christmas, but here goes.  We had 3 full days of Christmas festivities.  That's not typical, but that's just how it worked out this year.  We went to my brother and sister-in-law's on Christmas Eve and had a great time.  The girls got to play with their 2nd cousins, Taylor and Skyler, and they had so much fun. Kayley, Taylor, Olivia On Christmas morning the girls got up at 7:00 and came and snuggled in bed with us.  They knew the night before that Santa would be coming but they didn't really remember in the morning until we said something.  We went downstairs and had a nice relaxing morning of opening stockings and sipping coffee by the tree and just hanging out as a family.  Later, Paul's parents and sister came over for more gifts and a turkey dinner.  The girls got SO many nice gifts between the two families!  I still haven't got it all put away and organized. On Sunday, we went to ...