The Rest of December

Man, I am a lazy blogger! Don't mind me as I play catch up on here. I know probably no one but my future self cares about what we did 3 months ago.

I'll start with the night of my birthday... The kids had been asking me if they could sleep under the Christmas tree since the day we put it up, and I finally agreed that we would do that on my birthday. We used to sleep around the tree as a family for my birthday when I was a kid, so I thought it was probably a good time to resurrect that old family tradition. The kids were in heaven. I was really glad we did it.

BUT at about 4 in the morning I woke up feeling HORRIBLE! I went to my bed to try and sleep it off in a more comfortable place, but just tossed and turned. My sister and I had made plans to take our girls to the Nutcracker the day after my bday, but I had to call and cancel. I thought maybe I had food poisoning from eating out the day before. I got dizzy just getting out of bed and every kind of food just sounded awful. I could hardly stomach the ginger ale and chicken noodle soup that Tyler bought me.

So when I told Whitney that I was feeling sick and that we weren't going to the Nutcracker, she was SOOO sad. Tyler saw her sadness and offered to take her and her cousin since Heidi and I weren't going. I thought it was sweet of him. The girls had a blast. Hopefully Heidi and I can take them again next year.

Come to find out, I must have had a 24(ish) hour bug. The next day Annie was acting lethargic and had no desire to eat, and then the day after that, Cole showed the exact same symptoms for the same amount of time. Thankfully it was a short-lived bug, and we were all feeling better before Christmas.

Mommy/Daughter Date
A few days before Christmas, I got an email from our local radio station telling me that I won tickets to see Riverdance in San Francisco. I was hoping to win the Michael Buble tickets, but hey, beggars can't be choosers! :) Unfortunately Tyler was on call that same night as the concert. But I was excited to get to take Whitney instead. She LOVED it! I had very low expectations for the concert, but walked away  really enjoying it. Those Irish dancers are insanely talented, and they put on a great show!

Navidad

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas together with our little family. All of Tyler's siblings were gathered together in Utah this year. For about 2 days, Tyler and I made secret plans to drive through the night (12 hours one-way assuming good weather) on Christmas Eve and surprise everyone on Christmas morning. But after realizing we would have to turn around and start driving back to California about 30 hours after arriving in Utah, our practical minds took over and we decided to stay home. Of course we missed the excitement of being with everyone, but we were happy enjoying a nice and relaxing holiday at home without the hustle and bustle of travel.

We spent Christmas Eve with my sister. It was our first time being in California for the holiday together. It seems like in the past one of us is either traveling or having family visiting, so it was fun to share Christmas Eve with them. We enjoyed our traditional (well, traditional for Heidi and me) Christmas Eve dinner with ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls, and veggies. Then the kids acted out the nativity--always a hit.

The lovely cast taking a bow: Barn Animal (Andrew),  Joseph (Caleb), Wiseman (Cole), Angel (Whitney), and Mary (Lauren). Not pictured: another barn animal (Annie), and 2 other wisemen (Tyler and brother-in-law Brad).

After the fun times with the cousins, we called it a night and took the kids home where they got to open one present.... what could it be?

 

Christmas PJs, of course!

Tyler was beat from a long day of work, so we decided that we would both be more productive elves if we took a 30 minute power nap after we put the kids to bed. Neither of us heard the alarm clock that was supposed to go off at 9pm, but THANKFULLY our upstairs neighbors were building something magnificent. All of the the pounding and drilling (or whatever it was) woke me up at about 11:30pm and I had that sudden panic that we had forgotten about Christmas! Thankfully we were refreshed and got everything set up by around 1:30am.

Christmas morning, we woke the kids up around 7am and took them into the family room to see what Santa brought. Tyler and I were in heaven. We agreed that Christmas time is the best as a parent. Tyler and I got a few small gifts for each other, but mostly everything was for the kids. It was wonderful!

Except for the part where we forgot to take Christmas morning pictures. DOH! I was so excited that I remembered to have the video camera rolling that I didn't think to pull out my camera. So here are some google images for you to see what the main gifts for the kids were:

At our house, Santa brings one unwrapped gift with a big bow on it, and mom and dad give one unwrapped gift with a small bow on it. Then Santa also brings a pile of lots of little wrapped gifts... underwear, lip gloss, sugar-cereal, small toys, you get the idea...

After opening presents, we enjoyed breakfast with some pancake molds my sister gave us. Tyler snapped a picture of the final pancakes: elf, snowman, and reindeer. We thought they turned out really cute and super delicious!

Then we went on a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather and the kids' new toys. I did remember to bring the camera for that one:

Christmas night my Mom and Bob flew into town. Did I get one picture of them while they were here? No! Doh! They stayed at Heidi's house this trip, and we hung out over at her house for a lot of their visit. We went with the grandparents to see The Princess and the Frog--we thought it was a darling show that taught some good values (although I could have done without the voodoo parts). Grandma & Grandpa also brought their new Wii Sports Resort game, and the kids had a blast playing that together.

New Year's Eve we hung out at Heidi's house where Grandma & Grandpa threw a PARTAY with noisemakers, a pinata, and party hats. Unfortunately my kids were MAXED out at 6pm, so we broke the pinata early and took them home. Tyler was beat from a long day at work and fell asleep with the kids at 7pm. I figured I'd go back and join the party at my sister's house and drove over there to work on the big puzzle with everyone. After we finished the puzzle around 11pm or so, I drove back home and hit the hay. I think that's our 6th year in a row that we have not stayed up till midnight to ring in the new year. 

Woo-hoo! Aren't we the Party People? Call the Nelsons for all your party needs!