MORE DECEMBER

THE CIVIL WAR

As you all know, I'm sure, the Neilson family is very much in favor of the University of Oregon's football team.  So, the Civil War is a fairly important event in our house.  The game was on a Friday night this year and to prepare for the game, the kids dressed in as much U of O garb as they could find.  Just about everyone in Sadie's 5th grade class was dressed either in green and yellow or orange and black.  Sadie's teacher got into the spirit and held several educational competitions between the Duck fans and Beaver fans.

Curtis and Erik got to go to the game that night.  Curtis was pretty thrilled that he had to leave school at lunch time to get to Eugene in time.  He convinced Erik that if the Ducks won that they would be able to storm the field.  Well, the Ducks won and Curtis and Erik ran down onto the field with a gazillion other Duck fans.  There is even rumor that Curtis and Erik were spotted on tv on ESPN's post game show!

Curtis and Erik on the field after the Ducks won.

CHRISTMAS COOKIE PARTY

Every year Sadie has a few friend over to make Christmas cookies.  I really noticed this year how little I had to help the girls.  We started having these parties when she was in first grade and I helped ALOT!  It's nice to just get the cookie dough ready and then stand back and let the girlies have at it.  

15th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!
This year Erik and I celebrated our 15th anniversary.  It does not seem possible that we have been married for 15 years.  Because our anniversary is so close to Christmas we usually do not get a chance to do anything more than go out to dinner on the actual day.  So, we waited until after Christmas and then went to the beach for a couple days.

SNOW
On our way home from the beach it started snowing as we went over the coastal range.  I thought to myself, "hmmm... this may be the only snow we see this year".   But, as we got closer and closer to McMinnville we were noticing that the snow wasn't letting up.  That afternoon we got about 4 inches of snow.  I love snow, especially because we rarely get it here in the valley.  The kids were pretty excited when they arrived home (they had been at Grandpa and Grandma's) and spent most of the afternoon/evening playing outside.

I bought Erik a new snow shovel for Christmas because last year when we needed one they were all sold out at all the stores.  I was pretty sure that if I bought him a shovel that would guarantee we would not get any snow this year.  I guess I was wrong.
 Here's a picture of Erik testing out his new shovel... in shorts!

NEW YEAR'S EVE
To celebrate we invited some friends over for a nice lasagna dinner and games.  The Shugarts, Rasmussens and Murrays spent the evening with us.  We played Bunco, Taboo, and Apples to Apples.

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

There is no better way to get into the Christmas spirit than decorating the house for the season.  Usually, on Thanksgiving weekend all the decorations come out and we transform our house.  This year I was a little late getting the decorating going.  However, once I pulled out the decorations and spread them all over the living room floor I told Curtis and Sadie to put the decorations wherever they wanted them to go.  We had to add a few rules:  You can't move decorations that the other person already placed.  If a certain decoration belongs to a certain person then said person gets to place that decoration. Etc...  Anyways, the kids found homes for all of the Christmas decorations and ornaments and this year I left everything just where they put it.  It's nice that they are old enough to decorate without having to re-arrange everything they have done.

One day I came home from school to find that Erik and the kids had found a tree, put it in the stand and strung the lights.  Holding the tree while Erik tightens the tree stand is one of my least favorite chores.  I was thrilled to find the tree in its stand.  And, now that I know Curtis can help Erik with this job I just might never hold the tree again!  Well, at least until the kids go off to college :).

Here’s the annual Christmas pose.  They weren’t too happy about taking a picture this year.  But I have to have a picture for the scrapbook.  J

Our first Christmas celebration takes place on December 23^rd with my side of the family.  We bake cookies, play games, eat enchiladas for dinner, eat cookies that we’ve been baking all day, open presents and stockings.  There are fourteen people at this gathering and we each take turns opening presents.  After someone opens a present they get to choose a present for the next person to open.  It might take a long time to get through all the gifts but it’s a lot of fun seeing what each person gets.  Sometimes, instead of opening an actual gift, my family likes to make people guess what their gift will be.  My siblings and I got our parents a tent for Christmas.  Unfortunately, the tent was not going to arrive before Christmas so we created a guessing game for them.  Charlie gave them a bent piece of metal with a picture of an ear taped to it… “sounds like bent”.  Beth drew a picture of a tent with her eyes closed.  Erin took extreme close-up pictures of camping equipment.  And, I took extreme close-up pictures of a tent and then cropped the pictures very small.  Eventually, our parents guessed that they were getting a tent for Christmas.

Curtis, Sadie and Elan goofing off and waiting for presents.

Curtis and Laura

Curtis and Aunt Sarah

Allen and Erin hugging Elan for the quilt that she and Grandma B. made for them.  Elan kept this quilt a secret from them for a whole year!

Erik and his new camo clothes

By the next time Curtis sees Aunt Krista he will most likely be taller than her!

If the wrapping paper looks like candy canes, does it smell like candy canes too?

On Christmas Eve we had dinner and watched “A Christmas Story” with some friends of ours.  At home the kids got ready to go to bed in the living room.  When they were little they slept on the floor right next to the tree.  As they have gotten older they’ve traded in the floor for the couches.  They wanted to listen to Christmas music so I turned the TV on to the channel that has music playing and shows a fireplace.  Sadie was pretending to warm her hands by the fire.  Curtis and Sadie did not go to sleep until about 12:30!  Even though they don’t believe in Santa anymore, I still like to wait until they are asleep to put presents under the tree.  They made me wait a very long time this year.

Christmas morning we all woke up bright and early.  Unfortunately Erik woke up that morning feeling very sick.  So, he sat way across the living room from the rest of us so that he wouldn’t share his germs.  Sadie read the Christmas story to us before we opened gifts.  We all had fun opening presents and seeing the looks on the kids faces finding things that they had requested.  When it was my turn to open a gift from Erik I was handed an empty gift bag and told that I did have a present but I would have to look for it.  So, I headed straight for the Christmas tree and with clues as to whether I was “hot” or “cold” I found a beautiful new ring hanging on the wrist of our tree topper angel.  A while ago the diamond on my wedding ring had fallen out and was lost.  I was so surprised that Erik replaced the ring with a new anniversary band.  I think this was the first year I cried receiving a present.  But they were happy tears.

After opening presents the kids and I showered and got dressed so that we could head up to Gresham to spend Christmas with the Neilson side of the family.  Sadly, we left Erik behind so that he could rest and hopefully feel better soon.

Up at Erik’s parent’s house we ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast, opened stockings and presents.  Then we spent the day playing games, hanging out and relaxing.  For dinner we ate prime rib, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes and rolls.  After dinner the kids and I headed home to spend the rest of Christmas with Erik.  Christmas felt very odd this year without Erik.  We all had a good time celebrating but there was a big hole without him.

Apparently, celebrating Christmas really wore Sadie out.

Well, that's all for our Christmas.  Hopefully, soon I will post the rest of the pictures for December.  I pray that you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.