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!