Christmas

For the past 3 years, we've spent Christmas Eve at a friend's house--a tradition we truly love. Without a lot of family around, this is the next best thing! There's always a nativity play on Christmas Eve, and every year it gets more elaborate. Love it. (Still waiting on the camels and donkey, though, hint hint:)

(BTW, thanks to friends for the pics as my cam battery died!!)

Lisi played an angel. Unfortunately, when it was time to make her big entrance, she had a meltdown and we couldn't convince her to participate. The funny thing was that the other angel had the same problem! So the angels were crying instead of proclaiming the birth of the Savior...

All except Abs.

I think I made her halo look a little more like an afro than a halo...The whole crew gathered at the stable. Every year it seems that a live baby lies in the manger--the sweetest thing. Kierst thinks it's time for us to have another baby so ours can be the one in the nativity next year. Ha ha!The wise men, or maybe we should call them the wise women. Kierst was thrilled to put her own costume together.

By the time we headed home for the rest of our Christmas Eve, the side doors on our van were frozen shut! I can't remember that ever happening in the whole time we've lived here. Brrr! We actually got one door part way open and then couldn't shut it all the way--which meant that it beeped annoyingly the whole way home. Thank goodness we live close!

It seems there are a few schools of thought when it comes to Christmas presents. Some like to leave the tree sparse and wait for Christmas morning, others like to put everything out in advance. I'm in the latter group. I love putting out all the presents before Christmas Eve--(all except from Santa, of course, although at our house Santa only gives each person one present). The week before Christmas the girls are constantly trying to figure out what could possibly be in each package and I enjoy trying to make it as hard as possible to do just that. Last year I'd wrapped part of their presents in enormous boxes (about 4 feet high by 4 feet wide) because anticipation counts for a lot! The kids had been really good not touching presents, but by Christmas Eve the temptation was just too great!

Christmas Eve is never complete without Jack Horner pie. In my family we always opened one present on Christmas Eve and in Chris' they always did, too, except that the presents were hidden in a basket first and pulled out all together, thus the name for the tradition. The basket never has anything big, all the gifts cost less than $10 and it's always fun to see what I can find for that amount-usually I find the best things during black Friday sales!
The girls were up bright and early at 6. Abs got what she wanted--a unicorn webkinz.
Kierst has wanted an ipod for a long time. We warned her that if she got one that she wouldn't get much else. (I have to insert here that Abs was with me when I bought Kierst's present and said she wanted one, too. When I asked if she were willing to just get an ipod and nothing else, she decided that it wasn't such an attractive gift after all.) The entire week before Christmas Kierst watched to see how many presents were under the tree for her. She kept saying how there were only a couple of presents--did that mean she was getting an ipod? Well, did anything look like an ipod? No, there's only a square package that could be it, but it doesn't look anything like what an ipod would (see what I mean about trying to keep them guessing?) When she opened the mysterious square package on Christmas--she couldn't stop smiling! Her ipod!

Her second favorite gift--a scentsy for her bedroom (thanks to my friend for making that happen!)My sister looks thrilled to be up so early on Christmas morning:)

Lisi got a camera--the perfect gift for a picture-crazy preschooler. She took so many photos that wore out the batteries before noon on Christmas day!
Chris never lets me spoil him--but this year I did it anyway (like the Target commercial says-"let Santa do Santa's job" hee hee). I'm a person who shows my love by giving, so I had fun watching him open what he's wanted--a kindle!
The girls saved their money and bought each other presents. Abs gave Lisi a recorder, which she

played nonstop when she wasn't taking pics. Most toys become white noise to me after a while because our house really isn't the calmest place on the planet (that could be an understatement) but I'm not sure how long it will be until this toy somehow gets lost...

Chris made our traditional Christmas breakfast--appelskivers!
We had a very very white Christmas, with large snow drifts everywhere. I don't know if you can really tell, but the snow is as high as our front porch.

After breakfast Chris headed to work, but as he opened the garage door, he was met with this view...the snow had blown against our garage door and was as high as his car! We have great neighbors. The minute they saw Chris trying to dig through all of that snow, they all came with their shovels and snow blowers. They managed to get him out of the driveway, but the snow was too deep to get down the street! Again, thank goodness for great neighbors! One of them loaned Chris his truck to get to work.I don't think our minivan would have made it, the streets were so bad. Maybe it's finally time to get that SUV...Chris and I tried to take some good pics together...not sure if I like these or not... Since Chris had to work and didn't get home until late in the day, we kept Christmas dinner to just our family. We always have a traditional dinner of turkey with all the trimmings. I can't figure out why Chris never asks me to make my favorite thing, though--my grandmother's lime jello/pineapple/avacado molded salad:) It's a Nielson tradition, but since I'm the only one who likes it, it never seems to make it on the menu.

Abs loves eating the drumstick.
Lisi wanted in on the photo action with her mashed potatoes.

As I've said before, I love Christmas. I only wish it didn't go by so quickly. The tree will soon come down, the decorations put away, and kids will go back to school, but for right now, I'm still enjoying Christmas.