Christmas

We traveled to Denver this year for Christmas (barely... our alternator went out the night before we were supposed to leave town) and boy was the whole vacation an adventure.

But first, this is a little view of what Christmas looked like around our house this year...

Logan's favorite ornament this year. This was an ornament I grew up with (my favorite). When you pinch the sides of Rudolph's cheeks his mouth opens. And almost everyday this year there was a Hershey's Kiss waiting to be eaten by Logan.

I've decided that I LOVE advent calendars. I think I have 5 different kinds of advents, two of which were new this year. I think a family with little ones around cannot have enough advent calendars. Doing the different advents was the highlight of Logan's day... every day.
This was an adorable advent that Andy made for my birthday this year. The funny thing is I was this close (imagine my thumb and index finger just centimeters apart...) to making my own. Luckily, I happened to call Andy while I was at the craft store (on my birthday) just about to buy all the supplies to make my own. She had to blow my big birthday present surprise on the phone so I wouldn't buy it all. :-)
We LOVED it Andy - thanks so much!

Up close view of some of the ornaments.

I added little papers in half of the pockets that listed a holiday tradition to do for that day, etc to do with our little family.

This is a little Santa boot that used to belong to my Grandma who passed away a few years ago. My mom sent it to me last year and I love it. I thought of her every time I washed my hands at the kitchen sink and looked up at the window sill.

These jingle bells were a HUGE hit this year too. One of the boys had them in hand at all times. We had another set of jingle bells that hung from our door know and I think Logan took those off the door at least once a day.

Then there was Peppernuts - a Nelson tradition. Peppernuts are little small, round, hard cookies that get made every Christmas season, and boy is it an experience.
Here's Riley with the dough and the boys looking on.

Every year Riley makes a Peppernut monster out of the dough and this was Linc's first Peppernuts night so he got eaten by the monster.

Logan cutting the snake getting ready to roll the little balls.

I think this was the first year we made gingerbread houses in the last 8 years since we've been married. Needless to say Logan LOVED it. If you can't tell, Ben made a fishing boat and river.


Then came the trip to Denver... I was feeling slightly queezy off and on the morning before we left for the road trip and thought I either (1) had some bad milk that morning or (2) was somehow miraculously pregnant. But sure enough on the road I ended up throwing up three times. An 8 hour drive turned into 11 hours. But whatever bug I had was about a 12 hour bug because I was fine by the time we got to Denver.

We had a Christmas party (Texas barbecue style) the day after we arrived. And we decided to have the kids make Reindeer cupcakes to help entertain them.
Logan saw these in a magazine and had been begging me ALL MONTH to make them. In fact, that was the first thing he asked Santa for in his letter.



Then Santa decided to drop by (good thing, because I didn't get a picture when Logan saw him the first time around at the mall...) I think Logan was a little shoked that Santa would come visit him personally.
He asked Santa for a monster bike, monster helmet, monster windshield wipers and green stab pinchers.

I think Logan asked Jera to read this story to him almost every night. It was a very sweet story called "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey"

Then sure enough, a day later on Christmas Eve, Logan and Ben both got the same bug that I had. Poor Logi and his red barf bowl.
This picture represents about 17 episodes of throwing up between me, Ben ,Logan and Desi. :-) Ben's family has a history of hurl-fests at Christmas time, so this year was known as Hurl-Fest 2010.
Luckily Lincoln never got it, but he did manage to get a double ear infection while we were there. Wonderful!


Luckily Ben adn Lo were both fine by Christmas Eve night. The boys got matching snowman jammies from Marmie.

Aunt Desi and a tired Linc.

Then came Christmas morning.... last year we got the BEST reaction ever from Logan when he saw his big boy bed. So this year I was ready with camera in hand, video rolling and Logan starts coming down stairs and then all of a sudden my camera flashes, "MEMORY CARD FULL". What?! Are you kidding me? Of course I forgot to upload photos before we left town.
Anyway, so thanks to Dave and Jera's camera, we have Christmas morning photos! Luckily Logan had a very shy reaction this year, so I don't feel like I was missing out that much.

Lo's bike from Santa

Linc's toy truck from Santa




Trying out his new bike.


And his buddy across the street, Chase, got a new bike for Christmas too, so here they are riding together.


"Charlay bit me!" ha ha... except Logan really did bite Lincoln's finger and made him cry.

And then to top off all the adventure in Denver, I broke my toe falling down the stairs the last day we were there. It really wasn't that bad after the first day.
Logan had to have one toe nail painted too.

I've come to these conclusions:
1. We made horrible guests the whole weekend with our illnesses, crying, barfing, middle-of-the-night wake ups, etc.
2. It was so nice to be somewhere we felt at home. Ben's family was so great.
3. I love my boys a lot more during the day time than I do in the middle of the night.
4. The number of toys out there available for 3 year olds (most of which I knew Logan would absolutely love) was overwhelming and more than I could handle this year.
5. I am upgrading to a van sooner than later. Not being able to recline while being sick in a car is not my cup of tea.
6. I don't think I'll be pregnant any time in the near future. II forget how crappy it is being sick.
7. Bitter makes the sweet that much sweeter. In spite all our incidents during Christmas break, we still had so much fun and made lots of memories!