Sledding with the Cousins

Over the holidays we got a few inches of snow, so we invited all the family in town to tag along with us to our favorite sledding spot.  The ones from Georgia rarely ever see snow, so they were excited to tag along, and Geoff and Hylie were up for the adventure as well.  It was FREEZING cold, and all the out-of-towners were ill equipped for the weather since they didn't all bring snow gear, so we didn't last too long, but it was well worth the trek anyway.  Geoff was the reigning champ for distance on the sled.  He managed to maneuver down the hiking trail instead of into the trees and made it the farthest, and on his knees no less!  And Hyrum gets the award for most snow covered and frost-bitten!

A Very Nelson Christmas 2017

The Wednesday after Christmas we finally had all the visitors in town, so it was time for the Nelson Christmas celebration.  Once again we were all spoiled rotten and we had so much fun with all the family in town.  Geoff and Dianne had us this year and they gave us the CUTEST stuff.  We are huge fans of the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" around here, so Dianne design and cut out all the parts for a set of puppets for the story and now the boys get to assemble them.  We have some new and personalized books for Church, and we got the game "5 Seconds" which has also been personalized with questions just for us.  They are seriously amazing!  Thanks so much guys!  The boys were all thrilled with their spoils.  Bridger got a dancing robot from Grandma and PapPap that everyone loved watching.  He also got a scooter from Grandma and Grandpa and he thinks he's pretty big scooting around on it.  Braddock scored some new Skylanders for his new game he got from Santa as well as a remote control car that drives on the walls and ceiling!  Landon got his coveted roller blades, and cold weather hasn't stopped him from skating all around the house.  Tanner got a chemistry set he's been dying for for ages.  That boy is either gonna make us rich or blow us all up one day with his crazy concoctions! Hahaha!  We topped the night off with some game playing, cousin time, and of course Mom's amazing apple dumplings.  Another Christmas for the books.

We all pitched in to get a hand painted picture of the Washington DC Temple for Mom and Dad.

Christmas 2017

In order to redeem Christmas Eve we spent Christmas morning reading the Christmas story from the Bible and singing some hymns before we went into the living room for presents.  The boys were much better than the day before and we were excited to just start over and really enjoy Christmas.  There are few things I love more than watching the excitement on the boys faces as they see their gifts on Christmas morning.  They checked out all their Santa gifts and dug through their stockings and then we took a break for breakfast.  

We had our traditional sticky buns, bacon and sausage, and cuties.  We all gobbled it up and got back to opening the gifts under the tree. 

The boys exchanged names with each other and it was SO fun watching them open their sibling gifts from each other. Tanner got Bridger a little ball vaccuum, Landon got Tanner some LED string lights and magnetic putty, Braddock got Landon a skateboard and glow-in-the-dark putty, and Bridger got Braddock a lego candy machine and color changing putty.  It was amazing to see their faces just light up as they opened each other's gifts. And then we finished things off with a gift from us to the big boys.  We're taking them to see Brian Regan live in Ohio at the end of January.  They are SO excited.  Hopefully Bridger doesn't feel too bad when we leave him behind.  

 My new favorite Christmas picture of all time.  I sure love this sleepy guy.  Hahahaha!

Christmas evening we went over to Dean's parents for dinner and then Grandpa Nelson had orchestrated a Christmas Nativity for the grandkids to put on.  With a few costume changes we had all the parts covered and hopefully it's something the kids will remember for a long time.

Christmas Eve 2017

I thought I was prepared for a little craziness out of the boys on Christmas Eve, but apparently trying to be quiet and reverent at Church when Christmas excitement is bubbling up inside you is nearly impossible to pull off when you're little boys.  It was pretty BAD.  And the day just kept getting worse as it went on.  I suppose my expectations were not realistic and I should have just stopped trying to salvage the day and just let go a little more.  We joined Geoff and Dianne's family, Mom and Dad and Janna, and Grandma and PapPap for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  After some fun with the cousins we came home to open our Christmas pajamas and read the last of our countdown books.  We normally read the Christmas story from the bible and sing some hymns, but after the ROUGH day we had we just got those crazy boys to bed and saved the Christmas story for the next morning instead.

 Christmas Eve Sunday Best

Neighbor Gifts and Caroling

The Saturday before Christmas we delivered the last of our neighbor and friend gifts and even caroled for several of them just for fun.  A few of the families invited us in for a quick visit.  I think one thing our society is lacking is good, old fashioned, personal interaction.  It was so fun just to show up on their porches and be so warmly welcomed in.

 The Weltes

The Cunninghams