December is always a fun month filled with Holiday activities and great memories. Here’s a recap of our Christmas fun!
Elf on the Shelf
The first of December brings our little elf, Nicholas. The kids were excited that this year he decided to bring a dozen doughnuts for his debut in our home. He watches the kids all month long to see if they are behaving. He flies home to the North Pole each night to tell Santa if the kids are naughty or nice. Each morning they wake up to find him in a new spot in our house somewhere.
Christmas picture
I attempted to capture a picture of the kids in front of the tree after church. This was my best one, which isn’t very good. Oh well, I tried.
Breakfast with Santa
My parents always invite us to their Ward Christmas Breakfast where my parents are Santa and Mrs. Claus. Libby is finally getting used to Santa but she is still not a big fan of sitting on his lap. Last Christmas she wouldn’t even be in the same room as him without screaming. I think she is catching on that Santa is actually Grampy! She was pretty comfortable sitting on Grammy’s lap and telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas. This year she wanted a Sleeping Baby. I was amazed that she never changed her mind the whole Christmas holiday.
Live Nativity
When I was a teenager my Dad started putting on a Live Nativity in the back of our church parking lot in Duarte. When he was a young boy his parents were mission presidents in Calgary, Canada and had done a live Nativity at the mission home. It has such wonderful memories and was such a fun part of Christmas time. Two years ago he started putting one on here in our Stake. It is a much bigger production and gets a great turn out. This year Carter, Maddie and I actually got to be actors in it. We had so much fun and would definitely do it again!
Disneyland
Libby and I were able to sneak away to Disneyland one day in December, while the kids were at school. The weather was lovely and we ate outside. I am going to miss this greatly someday!
Ward Christmas Party
Our Ward had its annual Christmas party and my Dad was such a good sport and dressed up as Santa for it. He did it several years ago when I was primary president and ever since then our Bishopric has asked him to do it! He is such a good Santa and the kids love him. Libby was even better with him and this time she totally figured out who was under that big white beard.
The kids loved decorating their own ice cream cone Christmas trees with frosting and candy.
Christmas Lights
Visiting Thoroughbred Street is always a treat every Christmastime. We usually try to get up there early in the month because it gets so crowded but this year we didn’t get up there til just a few days before Christmas. We parked the car and decided to walk through the neighborhood. It was so busy, there had to be thousands of people there. I couldn’t believe how many people were selling goodies this year. We went with Kristy and Wes and Grammy and Grampy. The kids enjoyed hot cocoa and cookies as we enjoyed the lights!
There is a really neat house just down the street from us that has lights timed to music. They have their own radio station you tune to and watch the lights from your car. It is simply fascinating to watch. We always try to make it a point to visit several times during the holidays.
Sawyer’s Brown Tooth
Sawyer has had a brown tooth for about 2 years now. When he was only 4 years old he bumped it on a sink and the root died. He had a pulpotomy (root canal on a baby tooth) and it kept turning darker. I had the dentist do a filling over it but the brown showed through. I even had a dentist do internal bleaching on it but it simply didn’t work. Sawyer mentioned to me that some kids at school were teasing him about his brown tooth so we decided to finally have it pulled. Since he is 6 now and most kids his age are missing teeth up front it wouldn’t be a big deal. We’re hoping his permanent one starts coming in soon. He was a happy camper afterward!
2nd Annual Nielsen White Elephant Gift exchange
Last year we started our White Elephant gift exchange with Chris’ siblings and the cousins and we had a blast! This year we did it at Chris’ Moms house the day before Christmas Eve. The kids loved it so much they talked about all year and were so excited to find fun things to gift.
We always have some good laughs with the Nielsen family when we get together.
Christmas Eve
We Spent Christmas Eve this year with Chris Dad and Tanya at Kirsten’s home. The kids enjoyed being with their cousins and even sang some Karaoke. They were excited to each get a $20 bill from Grandpa Ed and Tanya in a Chinese Red envelope. (A fun tradition in China for New years).
We headed home at bedtime and had the kids open up their Christmas PJ’s. We read the Christmas story from the scriptures, and Maddie read, “'Twas the Night Before Christmas” to the kids. We left out some of our favorite Sugar Cookies for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.
I snuck out after Santa had visited to see what he had brought. He was hard at work in our house!
Christmas Day
The kids woke up around 6:30 or so but we made them wait until 7 to see what Santa had brought them. They all snuggled up in bed with us while Daddy snoozed. We always have to work a little harder to get Daddy out of bed on Christmas mornings! Grammy and Grampy came over with Chris and Amanda to watch the kids. It was so much fun to share this moment with them.
Libby got a princess bike and her sleeping baby that she had been asking for!
Carter was pretty happy with his new football!
I made a our traditional Aebelskivers for breakfast. This is a family tradition that has been in the Nielsen Family for many years. Faye bought me my own Aebelskiver pan when we were first married and it has become a family favorite in our home on Christmas morning.
After all the gifts had been opened there was one last gift Chris brought out for Maddie. It was her very own cell phone. She had been begging for one for months and even made a power point presentation trying to convince her Dad. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=309653849138556
Chris brought it out and she ripped it open, she was ecstatic! I never thought we’d buy her a phone before she turned 12 but we since she started babysitting her siblings we told her that it would pay for her cell phone bill. (Can I just say how much I love having a babysitter!)
Later that day Libby took her bike out for a spin and the boys enjoyed riding their new scooters.
A Day on the Slopes
The last few years Chris has had access to lift tickets at Snow Summit in Big Bear through Red Bull. We have never taken advantage of it because it seems every Saturday is so busy. This year with Chris and Amanda in town we decided to do it. We had such an fun time! I was definitely the weakest skier. It was so much fun watching my husband ski, he is really good! I hadn’t skied in over 15 years and I hate falling so I did a lot of snow plowing! Chris doesn’t get to ski very often, maybe once every couple of years or so but he did amazing! I was so proud of him. He’s pretty much good at everything he does. That’s what I love about him. We had so much fun with Chris and Amanda and Wes. Kristy didn’t get to go come because her of her little one Stella. Next year!
The day started out beautiful but then the clouds rolled in and the snow picked up. We decided to head down once the snow got pretty heavy.
Getting home was quite an adventure. It would normally take an hour to get home from here but it took us over 5! We were literally stopped for hours at a time. We got so stir crazy we ended up getting out of the car to play in the snow and have a snow ball fight a couple of times. We even got to know some of the other people in cars around us! It was a bit scary too because we didn’t get chains for our tires. When the car was moving it felt like it was sliding much of the time and Chris was on pins and needles. I was so proud of him for getting us home safe and sound! We were so grateful to my parents who watched the kids for us all day. It turned into a much longer day!
New Years Eve
We decided this year to spend New Years Eve with the kids and go to bed early! So we celebrated it New York time. We went out to dinner at BJ’s and had some yummy pizza. Then we came home to have Martinelli’s and make our New Years resolutions. I changed all the clocks in the house and we watched the ball drop in New York City at midnight (Eastern time). The kids loved being part of the action and we all got in bed by 10 o’clock.
