We started a couple of new Christmas Eve traditions with the kids. Ben insisted that we make reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter) to put on the front lawn to make sure Rudolph could find our house. Emily learned in school that kids in Holland leave their wooden shoes by their beds so Santa will leave treats in them, so all of the kids lined up their slippers by their beds. We must have tricked Santa into thinking he was in The Netherlands because he filled up their slippers when he stopped at our house.
Christmas morning didn’t go exactly as planned. The kids always get a new book from Santa on their beds after they fall asleep on Christmas Eve. The idea is that they will stay in bed on Christmas morning until we go and get them. It’s always worked in the past. Not this year. Nate and I got up at about 7:00 and Ben and Emily were both sitting in the family room. The conversation went something like this:
Me – “What are you doing? You’re supposed to stay in your rooms.”
Ben – “Ma-om (the 2 syllable mom), I’ve been awake since 6:30!”
Me – “Did you wake up Emily?”
Ben – “Ummmmmm . . . I think she was waking up when I went in her room.”
Me – “Did you look under the tree?”
Ben (without a hint of excitement) – “Oh yeah. Santa brought us a Wii.”
Ben has been asking for a Wii since last Christmas and I happen to know that Santa bought one in April just to be sure to have one under the tree on Christmas morning. This was not exactly the response we were going for! Oh well.
Abby wasn’t too thrilled with the whole Christmas morning scene. We woke her up at about 7:30 so we could start opening presents. That’s a good 2 or 3 hours earlier than she normally wakes up. It showed. Luckily she cheered up pretty quickly once things got going.
We got about a foot of new snow on Christmas day. We were glad that we had planned to spend the whole day at home since we couldn’t really have gone anywhere if wanted to. We spent the day building Legos, playing with new toys, coloring, and playing games. We had our yummy once-a-year Christmas Brunch Casserole (the girls didn’t love it . . . more for us!) and used the new shaved ice machine from Grandma Reatha to make iced lemonades. Nate made a fabulous turkey dinner. It was the first time we have cooked a turkey with crispy skin and moist and juicy white meat. I felt a little a bad about the turkey we served on Thanksgiving. It was nowhere near as good. The whole day was full of food, fun, and family time. I couldn’t have asked for a better holiday.
Holly and Shane brought their kids out on Friday to go sledding. Abby wasn’t a fan of that fresh powder blowing up in her face, but everyone else had a great time. We stayed long enough for everyone to get freezing cold and then came back here for hot chocolate and scones with honey butter.
The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur of Wii games, sibling slumber parties, and movie watching. Having Nate home for five days in a row is a rarity and we all loved it. It felt a little weird to have him go to work again today. The kids missed his video game expertise today when they were playing. I’m no help. I am Wii challenged. Elise even beat me in a couple of MarioKart races. Ben on the other hand is a Wii savant. His top bowling score is 219 . . . significantly better than my 106.
4 comments:
We need to get together and bowl. Our car is in the shop so all of our fun plans have gone out the window . My best score so far is 2 strikes and all spares except of course on the last frame I didn't get a spare. I hit 9 pins. Grrr!
You'll have to keep me posted on how you like the Wii. We've talked of getting one the last couple of years but always end up doing something different. (the boys chose their DS over the wii when we moved here)I don't think our kids have ever played on one or I'm sure they'd be begging for one.
I can't believe that was Ben's reaction, I thought for sure they'd go crazy!
That wall of snow is quite impressive that you guys built.
I'm glad you had a good Christmas, we missed being able to see you!
What fun at the Nelson household! That is a quality snow fort and I wouldn't expect anything less (ha-ha). Santa brought us a Wii also...I haven't even tried it out yet - what a surprise! Good thing Tanner knows how to hook it up, etc.
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