Nelson Family Blog: Christmas 2016

I knew Christmas would fly by quickly, but man it was over in the blink of an eye. On Friday evening, we joined Rachel and Carlos at the pool to do some swimming. The kids loved it! Emma did really well, and could go down the slides and wander around the pool a little bit on her own. She also joined us in the hot tub for a little while, and had a really good time. Elliott also had fun, but he was a little more of a handful to keep track of. He really enjoyed going in and out of the water, and throwing toys down the slide and being in other kids' way. Overall, he did really well, but it was a lot of work to keep up with him and keep track of him. We left at about 8:30pm with some really, really tired kids.

Saturday was Christmas Eve, and we spent the morning opening presents with the kids. We put the presents under the tree the night before, and the kids were just thrilled to wake up and see the gifts, and then rip them apart. Once Elliott had one gift open, he was more interested in playing with that one gift than opening any more. Emma figured it out this year, and just went from gift to gift, ripping them apart. Emma's favorite toy was her remote control Monster Truck, and Elliott loved his matchbox cars and new car tracks.

We ate some lunch at IHOP with Carlos and Rachel, and then John and Emma went shopping for some new goldfish to keep Kirby company. Emma named her two new fish Christmas Tree and Kevin, gotta love four year olds. My parents and Ryan got to our house at about 3:00pm, and we had a nice afternoon of visiting, playing with the kids, and snacking before going to church for Emma's Children's Christmas Eve Program.

Emma was adorable for the program. She had a pretty red Christmas dress on, wore a pretty cross necklace, and was such a big girl. She had to sit in front with her classmates, and then recite one passage and sing Away in a Manger. She knew the words very well, said them up there, and stayed up there and did a great job. She got a little nervous and figity with her dress, but it was really cute. We had supper back at our house, and then put some tired kids to bed again, but not before Emma left two cookies and a glass of milk for Santa.

Christmas Day started off with a visit from Santa. Emma was so pumped to see that Santa had come, and couldn't wait to bust into her presents. Elliott was more interested in breakfast, but eventually opened his as well. I spent the morning prepping for dinner, and then we headed off to church. After church, we ate a wonderful lunch of ham, cheesy potatoes, smothered green beans, corn casserole, and coleslaw. It was pretty darn good. We got both kids down for a nap after lunch, and the rest of us rested a little, and then played some Mexican Train. Once the kids woke up again, we opened presents with my side of the family. The kids got absolutely spoiled, so much that Elliott was too overwhelmed to even open his gifts anymore, Emma had to finish opening his. It was a pretty successful Christmas for the kids.

This year we decided to do something different, and John, Ryan, and I went to a Skyforce Game at 7pm. The game ended up going into double overtime, and the Skyforce won. It was a pretty sloppy game, but we had a good time, and it was nice to get out of the house for a while.

Today was pretty much a recovery day. We all played with the kids and did a little cleaning this morning. We headed to Applebees for some lunch (where Elliott was so tired that he fell asleep in the booth) and then my parents headed back home.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing and dealing with some crabby kids. Elliott was so tired, he was just a wreck. We put him to bed at 6:30 pm. It will be interesting to see what time he wakes up. Emma is kind of cranky as well. She is watching a show in bed right now, and is going to be sleeping very shortly. It will be nice to get the kids back to a routine.

So, there you have it. Christmas was so much fun, but I am ready to go back to some normal routines. I even packed away most of the Christmas stuff, and my Christmas CDS, so apparently I am ready to be done with Christmas for the year.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and is getting ready for the new year!!