Nelson Family Blog: Christmas Happenings

Once again, I am a little behind on blogging. We are 11 days into December and we have been all about Christmas in the Nelson Household. Our Christmas decorations have been up since before Thanksgiving, and we have been keeping busy with advent calendars, daily readings, Christmas crafts, and outings. Whew.

The big excitement in our house right now are the Advent calendars. Emma has a fidget one, and every day she gets a new fidget. Elliott has a Lego Advent Calendar, and he gets to build a new lego item every day. Those are usually opened first thing in the morning. We also have a reading Advent Calendar, where we read a bible passage or story every day, and then they can color the picture by that day so we know where we are at. They seem to be enjoying that one as well. And lastly, we have an activity Advent Calendar. Each day has a slip of paper in it that describes a Christmas activity that we can do that day. So far, we have baked cookies, watched a Christmas movie, drank hot cocoa, colored Christmas pictures, and played some games. The kids really enjoy this calendar.

I also rediscovered the Visual Arts Museum. I ordered some really cute take-home crafts from them, and then the kids worked on them at home. Elliott made a snowman, and Emma made a reindeer. They both did a really good job and really enjoyed the crafts. This past week, we went to the Museum and actually did the craft there. We made presents and some Gnomes, and they turned out really well. John even joined us (since his office is right next door), and he helped us craft and then we drove through Falls Park to see the lights and then we also checked out the big tree at the Washington Pavillion. It was a fun, but chilly, evening.

Last weekend, we went to Jim and Barb's to make some holiday cookies. Our oven is being a little fussy, so we brought our stuff out there to do some baking. It was fun. We made some sugar cookies, almond bark pretzels, spritz cookies, and chex mix. It was a pretty successful afternoon.

This weekend has been a busy one. The kids had a snow day on Friday, and they called school off on Thursday night already, so we packed up the kids and ran them out the Jim and Barb's house so John and I could go to work. On Friday, it snowed about 8 inches, and was blowing and not the nicest, so it was nice the kids weren't in school. John and I ended up going to a concert by "For King and Country". It was a Christian Christmas Concert, and it was really good. It was supposed to be Emma and I at the concert, it was going to be Emma's first real concert. But, she was stuck out on the farm, and the roads were a little too bad to drive out there to get her. So, John and I had supper at the Blue Rock Bar and Grill and then went to the concert. I felt bad, because Emma would of loved it. But, we will just have to find another concert to be her first concert.

Today, we went to church in the morning to clean the school and decorate for Christmas. I also decorated my table for Advent by Candlelight, which is tomorrow. After all that, we ate lunch at Slim Chickens and ran a couple errands before finally getting the kids from the farm. They had a blast out on the farm. They played in the snow, got pulled behind the Honda in the sleds, and just had fun being spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa. They were happy, but tired kids when we got them.

Now, we are finally settled in at home. The laundry is going, the kids are relaxing with their Ipads, and John and I are just enjoying some quiet time in the living room watching "A Christmas Story".

Tomorrow is going to be a really crazy day. We have to be at church at 0740 because the choir sings in both services. We will go to Sunday School/Bible Study in between services, and then the kids have Christmas program practice after church until 1:00pm. After that, I have Advent by Candlelight starting at 3:00 pm. Meanwhile John and the kids have a 4-h meeting at 5:00pm. It's definitely not a lazy Sunday for us. I'm not sure how we have so many things piled into one day, but it's going to be crazy.

The rest of the week should be a little better. We actually have most of our evenings free this week, which is really nice. We sing again at the Wednesday evening Advent service, and other than that we have an open week.

Next weekend, we have a wedding, for John's friend Brandon. We also have the Children's Christmas Program next Sunday, which is always a good time. My parents are planning to come to town next weekend, so it will be busy, busy, busy.

Overall, things are really good here. We have really busy weeks, but we are all enjoying the Christmas season and trying to soak it all in before it's all over.