The Best Boxing Day Ever!

What do you do when your garage looks like this?  The Nelsons can tell you with quite a bit of authority to CALL A PROFESSIONAL!  

This is what you look like if you try to fix it yourself.  Mike got his hand trapped in the coils of the garage door opener and literally thought he might lose his fingers.  I was out running errands with Haley.  Caleb was sleeping, and thankfully, Maya had just come out to the garage to "help".  Mike yelled out to Maya, "Go get a neighbor!"  And can you believe it, one was walking by right at that moment.  They heard Mike yelling in the garage, saw that it was not looking right, and came closer and yelled, "Do you need help?"  Maya let them in through the front door and the neighbor helped Mike free his hand by cutting cables and coils while his wife called 911.  The fire department and ambulance arrived and then called me.  I about died.  Mike said he could hear me yell through the phone, "Are you serious?"  I got home and it is not fun to see emergency vehicles in front of your house.  They took Mike to the ER, and he did not brake any bones, but cut, bruised, and smashed himself up pretty good.

The miracles in this story:  

The neighbor couple that happened to be walking by at that exact moment and heard Mike yell and actually did something about it.

Maya was in the garage when it happened and was able to open and unlock doors to let neighbors in.  To my knowledge, I have never seen her have the strength to open or unlock the doors before.

Mike received only minor injuries.  

We are so grateful for the angels that watch over us!

All dressed up and no place to go...

...except to bed!  Thanks mom for the cute pjs, robes and slippers!  

Christmas Morning

Twas the night before Christmas

Every year on Christmas Eve, we dress up as Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, etc... and act out the Nativity story.  Here is our sweet Mary, holding baby Jesus.  

Here is Mary a few minutes later trying to defend baby Jesus from Caleb.

Caleb was a sheep and hated every second of it.  

Here is our angel, Haley.

The whole family.  Mike was Joseph and I was a shepherd.  The wise men weren't represented this year.  You need a pretty big family to put on the whole show!

Santa

We took the kids to see Santa today.  There were no lines!  We went to the same place last year, also no waiting.  It must not be well known that he is there.  I think we will keep the location our little secret, so the crowds won't rush there next year!  He was a very sweet Santa with a real beard. Unfortunately, Caleb didn't quite warm up to him.

A bit of perspective

You may call this a used box with styrofoam peanuts.  Two cute little girls call it a bubble bath.

These are a few of my favorite things!

Well, actually only one of my favorite things.  We have been having a lot of this lately (which isn't one of my favorite things):

Snow!  It has been a very snowy December.  It has snowed several times a week and the past few days have been frigid.  We haven't really made it past 0 degrees since Sunday.  Man, that is one of the reasons we left Minnesota!  I'm just glad our pipes aren't freezing.  Thank heavens for insulation and a modern furnace, 2 things we did not have in Minnesota.  Thank heavens also for my new favorite thing:
New tires!  Please excuse the FILTHY car.  If it keeps snowing as often as it has, I won't even bother washing it until May.  About 3 weeks ago, when the snowing started, it was a Sunday.  Mike was already at church for meetings and I was on my way with the kids.  It was snowing and we were sliding all over the place.  At one point we lost traction, slid into the curb, bounce off it, and were then facing side ways in the road.  Luckily there was no one else on the road.  The kids and I were pretty shook up.  We got to church and I told Mike I was taking his car home and he was taking the van in to get new tires, regardless of the fact that it was Sunday.  He was not very happy, because, yes, he had been telling me to get new tires for a while.  But, Mike if you are reading this, I love you, and thanks for the new tires.  We now have the safest car on the road.  Yesterday I witnessed 2 accidents on the way to the post office and we didn't slide once.  

Gingerbread House

Every year since Haley was 2 or 3 I have been making a Christmas Countdown Chain.  There is a link for every day from December 1st to the 24th.  On each link is a Christmas activity for the kids to do.  Sunday's activity was to make a gingerbread house.  It was fun as always.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

On Saturday, Mike and I put up the lights on the outside of our house.  It didn't take too long, because we really don't put too much up.  Unfortunately, the lights on the top of the tree aren't working, we'll have to figure that out.  Also, that ridiculous bush in front blocks half the lights on the porch.  Despite all that, I really do think it makes our house look festive.  Funny side note:  While we were putting up the lights on Saturday, the girls were playing in the back yard.  I heard dog barking and children screaming but I didn't go running because it really didn't sound like them.  Then I thought, maybe I should go check.  Well, our neighbor's dog had jumped the fence!  The girls were playing t-ball and the dog thought it looked like great fun.  The girls were TERRIFIED.  That is the downside of not having pets, the girls are just not comfortable with animals.  (Neither am I really, not growing up with pets either.  I do try to fake it around the girls though.)  The dogs owner was up on his roof putting lights on as well!  He couldn't do much more than yell at the dog.  The girls spent the rest of the afternoon inside.  Today, our neighbor came over and apologized and offered to have the girls meet the dog and spend some time with him, to hopefully overcome their fear.  How nice!

Here is our tree inside.  The girls helped quite a bit decorating it.  

Here is our mantle.  Look, the prophet is on TV!  

The banisters.  I sure love decorating for Christmas.  It is sure sad when it all comes down and your house looks empty.

A Thanksgiving to Remember

Why don't I have pictures of this year's Thanksgiving?  Let me tell you.  FOOD POISONING!  Not from the Thanksgiving turkey thank goodness.  But from ham.  Deli ham.  My family got here on Monday.  On Tuesday I served ham, along with turkey and chicken for lunch.  Late afternoon my brother Steven says he doesn't feel well and starts throwing up.  My dad follows soon after.  I go to my young women's activity and can feel it coming on.  I get home and I begin a lovely evening of sickness.  Mike gets it in the morning.  My brother Joe gets it Wednesday afternoon.  My mom and sister in law don't get it - they didn't have the ham.  Thank goodness because they took care of the rest of us.  Haley didn't have ham, we are not sure about Maya, but she did get slightly sick, so she may have had a little.  Now Caleb is a different story.  He was sick all week, but not from the ham.  He threw up and had diarrhea because of some virus.  He was sleeping on the pack and play in our closet so guests could sleep in his room.  Do you know what happens when your child throws up while sleeping in the pack and play?  It all soaks into the "mattress".  Delightful.  I was so excited about hosting this Thanksgiving and having my family come.  Too bad they will never come back to this sick house.

Note:  This will be the last post about throw-up, poop, diarrhea, etc...  I have looked back at recent posts and that is all I have to talk about apparently!  I have got to come up with something else to write about.