Nelson Family Christmas Party

In December we got to attend the annual Nelson Family Christmas Party. Having been away for the past few years, it was especially fun to be with everyone. My parents give all the grandkids pajamas, we eat, frost cookies, sing Christmas carols, and enjoy being together. Here are a bunch of cute photos of nieces and nephews getting good and sugared up.

This was my contribution this year--I'm not a huge jello fan, but kids are and this is the prettiest jello I've ever seen. And yes, it took a day and a half to make.
Jonah asked if he could perform "Jolly Old St. Nicholas" as part of the party. We played it as a duet.
The annual jammy picture.
We are a large group when we're all together, but as you can see my mom couldn't be happier amongst the chaos. She once told me that she's wanted to be a grandma since she was four years old. So she's living her dream and she's very good at it.

Reflections

Jonah participated in Reflections for the first time this year. The theme was, "Together We Can" and his was entitled, "Together We Can Clean Up Litter and Make the World a More Beautiful Place," all his idea. He made a sort of 3-D drawing. On one half, someone was cleaning up litter with real pieces of litter Jonah had picked up on his way home from school (when it was warmer and we rode bikes, Jonah was always filling up my bike cup holder with litter--many times I had to tell him not to pick up certain things because I thought they were too dirty) glued onto the paper. On the other half, the person is saying, "Yay!" for doing such a good job.

For a kindergartener, I was pretty impressed with some details--like the fact that the cloud had moved during the time that he was cleaning up. He didn't win a medal, which is what he really wanted, but he still felt very special and we were very proud of him.

North Pole Express Weekend with the McQueens

The first weekend of December was extra fun because we got to hang out with the McQueens all weekend. Well, Max had to go into work several times when crazy skiers decided to break their tibias or something, but the rest of us got to hang out all weekend.

We started our long weekend with a ride on the Polar Express--I mean the "North Pole Express," which is pretty much like the story of the Polar Express, they just can't call it that.

The kids were all very excited to ride the train. Emmett loves trains and we get to drive by the station nearly every day and in the summer we saw it go past our house twice a day, so finally getting to ride was especially exciting.

We love these guys!!

The kids got plenty of sugar--hot chocolate, chocolate cookies, candy canes--all while singing songs, listening to "The Night Before Christmas," and anxiously waiting for Santa.


Funny thing--Santa was locked out of the train for a while. We could see him peeking through the back of the car, but the door was locked and the workers were running back and forth trying to find someone with a key. Finally Santa made it into the car and we were the first to get to see him since we were at the back of the car. Jonah and Wyatt were excited, Emmett not so much.
Mrs. Claus made an appearance later on the ride back. She was very sweet with the babies.

The next morning we drove around for an hour looking for a good sledding hill, but EVERYTHING around here is marked "NO SLEDDING, SKIING, OR SNOWBOARDING." Seriously! It bugs me that people bring lawsuits against companies or state owned areas when they get hurt doing something that everyone knows could lead to an injury, which then makes it so that no one else can go there. Now you have to pay to go sledding at places like Soldier Hollow. We went there a couple weeks ago and it was okay, but it wasn't great sledding--too controlled, none of that fear of dying that I experienced sledding as a child. So we ended up at a little dinky hill. The only plus was that it was short enough that the kids could climb back up it themselves.
As you can see, there wasn't much snow left to sled on, but we managed.


The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out at the Zermatt and swimming in the indoor/outdoor pool. We also made it to Midway for Swiss Christmas.
We got to see Santa...again! Last year in Iowa, it was almost Christmas Eve and I realized that the boys hadn't seen Santa and I started feeling guilty that I wasn't making Christmas magical enough. We ran to the mall, stood in a surprisingly short line (I guess I was the only procrastinator), and they got to sit on Santa's lap. This year they saw Santa at the Sorensen Party, my parents' church Christmas party, on the North Pole Express, at Swiss Christmas, and finally at Max's work party. Jonah realized by the third Santa that it would be a better idea to start asking for something different each time so that he could get more presents. Smart kid.

Child Labor

Here is Wyatt trying to drag our Christmas tree. Cutting one in Iowa at the tree farm was definitely easier--a lot less whining and crying and more full and even trees--but it is always memorable.
We put 'em to work young around here.

Thanksgiving and the Sorensen Party 2010

I didn't take many photos of Thanksgiving day this year. This is the only one I can find and it was a day or two before. Jonah liked his Native American headband so much it went in our dress up box until all the macaroni noodles started to fall off.

Being back in Utah meant going to the Sorensen Family Reunion again. I don't think I've ever posted about this party because I didn't start blogging until we were away from family, but the Sorensen party is a big party--mostly because the Sorensens are a lot of people. Max's mom is the oldest of 11 kids. Each of those kids had at least 4 children, but most had 6 or even 9. So Max has 58 cousins! (I on the other hand only have 8 and I can count on one hand how many times I've seen them in my whole life.) Many of these cousins are now married and have their own children so talk about exponential growth!

Max's family is also a very musical family. After breakfast the whole family sings "Happy Birthday" to everyone else and then "I Love to Laugh" from Marry Poppins, complete with loud and boisterous guffawing. Later in the day there are kid skits and family skits and then the "Parade of the Uncles." It is quite an experience. My first time, just after Max and I got married, I kind of felt like I was in a musical but didn't know the words. Now, I am very grateful to get to see my kids experience something I never did as a child--the love and friendship of a large extended family.

Ramona is the emcee of the skits. She has a vast collection of crazy hats. This year Jonah got to be her helper and they wore a different hat to announce each skit.

Max and his siblings actually did a skit this year, which they haven't for a long time. The skit was that they were auctioning off their skit real estate--prime spot being children of the eldest.

Every year Uncle Scott, of "Scott's Lodge" fame, sings the Bold Bad Pirate song. It is an annual favorite along with several others like "Swim, Sam, Swim" and "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,"
and the many ways Uncle Brad sings the "Little Canoe" song--this year it included buck teeth and even a nose flute.

After dinner we have a Nativity scene. This year, Jonah got to play Joseph. He was excited and practiced his lines with us for the half an hour leading up to it. He missed a line during the play and wanted to go back and do it right, but it was already quite a bit further in the story when he realized it, so we talked him into just continuing. He reminds me of me as a child (doesn't like messing up or not doing something exactly right) and so I was impressed that he was able to let it go pretty easily.
It looks like Jonah is about to poke "baby Jesus" in the eyes in the next picture, but I think he was just trying to make his little cousin laugh.

At the end of the night Santa arrives. These three pictures are so telling to me of the different personalities of my kids at this time.

Jonah jumps up onto Santa's lap and is ready to talk to him and would stay there as long as you let him.

Wyatt wants to see Santa, but is very nervous once it happens. He won't look up, talks very quietly. He also doesn't like to be the center of attention so being in front of everyone with a microphone in his face doesn't help either.

Emmett likes to stick close to us. He has never run away from me at the zoo or library or even grocery store. A high five was about all Santa could get out of him.

Santa brings presents from Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen. They give everyone something--all of the grandkids and the great-grandkids. They are pretty amazing and they've created quite a legacy. I'm thankful to have married into it.

Zoo With Cousins

We had a fun little afternoon with the Stirling side of the family back in October. Thanks Tutu!

The kids waited a while to get blasted in the head with elephant snot.

Naughty Baby

I think I have a photo of each of my boys doing this exact same thing now. I guess I should have learned by now to hide the q-tips a little better.