This morning the whole family slept in.
It was the last day of our
Christmas break AND Oliver's birthday, so we all slept in one last time.
When we woke up, about 3 inches of snow was on the ground, and it didn't stop.
We celebrated Oliver's birthday with omelets and a green smoothie and
lazily sat around while Ollie opened his gifts.
My favorite gift he got was a sweet basketball hoop
that fits on the back of a door...you know those things?
Growing up, my brother Jesse must have had one for each door in our house.
Anyway, Oliver and I played basketball for what must have seemed like an hour.
(I can so dunk on him).
We decided to watch home movies of when he was born in 2005.
We have a wonderful movie of Ollie just minutes
after he was delivered on my bed in our home in New Jersey.
Watching those movies made me cry. I love him and loved that season in my life,
what sweet, sweet memories.
Much like his birthday 12 years ago,
we had a major snowstorm that shut down our little town of East Brunswick.
Mr. Nielson only went to work for a whole week.
We "hunkered down" and
I made batches of bread, we played with the girls, watched lots of movies,
and I mastered the art of playing ponies with Claire and Jane (with one hand),
while nursing Oliver in the other arm.
My, what a good little baby and eater he was!
After home videos, we decided to hold a family hot tub session
which lasted a good hour.
We each took turns playing music that reminded us of Ollie.
The snow continued to pile up, and we had a 3:50 Star Wars movie to
be at, so we deiced to get out and start shoveling the deathway.
When we finally left our snowy neighborhood,
we dropped Lottie off at Lucy's house and went to see Star Wars.
Sadly, I fell asleep and noticed Mr. Nielson honk shooing
next to me too. All that shoveling made us tired.
Oliver loved the movie, and that was all that mattered!
We drove around in the HUGE snowstorm, and our city seemed like a ghost town.
No one was out (and they were smart), we drove to a pizza place where
Lottie slept through dinner the whole time.
We promptly came home since we didn't want to be stranded in the snow.
Our neighborhood was a winter wonderland! 
We walked up the deathway since about 4 more inches had fallen on it since
we had left a few hours earlier. We knew we'd never make it up.
Mr. Nielson shoveled (with the help of our wonderful neighbors), and I
got everyone ready for bed. Most of the Little Nies were crying at
the thought of going back to school. I put on my brave face but was
secretly breaking down inside. I got to my bed, and tears of sadness
flowed. We've had such a wonderful holiday together. It has been
one of our best Christmas breaks on record. I am even sad about having
to take down my Christmas trees!! Booooooo!
Here's to hoping school is canceled tomorrow!
Cheers!
