New Years Eve 2022.

 Happy New Year! 

It was a quiet New Year's Eve around Stillestead!

The girls got all fancy; Ollie looked like Vanilla Ice, and Gigs

ditched us to hang out with his friends. 

(See! Some of us Nielsons DO have a social bone).

Christian and I pretty much spent our evening on 

the couch until the countdown at midnight

Some years are boring like this.

This was one of those years, and next will, too, since it's on a Sunday.  

But again, who's complaining!?

We drank fancy bubbly, an assortment of cheese, crackers, bread, 

chips, and dip, and listened to a music mix of New Year's jams.

The craziest we got was when we danced to the disco delight "Burn Baby Burn"

and Mariah Carey sing "Auld Lang Syne."

Besides smooching, one of my favorite New Year's traditions is 

adding confetti to our bubbly bottles. It makes them look cute and festive.

At midnight, we clanked glasses, smooched, shot off a few fireworks outside,

then waited for Gigs to get home.

He wandered in the door around 12:30- exactly when we told him to be home,

starting the year off right! Good boy, Gigs!

Then we all went to bed.

Tomorrow we're going to break open the bubbly bottle 

with last year's New Year 

goals tucked safely inside since the previous year,

and write our new resolutions for 2023.

(Is it time to take the tree down yet?)

Mothers making gingerbread.

 Remember last week when  Lottie and I made Christmas cookies?

Well, I made a batch of gingerbread dough, and since it needed to be chilled,

we didn't get around to cooking them.

We finally did it tonight in lew of dinner.

For some reason, whenever I make gingerbread, I think of Lucy

and her singing a song that she learned in Kindergarten,

and for some reason, I know it too.

It went like this:

Mothers making gingerbread

making some for me, she said,

nice and brown, the best in town, 

mothers making gingerbread, yum, yum, gingerbread.

We'd sing it one at a time, then finish the duet together with 

a rousing round.  I'm laughing as I type this.  

Earlier this afternoon, Ollie and I drove to the post office to drop off

important mission papers.

The last push on our end.

Yay!

It's getting exciting; it's getting real.

Now, back to gingerbread munching and movie-watching!

So much love

 Friday means dinner out!

Everyone was craving Freddie's shoestring fries tonight,

and we all love their delicious holiday milkshake selection.

Also, for some reason, Freddie's cherry Coke is dynamite!

I don't remember anything we talked about,

but I do remember feeling so much love for my clan.

(Even though my boys rarely look smile for me in photos.

Why they got to do that?)

We went home, cleaned up, and listened to Ella Fitzgerald on

 Claire's new Christmas record player.

Christmas break has been super low-key, 

but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Start!

Today the temperature was 55 degrees, and the sun was bright and proud.

A perfect day for Lottie and me to ride bikes on the gravel road

that winds around to Stillestead.

We decided to start a goal to ride bikes every day until we reached the 

end of the road, two miles from the house.

When the sun decided to go down, temperatures dropped significantly,

 so we did what we'd been doing

since Christmas break, start a fire, have dinner, and start a movie.

Oh, and light candles. Lots of candles.

 

Hey YOU!.

Hey YOU!

Yes, you, Christian!

I just wanted to say how proud of you I am!

Thank you for working so hard for our family 

and providing, protecting, and loving us.

We LOVE YOU!!

This afternoon it was so awesome to have five giant boxes

 delivered to our front porch full of BovIQ merch!

Hats for all!

 

On the day after Christmas...

...I hung up our New Year's decorations!

And...Claire, Christian, and I got up and did a Barre class, 

then we met the boys and Lottie for lunch later in the afternoon.

We lay around the rest of the day, reveling in the Christmas spirit

and all the Hygge-ness all around.

I was especially excited to hang the paper cranes that

 Jane and I created last year.

Oh, I miss my Jane bug sooooooo much!

Christmas 2023

Christmas 2022:

7:00 am:

9:00 am church:

10:30 am, after church, the unwrapping begins!:

Favorite Gifts:

Christian: Indoor laser practice range from the Nies,

and the book I gave him about traveling to

Denmark and Norway....because someday we're going back!

Me: a new computer!!!!!

Claire: Record player (and several records)

Oliver: Brazil Nike Dunks

Nicholas: his ball python snake (who he named Candace)

Lottie: Jordans from her brothers and a typewriter:

Even Angus got a new bone 

(and buried it outside 3 minutes after getting it,

and I haven't seen it since).

Merry Christmas!!