Christmas

Christmas was filled with family parties galore! The Nielsens have their party on Christmas Eve and this year we all decided to wear our pajamas. It was lots of fun with delicious food, Christmas songs, a nativity scene, a rousing game of bingo, a nut-in-the-trifle contest (I won five dollars for finding the nut!) and watching old family movies.

Thanks to Craig and Jerrie for a wonderful evening.

Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. Mary took her job very seriously...it was so cute.

Grandma and Grandpa Egbert held their annual party at Aunt Jan's house. More good food, music, a Christmas program, and plenty of time to catch up with the family.

Each year grandpa has all of the returned missionaries sing Silent Night in the language they spoke while they served in various places around the world.

My dad and his brother both served in the Netherlands so they sang in Dutch.

English...Garrett joined the bunch this year after returning home from Washington.

A little nativity by Aunt Jill's grandkids.

And the famous Grammy party! She truly is a magnificent woman.

She bore testimony of the Savior and that He lives, she shared with us what she is most grateful for (including her 16 grandchildren), and she gave us our annual paper bag full of presents. The Grammy party is my favorite party of the year. I love Gram and I love spending time with my favorite cousins.

Passing out maracas to sing Feliz Navidad...

Christmas morning we were so excited to see what Santa brought. Somehow I found time to pull back my hair and put my Santa earrings on, but we jumped out of bed at 7am and rushed out to the Christmas tree.

Our stockings were stuffed!

After all our presents were opened, Conner handed me a note from Santa saying there was one more gift hiding in the other room...

Drill bits and a power sander! Just what I needed for my projects! I think I teared up.



Conner was made Scoutmaster so he needed a new sleeping bag for his campouts.

We headed to my parents next. Marissa gave my mom a lime juicer and made a cute poster to go with it.

Jon and Jenny sent gifts from Omaha...

My mom gave us new pajama pants to wear Christmas morning.

Christmas Day we went to a movie with my whole family. It was a fabulous day.