Last Saturday night we joined my parents for the University of Washington vs Boise State football game. They ordered pizza for us all, it was fun! Thank you Ma and Pa!
Sunday was the Christmas program at church. The play this year was very good, and the kids sang some songs as well. I caught a video of Nico singing during the practice before the service, you can see the video at the end of the blog! Sunday afternoon we went to a Christmas party at the church for all the band members. One of the women on our team made everyone personalized coffee/tea/drink tumblers. She did an amazing job and I was very touched by her thoughtfulness.
Monday morning, Grandma and Grandpa Russell arrived! Nico went outside to wait for them, we were tracking them as they got closer.
Monday night we went to the Winter Garden Aglow. We were able to take GG with us! Nico got to sit on Santa's lap and we bought some kettle corn and saw all the beautiful lights. Thanks to Grandpa Russell for some of these pictures.
GG was the designated popcorn holder.
Tuesday morning, Guy and Nico and Grandpa Russell went out to breakfast to The Griddle. Nico chose french toast.
Before heading to the candlelight service on Christmas Eve.
After the service, Nico helped blow out all the candles.
And Wednesday was Christmas!
I went out into the living room at about 6:30 and found Nico snuggled on the couch surrounded by his stocking stuffers.
Nico's new hoverboard
Opening gifts
A new Peanuts book.
After opening presents and eating some lunch, we watched a few MST3K episodes.
It was a great Christmas!
Today I took Nico over to the Grandparents Salisbury's house for an afternoon Grandma Camp! Nico brought his hoverboard.
This will be my last blog! It's been a fun run with ya'll and I'll miss having the weekly record, but it's time to say farewell.
Friday morning Guy and I went to Nico's Holiday Concert performance at the school. 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I honestly wasn't planning to record any of it, and make it just an "enjoy" moment, but as Nico was walking out onto the risers with his class, he found us, waved really big, and then made a rectangle with his hands and pointed at me, then did the sign for "video", rotating his index fingers around each other. He wanted me to video it. So, I did! We had the perfect shot of him from where we were sitting and I was able to video him and watch him at the same time (not through the video). I turned off the video while they were standing up there waiting for the concert to start, and Nico looked at me again and made the same symbols with his hands, so I pulled it out again. Guy and I couldn't stop laughing.
This hand signal means "Come closer to take the picture, MOM"
Watch the video at the end of the blog to catch a peek at Nico singing with his class. At one point he looks at me and makes a rectangle with his hands again to make sure I had my phone out and was recording. I caught that part on video so go watch it and have a chuckle. The video just includes about 10-second snippets from each of the songs they did. Also in the video are snippets of Nico dancing: the moonwalk, and at the church Christmas Party.
Saturday was the Church Christmas Party for the kiddos. Every year our church buys gifts for kids on behalf of their parent or parents in prison. We invite them to a party at the church and hand out gifts. It's called the Angel Tree Ministry. All the kids at our church are invited, too, so Nico went and had a blast.
They dressed him up as Olaf from Frozen.
Saturday night was a chess tournament at Smokey Mountain Pizza. Guy and I watched Perry Mason and ate our pizza.
Sunday Nico wasn't feeling well at church so I took him home early. He had a fever of 100.4, looks like he caught whatever it was that I had, except he threw up once on Sunday evening. He stayed home from school on Monday and Tuesday, and I sent him back on Wednesday. He still has a slight sore throat and a cough, but his tummy seems to be better.
Today we went to his doctor and had the gluten test done. I am happy and surprised to say that he is not as sensitive to gluten as he was the last time we were there! She said it had improved. Woah baby! And thank you God! But she did point out a few things to watch out for, because he may have a gluten limit. Bumps on the back of his arms was one of them (which he has some already), and she encouraged us to not let him eat it every day. Sometimes a reaction can be delayed and she was concerned about it building up in his system with continued exposure. We will take it easy. I hope.
Friday, Nico really wanted to decorate for Christmas but I wanted to wait until after his chores were done on Saturday so we could decorate on a clean slate. If he wanted to decorate on Friday he'd have to do his chores Friday. So, he did! After he finished, we opened up our Christmas box and unloaded everything except the tree ornaments, which we saved for Saturday when we got our tree.
Here's our tree advent calendar. Nico wanted to replace the batteries so that the lights would work. We didn't have replacements, so Nico and I walked over to M&W in the dark to buy some.
Then Saturday was Christmas Tree time! When we rearranged the Clubhouse a few months ago we inadvertently got rid of the spot where we usually put the Christmas tree. We thought for a while that we wouldn't be able to get one, but then we decided we could just not use the back door during this season, and we put the tree next to our bed near the back door.
We stopped by Flying M on the way home and got some coffee and an Italian Soda for Nico. He is going through all the flavors, and this time he chose English Toffee.
That night it was Guy's turn to choose the movie, and he chose to watch Labyrinth. Nico stayed enthralled for the whole movie, which he rarely does.
Sunday evening we went to the Botanical Garden's Winter Garden Aglow with Jeff and Allicia and kiddos.
Hot cocoa and hot fire
We visited Santa right off the bat. Nico brought his Christmas List with him. Watch the video at the end of the blog to see that. After he was done, Santa told him to hang the list up where Santa could find it and he asked Nico if it was ok with him if he visited on Christmas Eve to deliver presents. Nico whispered to me afterward, "Is Santa really going to come over Christmas Eve?"
Hollow log lit up with lights.
There was a new attraction there this year, a huge "Tree" of lights, like a teepee, that was controlled by a bunch of aparatuses (aparatii?) inside the teepee. You can catch a glimpse of it in the video below. At first we didn't think that all of the neat tools had any effect on the lights, but after playing with them for a while we were blown away with what each of them did. The rain stick, when used, made the lights on the teepee look like they were raining. The metal wheels you could turn made certain colors of lights go around the teepee, up or down the teepee, or get bigger. There was also a TNT pump and some gongs. It was pretty incredible. That was my favorite part of the night.
We came home frozen, and ate dinner. I heated up some coconut milk from a can (leftovers from a meal I made), and added some maple syrup and vanilla flavoring and put a little bit in a cup for Nico and I to drink. It tastes like hot ice cream. It has quickly become a favorite of ours. Better than hot cocoa I think.
On Monday after school, Nico and I walked our bikes to George's Cycles down on 3rd street. We walked them there because Nico had a flat. I had accidentally poked his tire the week before with a screwdriver while trying to push the intertube back into the metal frame. Oooooops. Nico was very agreeable to the endeavor, because he still needed a few hours of exercise to finish up his Exercise sheet. We made it there and back in about an hour and a half.
Tuesday was Guy's work Christmas Party. They held it at the Botanical Garden, so Guy and I got to go back! They had a tent setup with food being served. We ran into someone I knew from Toastmasters. Her husband works at Photronics, too! We sat across from each other and it was great to talk to them and get to know her better. We had fun. After the dinner, Guy and I walked through the garden, up to the top and then back down. It was a rainy night, so there was hardly anyone there!! It wasn't raining while we were walking, which was nice, and it just started to sprinkle as we were getting into our car.
Tonight, Nico was invited out to help them decorate their tree.
They gave us tea. And that ends the night, and the blog! Enjoy the video!
On Friday the Grandparents Russell arrived! They stayed up in the suite while they were here, so they were just a staircase away. Quick hanging-out access! Nico enjoys taking baths up in the suite's huge bathtub, so he did that on Friday night after dinner (which we ate in the suite!) He opened a gift that night, a very funny book called "The Dumb Bunnies Go to the Zoo". Grandma read it to him, then it was bedtime!
Saturday was a full day. Pancakes in the morning, then we drove over to Nampa to celebrate Christmas with GG and Aunt Pat. Nico opened a quilt that Grandma Russell made. My favorite is the Three Stooges fabric you can see in the corners, it has sayings from the Three Stooges like "Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk". It is an awesome quilt. We put it on his bed that night!
While we were in Nampa, Nico had a birthday party to attend, one of his friends from church was turning 8 years old. Straight from there we went to the Christmas Party at the Grandparents Salisbury's house. GG also came along with us! We ate pizza, sang songs, Papa gave a devotional and read the Christmas Story from the book of John. A fresh perspective! And then we played games! The saran wrap game started with a huge ball of saran wrap that had prizes wrapped up in it. (Thanks to Aunt Jill Marie for putting it together!) Everyone got a turn trying to unwrap part of the ball, while someone else rolled dice until they got doubles. If you unwrapped a prize while it was your turn, you got to keep the prize. Then the person who rolled doubles had a chance to unwrap the ball while someone else rolled the dice. It was so much fun! Lots of prizes for everyone.
Thanks to Uncle Jonny for catching this picture of us :)
I think Nico won both bags of M&Ms that were in the ball (they are his favorite candy) so he was a tad over-sugared that night. heehee. We had so much fun. Thank you Papa and Grandma Salisbury for the incredibly fun time!
On Sunday we went to church, a shorter service than usual and Nico read from his Bible Luke 2:10-12, part of the Christmas story. Then the children sang Away in a Manger on stage and everyone joined in. Sunday was a lazy afternoon, Grandma and Nico went out snow-playing. They walked over to Quarry View Park.
After we ate dinner, Nico opened a gift from Guy and I, a board game called Cat Lady. We played it that night before bed.
I finished wrapping presents that night and we stuck everything under the tree. Nico didn't stay up at all, and didn't hear Guy say "Ho Ho Ho, Merrrrry Christmas!", he was fast asleep. The first thing Nico did upon waking is open his stocking. Then all of us gathered for breakfast (cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, bacon), and started opening presents! While Nico was waiting to open presents he had pulled all of his from under the tree to make a big pile.
That afternoon we watched White Christmas while Nico played with toys and read his new books. What an enjoyable and laid back day! Grandma and Nico went on another walk that day to Quarry View to play in the snow again.
Some random pictures from our time!
Playing with his Alphabots
Most of these pictures are thanks to Grandma Russell!! And then below you will find a video of our time, most taken by Grandma.
Tuesday morning after breakfast the Grandparents Russell headed to the airport. We planned out a few of the next trips this next year, and we will see them again in March during Nico's spring break! They are adding a kitchenette up in the suite that will be there when the Grandparents come next. Yay! Thank you for the visit, the visiting, the sitting, the talking, the watching, the eating, the laughing, we enjoyed your visit very much!
Tuesday was a day of cleaning-up-Christmas for us. We don't necessarily take down our Christmas tree the day after Christmas, but this year we did, it was dried up and leaving its green petals everywhere. We pulled it out through the front door and parked it next to our front window in the corner until trash day. Then we packed up our Christmas box and shipped it back down to the cellar. That afternoon we sat around being lazy, reading, playing with toys, watching a movie.
Wednesday was the start of Nico's Hitting Clinic for baseball. Held at Timberline High School, he is doing 3 days of the camp where he practices hitting baseballs. He has had so much fun the past 2 days. Wednesday after it was over, Guy and I and Evelyn picked him up and then drove over to the mall. Nico received a Build-a-Bear gift certificate for Christmas from Jeff & Allicia so he could get a YOSHI stuffed animal! So we went there to redeem it. Evelyn also got a gift certificate for Christmas. Instead of getting another Build-a-Bear (she already has one, a dragon named Toothless, from How to Train your Dragon), she brought Toothless with her and bought him a saddle.
Afterwards we ate lunch at the mall, then stopped off at See's Candy to get everyone one piece. Nico chose a lime truffle, the same one he had chosen from Aunt Pat's See's candy box when she offered him one on Saturday. Evelyn chose a strawberry cream one. Guy picked up some Starbucks coffee at the mall using the Starbucks gift card I won doing the saran wrap game, then we headed back home.
Nico has been carrying Yoshi around everywhere with him. Feeding him food. He even brought Yoshi with him when he crawled into our bed in the middle of the night.
