Where all you want to do is curl up and drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas movies with the fam — but you have to finish decorating the house first! And you have to go Christmas shopping, and you have to wrap, and you have to keep doing that one tradition, and you have to get the Christmas cards addressed, and you have to find a babysitter, and you need more stamps, and you have to bake 6 dozen cookies for the creche festival, and you have the preschool party, and you have to make cute crafty gifts for your kids’ teachers, and you forgot to get stocking stuffers, and you have to plan two birthday parties, and you have to make a cake, and you have to pack to go out of town,and you don’t have any presents yet for your husband for Christmas OR your anniversary OR his birthday, and you have 8 zillion things to do for primary next year and… the list goes on.
Why do my Decembers always end up so crazy? Two years ago we moved, last year I had a newborn and bronchitis and pneumonia, and this year – was nothing in particular – just a whole lot of my crazy hectic life.
Even still. I LOVE December. It is one of my favorite months. I LOVE decorating the house. I love having the excuse to get together with lots of my best friends and family and have fun gift exchanges. I love getting lots of Christmas cards in the mail, I love the music, I love the spirit of Christ, and I love all the good food!
I love having my two handsome birthday buddies on December 15th. I treated them to a breakfast feast where Josh thoroughly enjoyed his first cinnamon roll. Later we celebrated with a little family birthday party complete with cousins and gingerbread houses and lots of sweets and treats. Right up Brent and Joshy’s ally. Joshy was the best behaved little one year old at a party I’d ever seen. He opened presents, squealed with delight, and DESTROYED his first birthday cake. That kid can eat! Though I think things took a turn for the crazy when Jake and Danny started playing dress-up WITH Lindsay. Maybe a little too much sweets and treats…? 🙂
I love that our anniversary is the 27th. We are always with family so there are lots of free babysitters. And the cold Christmasy weather always reminds me of our courtship and engagement and honeymoon. What’s not romantic about snow, snuggling, and fireplaces? Plus, he always puts a love letter in my Christmas stocking. Love that hubby of mine. Eleven years now (and my dress still fits)! Time flies when you’re having fun.
We spent Christmas Eve at home and invited Grandma Finlayson along – which was really a treat. We just love her. We had Dominoes and Rootbeer Reindeer for dinner, our own little naitivity play, my favorite Christmas story, and then sent the kids up to bed – where they found tickets to ride the “Polar Express Mini-Van” on their pillows. They were SO excited. We all piled in the van in our jammies, with hot chocolate to go, Christmas music blaring, and drove through the amazing neighborhood of Bainbridge Court. They put Clark Griswald to shame! It was really a hit. We hope to make it a repeat.
We spent a lovely Christmas morning at home, where the kids really got into the spirit of giving this year. They all wanted to have a present for every sibling, cousin, grandparent, and even Santa. Which means lots of cute and creative gifts. I loved it. Though we had sort of last minute decided to drive up to Fresno to be with the Nef fam on Christmas night – which really took the wind out of my Christmas day sail because I basically spent all day packing and cleaning and getting ready to go. :/ No napping or watching movies or playing with toys. Good thing Susan fed us a Christmas dinner the next day, because we ate leftovers and cold pizza on the 25th. :/ Oh well. You live and you learn. Next time we will either travel a day or two before Christmas or a day or two after…
We had a magical and spontaneous snow day in Fresno for Grandpa Nef’s birthday on the 28th. We drove about an hour and a half up to Shaver Lake. Which I did not even know existed – and it was SO so gorgeous! A total winter wonderland – or as the kids called it “Narnia”. So perfect. I’ve never played in so much untouched snow. The drifts were waist high! And even though it was 20 degrees and all we had were hoodies, dollar gloves, and a few pair of ill fitting 80’s moon boots – it was so fun. Especially after we went numb. And after all the crying cold kids retreated to the car for hot chocolate and Brent and I fashioned a sled out of a cardboard box. Worked like a charm! Definitely want to go again. Though maybe next time I will bring a coat. Thanks to the Nef’s for a wonderful time.
December things I could do without? All the too many toys and junks the kids seem to end up with every year. So much STUFF. Next year we are doing something different. Mark my words. I also kind of hate wrapping. I love it for the finished product, but I hate the actual work involved. And I hate that by the end of December I never want to eat another sweet thing again. Which is why for New Years Eve we had a impromptu Neferland New Year’s Eve Nefiesta – with burritos, nachos, chips, salsa, etc — because all I wanted was SALT. And it was so delicious. And hilarious. We played mariachi music and really hammed it up and the kids thought it was the funniest thing ever. Jake and Lindsay even choreographed an entire Spanish style dance together. So fun. We plan to keep the tradition going and really ramp it up next year. You know, pay homage to our Spanish heritage and all. 😉
2012 ended with our very own Polar Bear Plunge. Brent is insisting on making this a family tradition. I was surprised how willingly the kids went along. I certainly didn’t. Brent, Danny, and Jake all jumped in the freezing pool (50 degrees) while it was 34 degrees outside, at about 9pm. They then jumped in the steaming spa, which caused Brent to jump right back out and yell “IT BURNS!!” while thrashing around on the cold cement like a cooked red lobster. Hahaha. I laughed hysterically. With Lindsay. From the warmth of the spa. And with a camera in my hand (which failed to record when I thought it was = fail). Oh man. It was good times. A happy ending to what has been a really great year for the Nef’s at Neferland.
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