Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I'm a little late posting on our Christmas but here it is. Better late than never....

Christmas Eve we went over to my mom's for her Christmas dinner. It was amazing! We ate lots of yummy food. The only person we were missing was Jed. We really missed him during the holidays. It wasn't the same without him.

Christmas morning we got up and opened our presents! Kage got a new bed - it's an oversized pillow that looks incredibly comfy. And he loves it. Jake got new shoes, lots of new clothes, and a ticket to a jazz game with some friends. No, he did not get a new snowmobile which I'm sure ruined poor Jake's Christmas. I got lots of new clothes and a beautiful picture of the Savior.

Oh yeah, and how cute is Kage with his little Christmas handkerchief?! ADORABLE Jake hates it but I think he looks so cute.

We then went to my mom's to open presents there and have breakfast. Breakfast was amazing. Dad made us bacon and "Flap Jacks" - kind of like scones. They are our favorite! We got lots of awesome presents from my fam. Kage even got a few. My mom has been doing themes the last few years. Last year she got everyone a Quesidilla maker, this year she got all of us food steamers - except for Tye because she didn't think he would use it. He got a blender instead. He was very envious of ours....

After having a great morning with my family, we made our way to Payson to Jen and Kelly's to visit with Jake's fam. We again received more awesome gifts - including Kage, again. I think he got more things than we did! But the most exciting thing - we found out that Grandma is engaged!!! I know, weird but so awesome. She had a HUGE rock on her finger! We're so happy for her and we met the lucky man, Mike. He seems really great! While we were there we went and played Jen and Kelly's new Wii. We had so much fun with it!!

Later that night we went to a movie with my family. We went and saw Yes Man. It was so funny. I would recommend it. We all really enjoyed it.

The next day, mom and I went shopping. We found some really good deals on Christmas plates! Look forward to those next year! Then Jake and I went shopping. We got me a new phone - which I love!! And because we loved Kelly's new Wii so much we went and bought one of those as well along with a Wii Fit. Yeah.... I think we spent more money after Christmas than we did for Christmas. Oh well. We're having so much fun with the Wii. In fact, that night my family came over and we all played. I will have you know, that I have defeated Jake (twice) and my brothers and mom at boxing. I was undefeated that evening!! Yeah!

Zac bowling

Zac and I boxing

The next day Jake and I were pretty much the most lazy people ever and played our new Wii almost all day. And then we went to Kelly and Jen's that evening and played the Wii with them and my mom-in-law came as well. We had a blast!

It was such a fun Christmas holiday. We spend a lot of time with our families and it was so great. I love our families. They are very different but we have so much fun with both!

Now, to New Year's. Jake went snowmobiling with his bro's on new year's eve. Well, if you know the Nielsen brothers - nothing ever goes as planned, never has, and I'm assuming that it never will. One of the sled's got stuck in a creek - yep, a creek. Shocker - it didn't work after it got out. To make a long story short... they couldn't get it out that night so they had to leave it there until Friday when some places were open to buy some parts to fix it. So Jake came home hungry and exhausted. We went and ate at the Pizza Factory, came home and watched about 10 minutes of Horton Hears a Who before we fell asleep. However, we did wake up at about 11:45, just in time to watch the ball drop on TV. And then we went to bed. I know, we're so exciting.

Our plans for the New Year were to go to the cabin for the weekend but Kelly wrecking his sled into a creek kind of messed that up. Thanks Kelly.... just kidding. Me and Jake did hangout on New Year's by perusing the mall and later going to dinner with James and his girlfriend. Then we went to see a movie, Valkyrie. It was really good. And it was fun evening.


Today I spent my day cleaning my house and grocery shopping while Jake went up to fix the sled and bring it back with his brothers. The trip was successful and they all made it back safe and sound - with ALL of the sleds.


This evening we went back to Kelly and Jen's house for pizza and more Wii. Chris and Jamie were up so they came over over along with Janice and Cory came for a little while too. We had a lot of fun. I have to say though, Tennis is not my sport although I did score my best game ever in bowling: 222!! I know, impressive!


The holidays have been amazing because we've been able to spend so much of them with our families. 2008 was a good year and I hope that 2009 will be even better. I wish you all a very happy 2009!!