Christmas Vacation

We had a wonderful (and busy!) Christmas vacation! We flew to Indiana on Saturday the 19th and had dinner with my Grandma Plopper and the rest of the family that evening. The next day we all got together and the children decorated cookies. Here's Will and Drew waiting for the fun to begin!

And here's all the boys (yes, even Tim, with his silly apron!) busy decorating.

And here's Drew concentrating pretty hard on icing his (vegan!) sugar cookie. It took him about 30 minutes to ice about 2 cookies - it was very intense, serious stuff!

Here's a video of his work.

And here he is enjoying his piece of art - my mom made vegan cookies so he could have them! (his shirt sleeves were covered in icing so that's why he's shirtless.)

Here's our attempt at a "cousins" picture. Will, Parker, Tim, Lyndsey and Drew.

Drew's first experience (this year) at opening presents was at my parents' house. He wasn't quite sure how it worked. He'd open one (slowly and with help) and be completely satisfied. He'd start playing with it and not care at all about the stack of presents beside him! Luckily he got the hang of it later on.

Drew's Uncle Ben let him try out his new nerf gun - it scared Drew at first, and then he stepped behind it and started really getting into it!

Lyndsey read the fire engine book to Drew and Parker - they both got one for Christmas!

And here's Grandpa reading the same book to Drew later on. I think he liked his book and kept asking other people to read it to him!

Drew did a good job on the flight home. We flew home on Christmas Eve so that we could have some down time at home and Santa could visit us for Christmas morning. Here's Drew and Daddy on the plane.

We went to Lenoir to visit Chad's family on Christmas evening. We had dinner and then let the kids tear into their presents. Drew was so excited every time he pulled out a new toy. He'd run to Granddad and say "have it" (because he wanted to have it right then!) or "open it." And toys nowadays are strapped in to their packages, you about have to get the tool box out to get to it!

Here's a quick family shot of the Nelsons. back row: Grant, Alan, Drew, Chad and front row: Sherry, Susan, Olivia, and Becca...and Emma. Yes, Emma is our front runner in the name list right now for our baby girl!

And a picture of our family of 3!

Then on the 26th we went to another family gathering with Susan's side of the family. Here's Drew posing (and saying Cheese) with his Grandmom.

Before we ate at this gathering, we had a prayer. And I will never forget hearing Drew (from across the room!) yell, "wake up!" during the prayer because everyone had their eyes shut or were looking down! Too funny!

So, our busy and fun vacation came to an end and we spent Sunday the 27th at home, cleaning and being lazy. Drew and I had bad colds during all our travels, but I think we are both finally getting better! Merry Christmas everyone - it was great to share the holidays with so many people!! Thanks for everything!