Meanwhile, I'm still blogging about New Year's Eve and Utah:
Sunday evening, after my last nap for the year, we got the children
ready and headed to my brother Jesse's house for a lovely
New Year's Eve dinner, complete with party hats and confetti.
A few other siblings and their families joined the dinner too.
My Dad gave a lovely toast for good health
(especially for my brother Topher), the love of Jesus Christ in our homes,
hearts, and actions, and to prosper in all we do.
Then we clinked glasses and began the feast.
Jesse was so kind to include delicious salmon for us
weirdo Nielson non-meat eaters on the menu.
After dinner, we ate treats and played games; Clark Jeopardy,
my Dad's famous gorilla game,
and the name game, the usual New Year's Eve festivities.
I held Sally while getting caught up in the lives of my siblings.
Around 10:00, we decided to head back to my mom's
house to finish our evening, but only after we let
off a few firecrackers on the street in front of Jesse's house.
Someone....(not mentioning any names), brought a couple M-80's
to the party, which probably scared everyone in a ten-mile radius of us,
set off a few car alarms, and maybe broke a few windows.
Back at Mom's house, Lottie got her PJs on,
snuggled on the couch and fell asleep.
Happy New Year, Lottie!!
The Little Nies watched movies with my mom and Dad,
while Mr. Nielson and I retreated to our mattress in the living room
and watched a movie on my laptop.
(Bless Costco for selling amazing blow-up mattresses,
and bless Spencer Jones for telling us about them).
About 10 minutes to midnight, we all got up
(except Lottie, who was already in dreamland),
poured bubblie and played the countdown on the phone
with Ella Fitzgerald singing in the background.
The boys had timed the countdown perfectly with a few more
fireworks for the big moment.
Mr. Nielson and I kissed barefoot outside in front
of my parent's house while watching
the boys shoot off more fireworks into the cold night sky.
* * * * * * *
On New Year's Day, we slept in and missed breakfast.
So around noon, we wandered downtown to one of our
favorite foodie spots in Provo: Good Thyme
wherein we had a delicious lunch and also wherein we all
had food babies until 7:00 pm.
Did I mention we had brought all of our ski stuff with us,
and because of terrible snow conditions, we didn't go skiing once.
What a bummer. So we lounged around the house,
took Angus for walks in the mountains, and spent lots of time in
my mom's house talking, movie-watching, and napping- it felt so good!
Around evening, we pulled ourselves together for dinner
with my parents, where I wore my slippers and
Lottie wore her summer dress. Happy New Year to all!
* * * * * *
Look how cute (and Scandinavian) parents are:
Cute authentic trolls and gnomes looking into windows.
With candles lighting the kitchen table, everything is so hyggelit!!
Everything my parents do is magical.
They make holidays so memorable and warm.
Also:
Happy birthday to my brother Jesse.
I am getting old (and rude) because I can't remember
if his birthday is on the 8th or 9th.
But, hey Jess, Happy 39th birthday!
