Anyhow, while out shopping and such, I got some really cute pictures of Nolan with various Christmas hats on. He loves hats, so we have a lot of fun when we go to the store and look at Christmas stuff (or any holiday for that matter). The frist picutres here is from Wal-Mart. Nolan was a very happy reindeer for me.
Next, Nolan is showing his team spirit with his Boise State Santa hat. He thought it was so funny that it would slide down over his entire head.
We also played with a normal Santa hat, and he liked this one so much that we had to buy it for him! I'm bad and have very little will power. I'm working on it though...
Next, we have Nolan ready to go "bye bye". He loves to leave the house and will even sometimes ask to go. He is too funny that way. Here he is in his nice Monkey hat. I had to get it for him when I found it at Tartget. He is my little monkey. 
In the middle of December, about two weeks before Christmas, Nolan got Croup. Poor kid. He couldn't sleep longer than 30 to 45 minutes at a time. He was so exhausted, and he had the worst barky cough ever. I lived with this for about a day and a half, and I finally broke down and saw the doctor. He prescribed two days of oral steroids which I was not happy about (I don't like to give him any medications if I can help it), but Nolan was pretty miserable. I gave him the first dose as soon as I got home. The thing about steroids is that they usaully make you feel wide awake and give you lots of energy, so I was surprised when 45 minutes later Nolan was tired and asking for "night night". He slept a good 4 hours or so. He was so tuckered out! I didn't have to give him the second dose which I was happy about. I guess another low point to the holidays was that Nick was "laid off". A couple weeks before he had been let go, Nick had asked to step down from management at Zamzow's. He had just gotten really frustrated with the long hours (he averaged about 50 + hours a week and could work up to 80 hours in a week) and low pay (since he was on salary he averaged a whopping $7.40/hr). I felt like I never saw him anymore. We worked completely opposite schedules, and it was hard for Nick to keep up with his school work (he is going full-time through Steven's Henager with a double major in business and accounting). Well, when Nick asked, he was told that they would work on it, but it might take a few weeks or months even. Nick said he understood.
So, three weeks go by (two days before Christmas) and Nick finally hears their resolution. They decided to just let him go because there was no place for him in the company (two days before Christmas). Nick called me right away, and he was very upset. He was on his way home. I had just gotten the whole family some prescription antibiotics for the Strep throat I shared with them (one of the many drawbacks of working in the hospital), so it wasn't the best day for us all overall. I know I should have been really upset about the whole situation, but I was just relieved. Things there just seemed to be going down hill, and they just didn't seem to care about the people that worked for them. The only thing that I was worried about was the way in which they had used Nick to get through the holidays before they let him go. Also, Nick was really beating himself up for even asking to step down. (But if he hadn't, we wouldn't see the good things that were waiting for us! Stay tuned for March!)
The holidays were very fast and furious after this. We decided not to tell too many people about being laid off. We didn't want to bring anyone's spirits down. We started our Christmas at Nick's Grandparents' home on Christmas Eve. It is a family tradition to go there each year and have homemade lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. It is always a fun time. After dinner, we open a million presents. The kids are always hoping to speed the process up, but sometimes you just have to wait for a few stragglers. (Nick's family always give him a hard time about "getting sick" before dinner so he could open presents much faster.)
While we waited, Nolan hung out with his second cousin Kaden. He is 4 and such a big boy! He was even nice enough to share his brand new ZuZu pet gerbils with Nolan. I don't know if I would be so generous! Here they are hanging out together! 
Nolan got lots of presents for his Meme and Papa, but the thing he seemed to enjoy the most was his new baseball, bat, and glove. He wouldn't even let me take it from him to get the toys out of the packaging. Good choice on presents Meme and Papa. 
Another fun toy he got was a little dog that can walk and bark when you push some buttons on the little dog bone he's connected to like a leash. Nolan really liked it, but when started to walk toward Nolan and nudge his foot, he was not impressed! He liked it as long as he was controlling it and it did not touch him!
We were able to be at home for Christmas morning. It was nice and not too crazy. We got Nolan just a couple of presents. His favorite toy was the train we got him. He is so into trains lately. He spent a good part of December playing with the train we put around the Christmas tree, so a train was a good idea. He makes the noises and everything. We can see the train from our house, so when we hear the "choo choo" outside, Nolan runs to the couch and jumps up just to watch it go by. He's so cute when he does that. 
Oh, we got him some puppets for Christmas too (or at least Santa did). It is fun to watch him play with them. He likes to kiss them whenever we play with them. We have a set of dinosaur puppets and then another set with an owl, moose, and some other common animals.
Later that day, we went to Gramma Leeney's and Grampa Mairs' house. We got there in early afternoon, put Nolan down for a nap, and then woke up to open presents. We got lots of fun stuff including some puzzles and books. Thanks all for everything! How can you wrong with puzzles and books?
Here are a few pictures of what Christmas day at my parents home looks like! Here's some of the girls. Below we see Mom with Tiffany and Brooklan. 
Now here is a picture of the boys Doug, Daniel, and Koen just chillin'. 
Here we have Great Grampa Mairs, Great Gramma Mairs, and Great Aunt Dede (Della). We sure do love them. It just wouldn't be Christmas without them all!
We all stayed the night at Gramma and Grampa's house. It was one full house! Nick, Nolan and I stayed in the camping trailer, and we were oh so comfy. The bed in there is quite nice, and it stays plenty warm. It also stayed pretty quiet. This is so nice when you have almost 30 people in one house. I would do it again in a heartbeat!The next day, we left after breakfast, and we made our way home. We were meeting Nick's mom and sister later that evening for a little Christmas fun. We had some yummy French Dip sandwiches and salad. Nolan seemed to enjoy that. We then opened lots of presents. Let's just say we are so spoiled. I felt a bit guilty. Anyhow, we had a great time, and we got some fun presents like my fun purse (looks like the fur from an albino giraff but made of plastic?). It is way cute!
Here is Nolan hanging with Auntie Chelsea! 
Here are Daddy and Nolan posing with Mr. Sock Monkey. Aren't they cute? Daddy does kinda have a scary look in his eyes though...
Here we are posing as a family. You know it is a bit hard to get an 18 month old to do what you want when the whole room is full of fun toys, clothes, etc. 
Here is Nolan with Nana. They are good buddies.
And Nolan's favorite part of the night....the piano! He loves it. I guess we need to get that boy into some lessons. He loves to sing and dance too. It's amazing what that boy can do when there's a bit of music in the air! (Christmas time was really fun for him with all of the Christmas carols.)
2009 was a great year, and 2010 can only get better! (It will and already has ;))
No comments:
Post a Comment