Better late than never to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We had a fun and wonderful holiday. Nels and I went up to his family's home in Valparaiso, Indiana. We enjoyed celebrating Christmas with them. Nels' sister Kierstin came from Portland, Oregon so the whole family was there. For Christmas Eve dinner we enjoyed filet mignon that Nels' dad made. All of the food was delicious, especially the homemade apple pies. (made with sliced fresh apples and not canned apples.)
The Nyborg's have some fun family traditions. One is to make sugar cookies for Santa. So we all decorated sugar cookies and put them on a special plate for Santa. Then all of us wrote letters to Santa. Anna-Lisa is the youngest at age 16 and Nels is the oldest at 31, but we all dutifully wrote our letters to Santa. The letters mainly consisted of an accounting of what we did this year and if we were good or not. Another tradition is to read the book "Twas the Night Before Christmas" before going to bed. Nels' dad reads the book out loud and all of the kids gather round. In the morning we all read our letters that we wrote for Santa out loud to each other and then magically Santa had replied to our letters so we read his response also. I think that is a fun tradition. Then Nels' dad reads the Christmas story about Christ being born. After that it's time to open presents, which is done one by one youngest to oldest.
But wait! One last tradition that is my favorite. The treasure hunt. After the presents are unwrapped from under the tree, Nels' dad says, "I think Santa left a message on the computer." The youngest, Anna-Lisa, starts first and the message is a clue. The clue leads to several other clues around the house until the last one leads to a present. Everyone has a treasure hunt and we follow each other when the person on the hunt is looking for the next clue. Nels' treasure hunt gift was a leather Samsonite briefcase, I received a Breadmaker! Yippee! I have been wanting a breadmaker for a long time. I am so happy I got one for Christmas. So those are some of the Nyborg traditions. We thoroughly enjoyed being there. Here's a couple of pictures.
Reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas."
Reading the Christmas Story before opening presents on Christmas Day.
Sven, the family dog, was involved in all of the celebrations too. I think pictures were taken of him the most. He's very entertaining! Even though Sven and I don't always get along he does keep things interesting.
I even got a video of Sven opening a present. He was very excited about his gift.
What would Christmas be without music? Anna-Lisa plays the cello. So I played the piano and she played the cello and everyone sang Christmas carols. It was a lot of fun and really brought in the Christmas spirit. 
We hope everyone enjoyed the holidays! I'll write more about the New Year celebrations later.
1 comment:
Looks like you had a great time! I didn't know Nels was so OLD!! haha, jk. Hope this year goes REALLY good for you two!
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