Holiday Extravaganza!

I hope everyone had a wonderful, peaceful, speed-ticket-less holiday! Here's a rundown on the past several days:

Wednesday
Got off work at noon (hooray!) and headed to Branson. Brooklyn cried for the first 20 minutes. We pulled off the main road between Hindsville & Huntsville so Allison could feed her. Emma pulled a pop-a-squat near the car. Got to Branson, ate dinner at the condo. Then we packed up everyone in Geri (the minivan) and drove through the Shepherd of the Hills Light thingy. Basically, it's about 3 miles of lights and Christmas dolls. Pretty fun stuff. Emma sat in Granddad's lap in the front seat, while Brooklyn cried the whole time in the back seat with Nana and Allison. The front half of the van enjoyed the evening. The back half...not so much.





Thursday
Being in Branson, we're already a little redneck. What REALLY made us redneck was that we ate at Golden Corral. Now, GC has some pretty fantastic food. And we aren't the only ones who know this. GC opened at 11:00 AM. We got there at 10:30 AM. WE were about 75th in a line of 200. Nice. Even on Thanksgiving, Branson has lines.

After unsuccessful naps, we packed up and went to Silver Dollar City to see the 4 million Christmas lights they have. Fact: 4 million lights pulled into a straight line will stretch from Branson to St. Louis. That's a long frickin' way, man. Of course, Brooklyn cried the whole time, so once again, Mommy wasn't enjoying the lights all that much.

Friday
We left the condo around 8:00 AM to drive down to Little Rock. I told my father-in-law that I would trade him 2 granddaughters and a daughter for 1 ticket to the LSU game. He apparently thought that was a good deal. So, I brought his girls down there, and I went to the game. Lousy as it was, I enjoyed going. Side note: I love the atmosphere at War Memorial stadium. The energy and volume is intense. That being said, it's really quite a pathetic stadium. I guess I'm spoiled by Razorback stadium. But Bentonville's High School stadium could rival War Memorial. It's kind of sad. But the energy and atmosphere help out a lot.

After the game, we met the rest of the Shell family and my girls at El Chico for dinner. We also celebrated Emma's upcoming 3rd birthday there. She got a cake and the server's scared her to death when they sang Happy Birthday and tried to put a giant sombrero on her head. She got lots of Barbie stuff.






Saturday
On Saturday, we pretty much hung out and packed up. We ate at Arkansas Burger, then drove home. All in all, it was a pretty good trip. Brooklyn wasn't all that great, but she did sleep well in the car, so that's a small blessing.

The 12 Days of Christmas: A Quandary?

Ok, I realize I'm totally jumping past Thanksgiving and all, but I've queued up the Christmas music on the iPod at work and Emma' been listening to her Little People Christmas Carol CD in the car. I've even put up Christmas lights on the house!

Emma recently got a book: The 12 Days of Christmas. We've been reading it a lot, though I don't know why. It's a pretty boring book. Of course, we spice things up by singing it to her in an absurd voice. That makes it tolerable. Tonight, I was pondering the song and have found myself in a quandary:

For each day, did the true love give only 1 gift, or all the gifts over again? To rephrase...on the second day of Christmas, did the true love give the person 2 turtle doves AND a partridge in a pear tree? Or just 2 turtle doves? If the former holds true, then the true love dished out some SERIOUS gifts over those 12 days! Here's my breakdown:

12 - Partridges in a Pear Tree (same tree, or 12 different trees?)
22 - Turtle Doves
30 - French Hens (God, anything French greater than zero is insufferable!)
36 - Calling Birds
40 - Gold Rings (The True Love is BANKING to afford this!)
42 - Egg-laying Geese (and those geese are laying a bunch of poo, too!)
42 - Swimming Swans (I can image how icky the pool would be out back...)
40 - Milking Maids (apparently, the recipient already had the cows)
36 - Dancing Ladies (that'd be pretty cool, I guess)
30 - Lords a Leaping (leaving 6 Dancing Ladies without a Lord...very sad)
22 - Piper's Piping (mix this with the Lords & Ladies, and you have Riverdance)
12 - Drummers (to help with the Riverdance music, I assume)

In my opinion, that's just ridiculous. That true love person is flat out psychotic.


PS. If you'd like to know the true background of the song, you can read about it here. It's rooted in Catholic tradition (each day corresponds to a Christian value/belief/object).

Enough to Pull You Through

It's so amazing how God extends His grace and provides strength when you really need it. And especially when you're least expecting it. With babies, they can get fussy. In fact, they fuss a lot. They're cute as can be, but it's frustrating and exhausting some of the times. But just when you're at your last nerve, they bust out a fleeting moment of smiles that completely erases all past aggravations / frustrations! God's grace is sufficient, and He can dispense His grace any way He chooses. I'm so glad He chooses to give grace through the smiles of babies.

Quick Update

I realize I haven't been posting much. As always, I'm posting pictures to my Picasa Web Pages. Here's a quick rundown of what's been going on in the Nelson world:

• Honestly, not very much. Work, home, sleep, eat. The colder weather and a new baby help keep us homebound, though we're consciously trying to get out of the house to keep our sanity.
• Work. Everyone ebbs and flows with how much they like / dislike their job. Right now, I'm in a big dislike ebb. I've been interviewing at several places locally. In fact, I'm being flown up to New York City in a couple of weeks to interview with the SVP of Sales for Time, Inc! It's probably a final interview, so hopefully it goes well. I'm a little nervous, as the whole setting is way outside my comfort zone. Big city / big company / big opportunity for a great job in Rogers.
  
• Family. We're good. Brooklyn's really cute, and we're adjusting to having 2 kids. Emma's almost 3. Crazy.
• Hog Fan. I scored tickets to both the Tennessee game (tonight) and the LSU game the day after Thanksgiving! Of course, I have to go and lose my voice completely today. I guess I'll just be really physically animated to show my support tonight. Go Hogs!
• Thanksgiving. It's coming up quickly (as is Christmas). We're going to Branson with my parents on Thanksgiving, and to Silver Dollar City to see the Christmas lights. Then we'll head to Little Rock for the LSU game. Then back to Fayetteville. Then I fly to NYC for my interview. It's gonna be a fun (and exhausting) holiday!

Silly Sisters

A Baby's Smile

Everything is truckin' along here at the Nelson ranch. At this point, we're past the survival part of having a newborn and moving into the nice scheduled part. Notice I said moving "into"...we haven't arrived there yet. I have lots of pictures up on Brooklyn's website, so check it out if you're interested. Here's a nice one to get your day started off right. There's nothing like a baby's smile to brighten your day. Happy Monday (and Happy Birthday, Todd!).

My World: Dilbert-ized