The 2018 Holidays

We were lucky enough to be able to see all of our family this year for the holidays! We spent Thanksgiving with the Krauses in Colorado and Christmas with the Nielsons in Washington. They were both pretty chill, relaxed vacations, so I'm choosing to combine them into one blogpost that consists mainly of pictures :)

Thanksgiving with the Krauses

For the first time since we have been married, Dustan actually needed to work and be productive the week of Thanksgiving. Because Eloise and I wanted to be able to spend more than just a few days with family, we flew up to Denver the Saturday beforehand while Dustan didn't make it until Wednesday morning. Though we wish the break was longer, it was so fun to be able to spend a week in Colorado! Aside from his one brother on a mission in Mexico, all of Dustan's family was home for Thanksgiving, as well as some extra family, Jen's sister with her husband and kids. It was a party!

Before the whole party arrived and it was just a few of us, we enjoyed some time at the park and doing window shopping in downtown Windsor. It is always so fun when we get Eloise and her cousin Elodie together. Every time we do, they play together just a little better and are more fun to watch. I can't wait to see what they are like when they're older!

Eloise's first birthday also passed, without much fanfare. We would celebrate her birthday with a party after Thanksgiving. Then, the rest of the family arrived and we stayed up way too late eating good food and playing games. We enjoyed some outdoor fun with football (where Dustan sprained his ankle again) and Kan Jam (our new fave lawn frisbee game). We had a huge and delicious spread for Thanksgiving, as always.

As I mentioned, we celebrated Lou's birthday after Thanksgiving Day. The family was so kind in spoiling Lou with gifts and chocolate cake, which she loved :) More on that is here.

Then sadly, it was time to go home already! We got up super early Saturday morning and flew back to Tucson. It was a lovely week though!

Christmas with the Nielsons

We're so happy that Raytheon (the company Dustan works for) gives it's employees time off during the holidays without them needed to use any PTO. On a typical year, Dustan will get off Christmas Eve through New Years Day. Lucky for us, Christmas Eve fell on a Monday, so we also had the weekend before to get out of town. So, we ended up having almost two weeks without taking any time off! It was awesome. These first two pictures are from before our trip, celebrating Christmas a little early in Tucson.

Sadly, the trip didn't start off great. Lou quickly got what seemed like a bad cold, and was up all night crying unless she was being held and still cried sometimes, which was extremely abnormal for her (she is normally a great night sleeper). She wouldn't eat much and was cranky and clingy. Finally, we took her to urgent care on Christmas Eve and found out that she had a bad double ear infection :( Thankfully, once she got on some high dosage pain killers and antibiotics, she was acting more like herself within a few days.

We were able to do some fun, little activities nonetheless. We drove out to Snoqualmie Falls and hiked the short distance down to the base of the falls. It was a very chilly and windy day, but it was nice to get outside. And we enjoyed some yummy Thai food on the way back home :)

On Christmas Day, it is a Nielson tradition to have the youngest person lead a line of people (from youngest to oldest) to go into the family room and look at the gifts and Christmas tree. So, Lou led the way! It was so cute to see her looking around and saying "wow" haha. She walked straight to her stocking without any guidance and found a new stuffed panda. True to baby fashion, she was more excited about packaging and wrapping paper than most of her gifts, haha. Christmas will just get more fun with her, every year! Sadly, we took no pictures Christmas morning, just a video.

Over the course of the next week, we spent most of our time relaxing at home. Once Lou was getting over her ear infection, of course I caught a cold as well. But we were grateful to be spending that time with family and friends that we don't get to see as often. Dustan went out shooting with my Dad and Mike, which is always a treat. We had a fondue night. And we stayed up late playing lots of games, as usual.

One other note to make about our time home. After struggling with various healthy issues for a while, my Grandma Robin passed away on Christmas. I was so grateful I got to visit with her once more beforehand, but even more grateful that I know where she is now and that I'll get to see her again someday. She was a huge part of my childhood, and I'll greatly miss visiting with her each time I go home again.

Even with the few hardships we faced during Christmas break, we are always happy and look forward to the chance to go home and spend time with our families. We are SO grateful for them! Until the next time!