More Random Pictures

Breezy's puppy, Fred.

I'm not sure which pup this is...they all look alike!

Peanut and me

Chance and Puff.  (Puff is Wendy's cat)

Chance and Puff are best buddies.

My new baby cousin, Hunter Phoenix Nelson.

Slumber party! L to R: Anna, Larissa, Chloe, me, Sadie, Nea.

Bring back the flowers!

I am honestly going to go crazy if this snow doesn't leave and let the flowers return.  I am completely in love with flowers, and I can only have them three months of the year!!!! I love to go out  several times a week and pick and arrange bouquets of daisies, lady ferns, red columbines, buttercups and bluebells!  The other nine months of the year, however, I just drive my family nuts with pouring over gardening magazines and writing 'flower wish lists' and talking constantly about flower beds and where to put them. That was my blurb of the day.
I am Ericka Nelson and I approve this message.

Just a Christmas greeting for ya'll....

                                          Our Christmas mornings stockings....stuffed to the max
                                           with goodies!! Talk about afternoon sugar high!

                                        Nea enjoying the contents of her stocking..... Yes that's
                                        my bed in the corner...that's the messiest my room's been
                                       in a loooong time.

      CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!!!!!!!

 

                                                                      Made in China.

My mother's new favorite sign.

                                                     Well, Merry Christmas one and all! 

Nelson Christmas Traditions

Let me just tell you that it's an understatement to say that I love Christmas.  I just adore the family get-togethers, the cookie baking, and the traditions.  Much to my father's despair, we usually decorate for Xmas the day after Thanksgiving.  Our Christmas music and movies come out in early November. ( :  But the cookie baking, oh, the cookie baking, begins in mid December.  There are now officially 5 womenfolk in this house who can bake.  Desserts of all shapes and sizes and flavors just keep coming!  Needless to say, my father is a happy man!  We don't usually open all the presents on Xmas day.  My parents can't resist letting us open a few before Christmas. For presents for each other, my wonderful grandparents take the whole crew of kids up to Duluth and let us shop for each other, and our parents.  Then we head back to their house and have a wrapping party, followed by a sleepover. And tomorrow night, we will be heading up to their house again to OPEN those presents and have dinner. ( ; So, when Christmas Eve rolls around, we again head up to my grandparents' house.  There we play White Elephant with our entire extended family, have dinner and get to visit with family members we don't see very often.  First though, is the reading of the Christmas story.  The Grand kids take turns every year sitting on Grandpa's lap and reading Luke chapter two.  I think I have done that twice now.  Then we pack up sleepy children (myself included) and head home where we all crawl into bed and try not to stay up all night for excitement. The next morning, we wake up and run directly to the stockings.  Funny how on weekdays we have so much trouble getting out of bed, but on Christmas we're all morning people.  By the time my parents wake up and make breakfast, we're all too full (candy, hehehe). Then we open the contents of the tree skirt, and afterward our living room looks like a wrapping paper tornado went through.  Then we all run to the kitchen for lunch.  My mom sets out a huge spread of crackers, cheese, millions of potato chip flavors (OK, not really), cookies, cake, chocolate, pizza, pop, and all other kinds of junk food imaginable.  We then proceed with stuffing ourselves.  The next morning, we wake up and the Christmas tree, the decor, and any possible inkling of Christmas has disappeared as if by magic. Or by mom.

Breezy's pups

Breezy's puppies are three weeks old now, and growing rapidly! They are already walking on all fours and eating soft food. Their names are, Sophia, Francine(I named her and mom says its a horrible name), Noel, Leroy(I also named him), Diesel, Torque(Torque is sold and his new name is Fred),Peanut, Sumo, and Fluffy(and yes, Fluffy is a boy. My dad has a strange sense of humor). 

BentleyVille!!!!!!!!!!

This week my grandma, mom, siblings and I went to Bentleyville. Bentleyville is a beautiful place. It's really a tour of Christmas lights, including 500 electric moving deer 'grazing' in the ditches made from Christmas lights. They had a Fun Facts sign out which stated that they needed 10,000 outdoor electrical cords to pull all of this together.  There were 70 foot long tunnels made also of Christmas lights, of all different colors. All through it, there were complimentary hot chocolate stands, cookie stands, popcorn stands, and at one place they had big fire pits all over the place, with complimentary marshmallow stands!  It was fantastic!!!  It is in Duluth, and there is a skating rink, too. Younger children also get free cookies, and a knit cap from Santa!! Oh, and Candy Canes from Mrs. Claus.  Oh, I almost forgot the 120 ft Christmas tree which dances in time to the Christmas music playing throughout the park. ( :

Meet Chance

This is me and my 175 pound house dog, Chance.  We are bestest buddies, and he also is a great guard dog. He is 2 1\2 years old and is not finished growing. *gulp*  He is the father of the puppies in the picture that I posted a few weeks ago.  We raise Mastiffs, so he is our stud dog.  Our females are JJ, Breezy (the mother of the puppies in the picture), Echo, and Isha (Chance and JJ's daughter). They are not quite as big as Chance, but still have a lot of growing to do.  By the way, doesn't Chance look smart in that picture?! He is always always always sporting that dumb look with his tongue hanging out. In fact, when he lays in the dirt in the summer, he gets dirt all over his tongue. Ish. We like to call him Einstein.  Ha ha.