The Nissen Family: April 2021

I was really burned out this past Christmas and not looking forward to all the festivities. I was overwhelmed with 2020 in general and my expectations were not being met. I think I was just feeling down and could not get into the spirit of Christmas.

Much to my surprise this Christmas turned out WAY better than I expected. I normally do not start decorating until after Grady’s birthday and party. Also, this year I was really wanting a new tree and ornaments, etc. but by the time we started decorating all the stores were sold out. It was beyond frustrating and honestly, I didn’t put up a single decoration, Chad did all the decorating this year.

We had Christmas pictures on December 6^th and after pictures we let them open 1 present early which was pajamas and a book. I read on Amber Massey’s blog a while ago that she let her kids open their pajamas on December 1^st so they could enjoy them all month long and loved that idea but since Grady’s birthday is December 1^st we do it a few days after. Grady was less than impressed with the pajamas.

I kind of felt bad that we didn’t do much Christmas activities this year. I think it was just hard with the pandemic or at least that’s what I’m telling myself, we also had a newborn so that makes things harder too.

We always have Christmas Eve with my family and this year it was at my sister’s house in Tulsa. It was the last year that my mom will be working full time, she is retiring in June. So, let’s just say she went a little too crazy and we couldn’t open all the presents that night.

On Christmas morning I normally love to make a HUGE breakfast, but I tried to switch things up a little bit. Instead of making biscuits and gravy I ended up doing a breakfast casserole, and it was WAY less hectic. The kids woke up and opened their stocking and then played with their toys in their stocking while I threw the casserole in the oven. And then they started opening their presents. We took little breaks in between presents. It lasted a lot longer, but it was so much more enjoyable than rushing through it. My parents came over later that morning and we gave the kids their “big” gift. After all their gifts we ate and I didn’t rush to clean up, it was a good day! That evening we made pizzas for dinner and just chilled.

I am so happy that we are able to give them this big present, last year was a different story. This year was much more relaxing, and we will be adopting some of these changes in the years to come. We discussed doing an easier throw in the oven breakfast for Christmas morning and then a big breakfast like biscuits and gravy, etc for New Year’s Day.

I have been looking forward to throwing a Movie Night birthday party ever since I started looking up ideas for birthday parties. It didn’t hurt that Grady LOVES to watch movies while eating pizza and popcorn. Unfortunately I had too much fun with the party that I didn’t get much pictures but trust me it was so much fun. We really wanted to have it outside in the backyard but since it was in December the weather was nice but not nice enough, so we decided that it was best to have it in our garage and it worked out perfectly. We blew up some inflatable beds for the kids to lay on and I picked up a bunch of blankets from Ikea the weekend before when we were there. I bought a projector and screen during the Amazon Prime days and rented a popcorn machine for the weekend. I also bought way too much pizza and a massive cookie cake.

During the party we watched 100% Wolf and had everyone eat dinner and popcorn while we started the movie, halfway through we stopped the movie to cut and eat the cake. It was a blast!