The Tree

Going back to an old tradition, we put up our Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. We haven't had a real tree in several years, and I couldn't bear to stand thinking about putting up our old fake tree (it was one that Kevin's grandparents left behind when they moved out of the house 11 years ago). We found a beautiful tree right away at Laphams, and Kevin had it in the stand and into the living room in a flash. This one area of the living room is the ONLY area that has any kind of decoration (there's not even furniture in the room yet), so it's kind of fun to be able to look in that direction and feel like it's homey. On another note, I couldn't bear to have Kevin put any screws or hooks into the new mantle for the stockings and he came up with a brilliant alternative. He wrapped 30lb fishing line around each of the two posts that hold the mantle. On each end of the fishing line is a snap swivle that the stocking is clipped to. I must admit, this was genius!

Walker's 1st Black Friday

Last year, Taylor and I decided that we were going to try out Black Friday, and we actually had some fun with it. So this time, when we set our alarms for 4am, Walker asked if he could come too. Of course there were promises of not begging for new video games, and he got quite the lecture about staying within sight since he may never find us again should we become seperated. Things went very well for the most part. We did see a woman down (flat on her back) next to the $2 dvd's at Walmart, and rumor has it that people were still reaching over her for movies until store employees stepped in to clear the area. The big story of the day was Walker's Black Friday purchase. He had $5 in his wallet, and as we waited in the line to check out at Target (the line wrapped around 3/4 of the store) he had yet to find an item to purchase (this was our last stop). Then he spotted it...a practically weightless vacuum that comes apart to be an electric dust buster. The problem??? He only had $5 and it cost $10. Loving mother that I am, I offered to pay the remaining $5 if he worked it off by vacuuming the stairs regularly. He took me up on my offer! By Friday night, he had vacuumed the living room twice, the stairs, the upstairs tv room and his bedroom. This was definately the deal of the day!

Sisterly Love

Walker just came up to the computer and asked me if we could check his email really quick (he's trying to keep more current with it since his last check 2 days ago, in which he discovered that he hadn't checked it since Labor Day). When I logged him in, this is the one and only message that he had received from his loving sister:

"you are a jerk check your email more often you idiot u are a flippin dweeb."

Nice!

Recess in Rose

I must admit, I was guilt tripped into participating in a school field trip today. It was called "Recess in Rose" and I think it may have been the most brilliant idea ever for CMU women's basketball. I don't know if any of you have ever attended a CMU women's basketball game (I didn't think so), but my guess is that their attendance is typically low. To combat this, they decided to schedule a midweek game at noon, and they invited all of the area schools to attend for FREE. It worked. There were 4,400 people in attendance, which I believe set a record attendance for this sport at CMU. It was definately loud, and the cheerleaders were probably in heaven to have a crowd that responded so eagerly to all of their chants!

For all of you old timers, or Rose Rowdies, who remember the days of Dan Marjle (sp) and throwing toilet paper after the first CMU basket of the game (men's basketball of course), you will notice that the 3rd banner from the right is his jersey number.

Now here's the fun part of the day. I attended the field trip with Walker and his class. When he asked me to go, I told him that it was my busiest day of the week and that he should ask Kevin. He then informed me that this is what I always say, and that I have never attended a field trip with him. Having a hard time believing this, I started thinking about all of the miserable field trips that I had been on, and realized that they were all with Taylor. I would go with Taylor, and then when it was Walker's turn, I couldn't bear to think of going again, so I would send Kevin. Knowing that it may be the last time (elementary years end as of this year in our family), I changed my schedule and went with Walker. It was weird to leave my office and drive away from CMU, to park in Shepherd and catch a bus back to CMU! Anyway, the whole middle school attended, so Taylor was there too! As a middle school student, she cannot be caught in the same vacinity as a parent. She was confident that in huge Rose arena, I would not be able to find her. Lucky for me, CMU assigned schools to different sections. Of the several hundred students from Shepherd in our section, Taylor was seated a mere 5 rows directly behind me. How unlucky for her! As soon as I spotted her, I cupped my hands to my mouth and shouted "Taylor! Taylor Priest! Hi Taylor!" as I madly waved my hands. Her friends thought it was quite funny and were embarrased for her. Near the end of the game, I ran up and sat next to her and put my arms around her shoulders to wisper in her ear. She turned to me and hissed, "leave NOW!" Good times, good times!

Last Harvest of 09!

Since our Nelson Thanksgiving last weekend, Kevin's been drinking up the herbal tea from the garden. He finished up the lavender that Danielle gave us and then finished up the Peppermint that I harvested earlier in the summer. Since he was quickly making his way through the spearmint, I decided that I had better check to see what I had drying in paper bags. I found some lavender and peppermint (along with a large batch of oregano), and spent the afternoon making it "tea" ready. Now if he would only decide to drink the Lemon Balm, he would be set for life!


Lavender

Peppermint

Oregano

Pizza with the Priests

Kirk has been out of town for awhile and is coming back tonight, so we decided that on Friday, we better have one last hurrah before his return. Amy picked up the pizzas and headed out into Priest country (better known as the compound). Of course Mercy and Jack initiated a lengthy wrestling match with Uncle Kevin while Taylor and Walker watched from the safety and warmth of the fireplace (I think the temp was 15F that night). Even Alex liked the pizza (although I must admit that he went a little more crazy for the ice cream that we got out 1/2 way throught the movies).

Happy Anniversary Carol & Dan!

There's something to be said for family traditions, and the Shaws have a special one. In the spirit of SHARING, they always pick days that are already special, and add their own golden touch. On this particular occasion, they picked Danielle's birthday as their wedding day (Danielle's wedding day is on John's birthday, so they must have figured that she wouldn't mind!) Speaking of John's birthday/John & Danielle's wedding anniversary, Amya was also born on that day. I was hoping that Charlie's birth would be on Carol's birthday, but he decided to hold his own solitary event. Anyway...happy anniversary guys!

Happy Birthday Danielle!

Snow!!!

Winter has arrived in Central Michigan. I think that we still had a high in the 60's or even 70's last week, but this is what happened on Sunday, and has continued to happen in small amounts since. I'm thinking that now is the time to go visit Charlie & Kadence in Florida!

Warning! Hunting Pics to Follow

I apologize to those who didn't want to see this, and encourage you to scroll away if you have to. This is not something that I aspired to as a young girl, or as a woman, but nonetheless, as the girl/woman who married Kevin Priest, this is what I get. My son now holds the record for being the youngest modern day Priest to shoot a deer (yes, he has his license). This is "his" deer, and if you ask, he'll tell you the whole story of the hunt (although you might have to remind him that he begged not to go because he hates sitting still and getting cold). Lucky for him (and not for the deer) this one arrived outside the stand at about the same time that Walker finished sitting down and putting on his gloves. I don't think Walker even had time for a snack before the shot.

Crazy 8's

We have a new clock in our game room where each number is a photo. Bear want's to be number 8, but as you can see from his face below, he wasn't very happy about our ideas for how to show the 8. Here is where we need your help. Which 8 do you think is best? We'll be posting a poll to get your opinions. As you can see in the Thanksgiving post, Willow is 1 o'clock. Taylor has chosen to be either 3 or 7, Walker is 12 and Ian is 6. Carol, maybe you could pick a number for Amya and send it to us! Same for Kadence and Charlie. Oh, yeah, Juneau is going to be 10! (all pics on the clock will be printed in black and white)

A Michigan Nelson Thanksgiving

True to Nelson tradition, those of us in Michigan picked a non Thursday to celebrate Thanksgiving. John, Danielle, Bear, Willow and Juneau joined us Thursday night after John spoke at CMU, and they stayed until Saturday evening!

Juneau had an easy job of putting Kevin to sleep every time he got cranky!

There was also quite a bit of time spent in front of various forms of video games. On Friday night, the boys got all macho and went out to target shoot with the guns. They decided to hunt on Saturday morning (opening day), but when the alarm went off at 6am, every one of them petered out and decided that their warm beds were more inviting. So much for Kevin's reputation as a big time hunter (although he is sitting in his deer blind right now as I type this).

It seems as if Willow is always thirsty, and it doesn't matter who originally "owned" the drinking apparatus. Here she is after about a day of using Juneau's bottle. In this bottle, I saw everything from plain milk to blood orange Italian soda flavored milk to warm chocolate milk. It didn't matter what it was, if it was in Juneau's bottle, she would drink it!

Here, Aunt CeCe's empty champagne glass!

The cup of water that Taylor gave her to dump on Uncle Kevin!

Willow still LOVES to walk around in other people's shoes!

Kevin and John spent the day Friday and Saturday working on John's cedar strips for the kayak that he is going to build. He will use a mix of red and white cedar.