A birthday. A Thanksgiving Holiday and Christmas. This is the most wonderful time of the year.

I can't believe in a few days it will be 2016. I think the next six months are going to zoom by... I hope to take enough time to enjoy it. We have good friends here. We have had great experiences here. I really like our Omaha life. I don't think we will replace it. Nate said, "We will probably still be saying 10 years from now, 'Remember back when we lived in Omaha and we had friends'". Hopefully we can build an equally beautiful full life in Heber Valley, Utah.  

So the photos below are a collection of the highlights from November and December. Starting with Nate's birthday and ending with Christmas... not necessarily in that order. 

We drove to Houston to spend Thanksgiving with my family. This is Nathan's cousin Ray, Mandy's son. He is a cute sweet kid, like all of her kids. Last time they hung out Nathan was 2 months old.

This was taken at an earth bermed house, on an organic farm that we stayed at, outside of Norman, Oklahoma. The house has no heating or cooling. Because it is covered in 6 ft of earth, it doesn't need it. It was a cold night, but we all slept warm.
We found the lodging through Airbnb. It is a site where normal people rent out space in their house, or their whole house. Our room had its own bath and a separate entrance. 
The lady was really nice. She gave us homemade goat milk soap, herbal tea (grown on her farm) and banana bread.  We left Omaha later than planned, so we didn't have much time to hang out. Nate and Nathan did take the time to walk around and say hi to the goats and chickens while I packed the next morning. 
I am sorry I don't have a better picture of the house. It was really cool. But, I will tell you this, Nate and I really want to build one now. They are expensive to build, but very earth friendly... I loved knowing that I was sleeping under a heap of earth. Our dream house will be tucked into the side of a mountain in Midway. That is the dream anyway. 

Horse drawn carriage ride around Stinson Park... 

HOAA playgroup Christmas party. These boys were waiting so patiently for the gift exchange. This is proof that they can sit still, if a reward is involved.

You can't see it in this photo, but the child is absolutely MESMERIZED!!!

Oh Santa. Next year we might have to come back to Omaha, just to see the "real" Santa at the Elmwood Ward Christmas party. Notice how Nathan thinks he's the only one. This same Santa came to our HOAA (doc's wife group) Christmas party just 2 hours before (as seen in the previous photo) .
Nathan's eyes were filled with magic. Santa called him by name and even knew that he is funny and likes to build towers and say crazy words. (His wife feeds him info about the kids via walkie talkie... it's awesome) At the HOAA party he wouldn't sit on Santa's lap, but stood in front of him and stared in AMAZEMENT. At party #2  he was brave enough... in fact, as you can see, he was practically glued to Santa the whole time. 

He loves Santa. 

Gingerbread display at the Winter Quarters LDS visitors center. "An Omaha Tradition". 

CHristmas Eve Fire

We didn't expect snow. It wasn't supposed to snow. But, we woke up Christmas eve morning to this. SNOW!!! So much fun. So, we had a white Christmas after all. In fact, it is still white out there. I'm glad I bought the boy snow boots this year. 

Nathan is made Santa some cookies. He decorated the cookies with such care. I expected more of a mess, but he did a great job. 

Santa's cookies

Christmas Eve dinner. Since I never make Pot Roast, this was an extra special dinner for us. And it was delicious. Even 3 days later, when we finally finished it. 

Nathan was excited to be baby Jesus. He even pretended to be a baby. Isn't that funny? He's finally old enough to "pretend" to be a baby. (He was kind of an obnoxious fake baby, but don't tell him that. He was proud of himself for being so hilarious.)

Christmas morning. Messed hair and bags under his eyes. He slowly opened each present. There was no frenzied paper tearing. He opened each gift with care. It is just how he is. He even tried to open a few of our presents. 

Marble tower and car tower. So fun!!! Nate's mom said it was weird that she only sent a present to little Nathan... but, she didn't. Big Nate has gotten just as much play out of the marble tower as little Nathan. 

Little N got a small snow shovel for Christmas... and he has made good use of it. 

The boy keeps eating snow. 

yummy white fluff. 

Yesterday

This may have made it in the last blog post. Jack-o-lantern carving. 

Nate's birthday cake. He turned 39 this year. 

My parents stopped by on their way home to Houston, coming from Idaho in November. My dad spent a few months in Idaho being a farmer... driving a truck for the harvest. He brought with him a tractor for Nathan's birthday.  

and they gave him a few other things too. 

and look. Nate got a John DEERE for his birthday too! He loves his new hoodie. 

Our old man. He's going to be 14 in May. Poor guy. That's like 98 in dog years.

a hair cut

hanging out with friends at the Fontenelle Forest

One of our last playdates with my friend Rachel. They moved. It is sad when friends leave, and you are the one left behind. As you may have noticed, most of Nathan's friends are girls. In fact, I was told by another mom, whose daughter is not pictured, "My daughter has been pretend dancing all day with someone she refers to as 'prince nafen'".  THe little ladies love him... and I can't blame them. 

Back to Thanksgiving week in Texas. We went to the pirate island of Galveston. Galveston Island is a run down little place. But, there is an ocean and a coast, and we don't have either of those in Omaha. While there, we took a dolphin tour. The dolphins follow the shrimp boats... and the Harbor Tour boat follows the dolphins. I feel a little sorry for those dolphins. Of all the beautiful oceans in the world, why would they choose to follow a Galveston shrimp/fishing boat.
 The tour guide also pointed out several offshore oil drilling boat/things that were docked. Since gas prices are so low right now, it is not financially beneficial for offshore drilling.  Whatever. I like paying less than $2 a gallon. 

This photo was taken outside of Fisherman's Wharf, where we ate lunch. 

Nathan's first time to see the ocean. He walked up to the water for about 2 minutes... then he returned to sand castle building, his back to the water. 

Before watching the movie Elf, little Nathan looked at the back cover. In reference to this photo he said, "Look Dad, its you. No wait. Maybe its Mom". -I don't know if it is the disappointed "mom look"  in Elf's eye, or the bad hair... I am guilty of both. 

Thanksgiving dinner at my sister Chalice's house in Round Rock, Texas. She did a great job on the turkey. I love turkey. I ate more than necessary and didn't help with dishes because I was too busy napping. (Sorry Chalise) I'm grateful that I could just show up and eat and eat... and then sleep and sleep... REally. Hosting in a ton of work. So, thank you to her. She did a great job. Her daughter Lily also did a lot of work. She made each of us a personal Thanksgiving card... and she made the girls pilgrim hats. They were awesome. I meant to keep mine, but I don't think it made it home with me.
 At dinner Nathan ate the jello and whipped cream marshmallow "salad", followed by pie and icecream. I don't know why he came home sick. 

We drove through floods in Dallas and an Ice Storm in Oklahoma, but we finally made it home. 

The season's first snow at the beginning of December. I was a little sad when it melted a day or so later. 

Oh Costco Christmas tree. It was too big. After cutting it down enough to fit in our house, it looked more like a wild round bush... 

Well. It has been another great year in Omaha. Depending on how the next few months go, I may be in Utah by the time I get around to blogging again. Bitter Sweet. We have been interviewing realtors... and so the process begins. Our house will go on the market in April and we will be out in June.

We said goodbye to little Nathan's rocking chair today. We have all spent many hours in that chair... everything from middle-of-the-night baby feedings to story time... Most recently it has been Nathan's time-out chair. As the new owner walked away with it over his head, Nate put his arm around me... for a "sentimental moment".  I didn't get it and felt weird watching the guy walk away. I wish I would have realized that that is what was happening...  next time... we can have those "moments" over and over again as we wrap up our Omaha chapter. Bitter Sweet, it is.