Merry Christmas!

We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas this week!!! We had a very enjoyable (and memorable) Christmas. Having a little person around to enjoy the sights and sounds made it fabulous!

Here are some pictures. On Christmas Eve we spent the evening with my family. We actually had to head back to their place at 10:30 that night to spend the night because of some police activity that would not allow us onto our street (that is part of the memorable part:). We ate Christmas Day breakfast at my Grandma Nielsen's house and then exchanged gifts with my family. We had dinner with many from Mike's family that night. It was a great and very busy day! With all the comings and goings, we (Mike, Abby and I) didn't get to exchanging our gifts until the morning of the 26th. That actually turned out very nice because it was so calm and laid back!


Christmas is about Christ and family and I am so happy that we were able to enjoy the spirit of both!

Book Suggestions?

I belong to two book clubs and in January we will be planning the reading schedule for both. Any great suggestions? Here are a few of my favorites that we read this year. Any genre is fine...

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
These Is My Words by Nancy Turner
Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

On Abby and Christmas Magic

We are doing our best to help Abby enjoy the Spirit of Christmas this year. We have talked about baby Jesus, listened to lot of Christmas music and loved the lights. It's such a magical time of year. Here is some of Abigail's magic:

Candy Canes
We have a few candy canes on the Christmas tree. As far as I know Abby has (had) never had a candy cane, but I did have to move the candy canes to higher branches on the tree when she had taken off the lower ones, broken them and was caught with bits of candy in her mouth--managing to avoid the wrapper. (Smart kid!)

Music
We seem to have a rather musical child. You know that song that starts with Pachebel's canon, then sings "This night, on this very Christmas night..." The other morning as the Pachebel's canon part was playing Abby was singing, "Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh." I couldn't quite tell if she was precisely on key, but she was making a very valiant effort!

"Deck the Halls" seems to be the winner though. (Stay tuned for a great video!)

Snow
I'm not convinced that the snow thing has really grabbed her attention, but, admittedly, I haven't done a lot to foster that relationship! She looks great in the snowsuit! (Thanks, Samantha...) We'll keep working on it.

Santa
Has sat on his lap twice--liked him--no tears. (Bummer--no pictures either.)

Books
One of her twin bruises on her forehead was from tumbling while standing on her tippy toes trying to reach her favorite pop-up books that are really mommy's favorite pop-up books:)

True Christmas Magic
The true magic of Christmas is in the spirit of family, of giving, and, above all, in the Savior, Jesus Christ. We're working right now on trying to help her say Jesus. She is very close, I think. That would be a great present for her to learn to say Jesus for Christmas. Don't you think?

Ten Things I Love About Mike (or Ode to Mike in Honor of His Birthday)

In honor of Mike's 29th birthday, I'd like to post ten things I love about him. In case you may wonder, there are many, many more things than just 10 that I love about him--but tradition dictates "10".

10. I love that Mike is so friendly. I suppose that if he wasn't we may not have met as he did take the chance in coming and asking me (a stranger:) to dance 4 1/2 years ago. But, really, he is friendly with everyone. He has very little inhibitions about talking to people and always tries to make them feel noticed and included.

9. I love that Mike is so committed to the gospel. He has a strong testimony and works daily to strengthen it.

8. I love that Mike is a missionary. (This fits in well with both #10 and #9.) He hands out pass along cards on vacations and is an awesome home teacher.

7. I love that Mike always likes to try new things. He is always up for visiting new places and eating new foods (that is one he's a bit--more than a bit--more daring than me on).

6. I love that Mike is so handy. He has done so much around the house and does it himself! He knows how to learn if he doesn't already know how to do it. On top of that, he takes pride in his work and the stuff looks good.

5. Speaking of learning, I love that Mike is so smart. He did well in school and is now using lots of his smarts as a valued employee.

4. I love that Mike is completely devoted to family--his parents and siblings, my family, me, Abby and Hope!

3. I love his personality in general. We have so much fun together! He is a lot more level-headed than I and knows how to talk sense into me when I need it:)

2. Mike is a great dad! He loves to play with Abby and make her laugh. She loves it in the evenings when she hears the door open and just knows that her daddy is home!

1. I love how Mike treats me. He is kind, thoughtful, fun, loyal and complimentary. He is very patient with me (and rarely lets me know when he is needing to exercise that patience). I love him very much and am thrilled that I've got him forever!

Cute Abby

Other than the recently mentioned illnesses, we are happy and enjoying the Christmas season. Here are some recent pictures:

Poor Mike and Abby

The Wessman Family has been sick this week. It actually started last weekend when I had a 24 hour flu. Abby was just a couple hours behind me.

(The flu bug hit us the day after we had taken her to the doctor's because there was a chance she'd swallowed part of a Christmas ornament--oh, the drama! By the way, they did an x-ray and checked her out and she appeared to be ornament-free! These cute little ornaments used to be a set of 3, but...Abby did her magic on one of them and DIDN'T swallow any pieces, thank goodness!)

We thought she was OK until she threw up ALL OVER (me, Mike, the bench, the floor) during Sacrament Meeting. I had to teach Relief Society so we all went home so Abby and I could bathe. Mike put on his street clothes and went back after the meeting was over to disinfect the bench. As soon as he returned, I headed back to teach R.S. Abby has been steadily improving since then--just took her a couple days to get back to her usual self!

Mike is (still) sick, too, the poor guy! He only went in to work one day this week (must be pretty bad) but did work a bit from home. His symptoms change everyday so sometimes it is hard to tell which direction he's headed, but we think he's on his way out of it. He went to the doctor's yesterday and said the meds appeared to help. I sure hope he feels back to his self soon!

Hope

Mike suggested that I put a link to our little girl, Hope's, website on the blog. Most of you know that our first daughter passed away shortly after her birth due to the effects of Trisomy 18, a chromosomal disorder. Her story is found at www.hopewessman.net. We love and miss her and are so grateful that she is part of our eternal family!