Nelson Christmas

The Nelsons finally got together to celebrate Christmas this last weekend. Jeremy and I got to LaCrosse on Saturday around 2pm and Kristi had a bunch of fun activities planned for us. We mostly shopped, but it was fun to just bum around town with them.


Matt and Tessa got delayed milking cows, so that gave us an excellent chance to do some errands that we needed to do before the party on Sunday. We had to pick up some appetizer stuff at Festival Foods and they actually had an expectant mother parking spot...and Jeremy didn't use it!! We have been looking for one of these spots for the past 5.5 months and have never been able to find one. Do they have any in Minneapolis??

Festival also had the new throwback Pepsi and Mt. Dew packs. I took a picture just because I thought they looked cool all stacked up together.

We met for supper at around 6:30pm, but by the time we got to the restaurant, it was already dark, so I didn't take any pictures. Kristi had heard great things about a new place called Boot Hill Pub. I tried to see if they had a webpage, but it looks like they only have a fan page on Facebook. Boot Hill Pub (it looks like today's special is beef stroganoff for $5.95) The prices were crazy cheap and tasted great! We all got steak and none of our meals were over $10. I got the Prime Rib and it came with soup and salad bar, potato, vegetable and a roll. It was $8.95. By the end of the meal, which included 2 orders of gigantic cheese curds as appetizers, we were all stuffed. We went back to the house and watched a little bit of tv and then went to bed...or fell into bed.

Sunday morning we went to church and then out for brunch. I think LaCrosse must have the best independent restaurants of almost anywhere in the country! We went to the LaCrosse Family Restaurant (no website), which was also really cheap and really good! I ended up getting the Belgium waffle with apples and whipped cream. (I am really going to miss not being able to eat all of these yummy things without feeling super guilty)

After eating, Jeremy dropped me off at Olive Juice Quilts which is a fabric store that opened up right next to their church. I had been planning in my head on what kind of a theme/colors that I wanted to go with for the baby's room. WoW! This place would impress anyone! Even if you aren't a sewer, this place would inspire you to become one. The colors and patterns that attack you as you walk in the door are amazing. I had a hard time coming up with just one color scheme because there were so many different lines to choose from. I think that place might be a regular stopping spot when we come to LaCrosse.


These are the fabrics I ended up getting. I have a specific pattern for the quilt in mind and I still need to pick up a couple more (less expensive) pieces that will match. I am hoping to have enough fabric to do all of the linens for the nursery. If I don't have enough, it looks like we will need to make another trip to LaCrosse!



I am disappointed that I didn't get more pictures of the actual Christmas party. We met in the afternoon and Katie skyped in for awhile, but the connection wasn't very good and we kept getting dropped. I think I kind of forgot about my camera during the present opening time. It was fun to have Macy and Anna there to get excited about their gifts. They are so goofy and fun!

This is Matt and Katie talking.

Matt and Tessa


Kristi made an awesome meal and we stayed until about 7:00 and then headed back to the Cities. It would have been really nice to be able to stay another day to get to hang out with the girls, but we had to get back for work. It was a great weekend and a lot of fun to see everyone.

Kristi and Jerry are going to come help us get the nursery together sometime in February, so it looks like we have a lot to do before then! It will be good to have their help.

Fourth and Main Fabrics *Lots of Pictures!*

While in Cannon Falls last weekend we stopped into a new little fabric store on Main Street, Fourth and Main Fabrics. It turned out to be a beautiful store! I loved how bright it was and the fabrics were fantastic!




They were having a fat quarter sale Buy 3 get 1 free! I thought they were so pretty all together.



I learned that these rolls were called jellyrolls! Aren't they pretty!




They were offering a free pattern for this little lamb! Cute!




These buttons weren't for sale, but I thought they were pretty.


The tin ceiling was so cool! I'm not sure if it was original, but I thought it was fun.


I have been getting the bug to dive into different kinds of crafts and I think sewing might be my next choice. I'm not sure what I will come up with, but I think I'm very in love with the colors and patterns!

Weekend Activities

This last weekend was a busy one!

I guess Friday night was low-key. We went to work out and then came home and watched tv until bedtime. It was a nice night.

Saturday we went to Jeremy's grandma's house in Cannon Falls to help clean out one of her bedrooms. Jeremy's sister Katie is going to be coming home from California to live with her. It was fun to hang out with his family. His mom, aunt and grandma and I had fun going through vintage clothes and fabric.

Here are some of the things that I got to take home. I can't wait to start creating some great stuff with all of this stuff! Above is a stack of the fabric and aprons that I got.

This is a small piece of a quilt that had long ago been ripped apart for another project. This piece is about a foot long. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I thought it was so beautiful that I couldn't pass it up! It lookes like the whole thing was done by hand. I can't imagine how many hours it took to make a large quilt like this. I made a quilt when I was in 7th or 8th grade and it seemed to take forever! I did hand quilt it, but I just did a very simple block that wasn't very elaborate. I would love to know if this fabric was taken from old garments or flour sacks.

This is just a glimpse of a small apron that I got. It is really wrinkled and it needs to be washed. There are a couple of small rips, but I still think it is so sweet. I think I might hang it up somewhere in my kitchen.

I also got some fun old books; a Christmas book with songs and poems, "Self Instructor to Elocution" and "The Popular Ettequite Book." They will look great on the bookshelves in the living room.

We had an yummy meal of chili and homemade bread after we were done working. Carol and John got a bread machine for Christmas and they made an awesome, HUGE loaf of wheat bread. They had the machine do all of the mixing and rising and then they baked it in the oven. They said that their secret ingredient is oatmeal. I guess it makes it really moist??? It has really gotten me in the mood to make some homemade bread! I think I might ask my mom if I can borrow her bread machine to experiment. If anyone knows of any terrific recipes, please let me know!

Yesterday we went to church and after that Esther came over for lunch. Jeremy made us pancakes and bacon! Later we went to Sara and Eric's house for the SuperBowl. I brought homemade salsa and guacamole with chips and Sara had made tons of chicken wings with all different flavors of sauce. None of us were too into the game, but it gave us a good excuse to hang out.

As I read over this post it looks like all we did this weekend! I guess it was a good weekend. :)

I hope everyone has a good Monday!