A New Year .... 2009

I decided to try the old Dutch tradition of ringing in the New Year with some yummy OLIEBOLEN (I don't know if that's how to spell it). With a little of my Mom's help with the dough - her original recipe and the tricks on how to make it taste just so...... You need the dough and HOT oil - not always the safest on the stove, but a must to ensure 'cooked to taste'!!

In the oil they go..... okay so mine are not as perfect in shape as Mom's....
But they taste just as yummy!

Oddly, my kids love these too!! What a great way to say good-by to 2008 and HELLO to 2009.

Christmas Liturgy

Today was an extremely busy day for me. I just was go go go all day and into the evening. I had the priviledge of accompanying Reuben's class on a visit to Christian Horizons (which is a group home for the Mentally Challenged - is that politically correct??). The grade 1 class just went to sing songs and read the story of the candy cane. It was so cute the kids LOVED it and so did the residents, Sara one of the residents was so happy to see us, she had to be reminded sooooo many times - no more hugs Sara, no more hugs.
Unfortunately I had 4 different places to be in the evening and couldn't do it all so I missed Mason's school Christmas program. Darren said it was great, I did get to see a video that he made of the evening although I could barely hear the song I watched Mason do his thing. So cute, he's so little to me - I forget that he's already in school and doing all these 'big' kid things. If I could figure out how I'd attach the clip of his class singing, but for now I'll just note how cute it was.
This week is busy at school for the boys, the last week before Christmas - parties, singing, programs, just so much fun. Reuben is so excited for 17 sleeps before he goes back to school in 2009. It looks like the snow is arriving just in time for Christmas this year..... oh how I love this time of year. My shopping is done, the house is decorated, the cards are mailed, now to wrap and to prepare the eats..... Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Visit to the Sytsma's in GR

This weekend we toured over to Grand Rapids, the purpose: a wonderful weekend to catch up with our cousins & Uncle Jerry & Aunt Lynn. WE HAD A BLAST!

All eyes were on Uncle Jerry's magic tricks, just how did he do it??
Wow....Uncle Jerry you are amazing!!
Even Julianna was watching eagerly!!! We went to Ada Christian School and played at the park for a couple hours, running around like crazy - the kids loved it..... even the big kids.

SWINGGGG......

ARRRRRROUND..........

Run like crazy Jules :)

Pretty Erin

Taking a rest from chasing the kids.

okay quick Mom, Uncle Jerry's coming!

Smile

This sun is G-R-E-A-T!!

Where's the boots?

Mason received Cosmic Catch for his upcoming Birthday present. The game is tons of fun, the kids played it over and over.........

But it's really tough when the ball says..... "YOU'RE OUT!"

We had such a wonderful weekend, Lynn & I shopped til we dropped.... well actually we got up at 4:40am and were at ToysRus by 5am and we were not the first by far. We scored some really good deals and were home by 10am. I totally finished my Christmas shopping, wooo hooo!!!! The guys and the kids went to see a movie together in the afternoon and the rest of the weekend was spent enjoying eachother's company!! The kids had so much fun, play, play, play and we (the adults) had fun too, we even got in a game of Blokus, guess who won???? of course it was Lynn, who else? We got home from church and it began snowing, YUCK! So we thought we should head out, good thing we did - cause it took over 8 hours, but the kids did GREAT so we were pretty thankful - here's what we looked all the way home..

It was kinda pretty though!!