Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

John had to work on Christmas Eve so me and the kiddos just hung around the house and I repeatedly answered the question, "When does Dad get home so we can open presents?"  Aunt Kerri dropped him off about 3:00 and stayed for a little while so the kids could open their presents from her.  

We had hamburgers on the grill, baked beans, and chips for supper...very Christmassy huh?

Then it was FINALLY time to open presents!



 

 

Yep, I actually surprised John this year.  I got ticket for the two of us to go to warm and sunny Arizona in February.  I think he liked it.

 

John got one of those impossible to solve puzzles from my folks.  He figured it out in like 45 seconds.

On Christmas Day, we gathered with the whole West Coast Hiemstra clan.  As always, it was a fun, loud, thoroughly entertaining time with lots of eating, laughing, and game playing going on.

 

 

More Christmas

On the third day of Christmas, we had a candlelight service at church.  It's my most favorite church service of the year.  Sam and Katie had their Sunday School Christmas program.



 I LoVe this pic.  She thinks her big brother is wonderful (most of the time).

 They both did a great job!

 Apparently she didn't like this song as much.

 Sam said his part so well.

We were very happy that we made it through the candle lighting without Katie's hair catching on fire.

It's tradition that if you do a good job at the Christmas program, you get to open one present afterwards.  My parents did this for me and my sister so I guess that means bribing your kids is genetic.

 

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...almost caught up!

Christmas Ketchup

I'm a little behind again.  This time it's not really my fault.  I've been feeling a little under the weather lately.  Just a nasty cold but you know how it goes when you're the mom...you just got to keep being the mom and their isn't a lot of time to just lay around and recover.  Anyhoo, I'm going to play a little Christmas ketchup today.

This is our twelve days of Christmas calendar.  As you may or may not know, the twelve days of Christmas is the time between Christmas Day and Epiphany.  We started a little early because it seems every year we miss a day or two and then the kids start to tease me that we aren't going to get done until April. 



On the first day of Christmas, we had a Christmas get-a-way.  We went out to eat in Bellingham and then stayed overnight at a hotel.  The kids really enjoyed playing in the pool but I think the biggest highlight was staying up until midnight watching cable t.v.  





On our way home the next day, we stopped at Bellwood Acres for a treat.  The apple spice mini donuts are really, really, really good.  Poor John was so busy cutting up the caramel apple for us that he didn't even get one!  

The second day of Christmas was make-your-own sundaes and a family game of Aggravation.  Unfortunately for her, Katie was a little crabby so she went to bed before the festivities began. 

 I think Sam may have just skipped the ice cream all together and just ate candy.

More Christmassy stuff tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a blessed day celebrating the birth of our Savior!

I love these guys

I went to check on Katie the other night and this is what I found.  Legs tucked in the pillow and head on the blankets.  Silly kid.

Can you spot my boy?

Katie and Holly were coloring together.  Katie got bored.  Apparently Holly did not.

Christmas Programs

Sam and Katie both had their Christmas programs yesterday.  I love LC's elementary school Christmas program...the white capes, the red crepe paper bows, the 4th grader's recorders, the Principal's bad jokes, the music teacher's ability to get hundreds of kids to rise as if they were one unit, the very dressed up moms with their very expensive cameras, the camping overnight to get a good seat (just kidding, sort of).  I love it all. 

This is what I call Sam's "I just want to get this program over with so I can get to my class party" face.



 

 

All of the third graders getting lined up.  We had a nice view of Sam this year since he was on the top and on an end.  





All of the kiddos - kindergarten through fourth grade.  Next year we'll have quite the conundrum as Katie and Sam will be on opposite sides.  One of the negatives of spacing your kids out I guess.

My Sammy singing his little heart out.

John and I found ourselves with an hour to spare before we had to be at Katie's preschool program so we went to one of my favorite places in the world...Lynden's Dutch Bakery.  We both had our "usuals" - a tea and almond tart for John and a coffee and raspberry white chocolate scone for me! 

John had never been to a preschool program and since this is our last year having a preschooler, he thought he better go.  Katie was very excited to see him there!

 



Teacher Leslie does such a good job with her little ones and they did a wonderful job of singing to us.

Katie and her class posing for the moms and dads.

We LoVe Teacher Leslie!

A fun surprise

On Monday night I went over to Auntie Grace's to help her with Christmas cards.  While I was there, Holly's school choir came over to sing carols to her.  The high school choir does carol-o-grams this time of year as a fundraiser and Gary and Sally had sent one to Auntie Grace for her birthday (which was earlier this month) and Christmas.  I think she was a little overwhelmed when thirty-some high schoolers walked into her living room but the kids sounded AMAZING and I think she liked it a lot.

In typical Auntie Grace fashion, she felt so bad after they had left that she hadn't offered them come cookies or candies.  She is probably the sweetest lady I know! 



THANK YOU LC Concert Choir!

TOLO 2012

TOLO which is the girls-ask-the-guys dance around here (back in my day we called it Sadie Hawkins) was last Saturday.  Holly and two of her friends decided to ask three guys that are good friends in hopes that it would be a fun, no pressure, non-awkward night.  Here's Holly, Jenah and Kendra.  Aren't they beautiful?



It turned out two of the three boys had an indoor soccer game that night and since the girls really didn't want to go to the dance anyway, they skipped it and instead had a fancy dinner at Kendra's house, went to the guy's game (in their fancy dresses) and then came back to our house for a movie.

 Jenah's little sisters were the servers.  They did an amazing job!

Holly posted this picture on her Facebook thingy and she was not impressed that all of the comments were about me.  Thanks guys!

The girls and their dates.  Very nice boys.  They all brought the girl's flowers and chocolate letters. Holly said picture taking was the most awkward part of the night. They were all very good sports...especially since five mothers were watching and giving advice the entire time!

I have no idea what is happening in this picture.



Yes, we made them pose in numerous places.  I am thinking the moms were having more fun than they were.

Holly and her date Cody.  Funny story about Cody.  Holly had gotten a pair of heels to go with her dress and when she tried them on I was concerned that she was going to be taller than Cody.  She said, "Mom, when is the last time you saw Cody?" I had to admit that it was probably when he played the part of the Angel of the Lord in the sixth grade musical.  I guess he grew a little since then.

 We mostly left them alone while they ate.

The parents had their own party in the other room.  We mutually decided that they all needed to go together next year too because we all had a really good time!  I hope the kids are alright with that???