Christmas 2015

I'm a little out of order here.  Carly came the day after Christmas so I'm playing a little catch-up here.  A couple of days before Christmas we participated in the first ever HIEMSTRA FAMILY EDALEEN JAMMIE EXTRAVAGANZA!  The rules were quite simple.
1. You must wear your jammies.
2. You must listen to Christmas music in the car.
3. You must stop at Edaleen for ice cream.
4. You must go into Edaleen in your jammies.
5. You must drive past the houses with musical Christmas lights.
6. You must have fun.
It was a success.  Everyone participated and (at least appeared) to have fun.  Even the manly men in our family.

 Musical light house #1.  It was really neat!

Here in Lynden, people even decorate their vehicles.

Holly put a festive bow on Lucy.  She did not appreciate it.

A friend from church is doing a chainsaw carving for us on one of the trees we had taken down. 

 I won't tell you what it's going to be but I'll give you a hint.  It's something we take pride of here in Washington.  And no, it's not a giant marijuana joint.

We opened our presents on Christmas Eve night.  Guess who she got this from?

 We all got Dordt stuff from our college girl.

Christmas morning we went to church and then spent the day with John's family.  It was a small crowd this year (I think there were 17 of us) but we had a great time eating, playing games and eating more.
The girls kicked butt at Family Feud.

They also dominated at the make-a-reindeer game although Derek looked really cute in his antlers.

 

 You are never too old to cuddle with your mom.

Another not-White Christmas.  They are my favorite.  I never dream of a White Christmas.  I dream of Christmas's spent on sandy beaches with the sun beating down on me.  Someday.  By the way, did you know that the last time we had a full moon on Christmas was 1977?

One set of antlers made it home from the party and they've been worn a lot.

I love her look of concentration as she's painting her Barbie's hair.  Only Becky would dare to give her a Barbie whose hair can be colored.

She also got these from Becky.  They are pretty much the cutest things ever.  I wonder if they come in my size?

I did the turkey this year so the girl's got to break the wishbone.

Someone has been staying up way too late.

Another very merry Christmas.  Hope yours was too!

Meet Carly

Sam got a puppy for Christmas.  We've been looking for one quite awhile now and nothing came up.  Finally I told Sam he needed to start praying for a dog.  It worked.
John and I went and picked her out about three weeks ago.  It was really hard to keep it a surprise.  I think I told everybody but Sam.  We took the kids for "a ride" Saturday morning and went and got her.  Sam was very surprised.  I think it took him awhile to catch on to that she was ours.

That's Carly's mama in the background.   She is a Golden Retriever.  The dad is 1/2 Lab and 1/2 German Shepherd.

 She's quickly becoming part of the family.

I've never considered myself a dog person but this little gal is pretty easy to love.

This is not Carly.  This is Lucy.  I think she's feeling a little replaced.



Here's Carly meeting the goats.

So far, so good.  I feel like a new mom.  She cried a lot the first night but the past two nights she's "slept through the night" and I was so proud.  We are working on potty training and coming when you are called. 

Sam says she's the best Christmas present ever.

5 is nice

So all my chicks are back in the nest.  I am a happy mom.  Holly's flights were great and despite an unexpected snowstorm here, she was home a little before midnight on Thursday.  We've been having a wonderful time doing pretty much nothing.  Just being together again is nice. 
Here's a little recap of the past few days.
Last Thursday Sam celebrated his half birthday at school.  We had planned to serve hot cocoa and Oreos but we hadn't planned on the snow.  It turned out to the perfect birthday treat!  Since it was John's day off, he came with me.  The kids were out for recess when we got there so we got the water heating up and then went outside to say hi to Sam.  On the way out John said he was going to throw a snowball at him and I told him it wasn't allowed.  He did it anyway.  Sam's buddies figured if Mr. Hiemstra could throw a snowball and get away with it, then they could too. 

Pretty soon half the middle school was over there throwing snowballs.  I just walked away. 
My hubby the troublemaker. 

Bad picture but this is Sam's class toasting him with hot chocolate.  It was really cute!

That evening we had the orchestra concert.  Sam did great!  He is becoming quite the cello player!

 

 Here he is with all his orchestra buddies (minus one).

Friday morning was Katie's school Christmas program.  There are over 400 kiddos in the elementary school so it's pretty tough to get a picture.  Every time I tried, she was looking somewhere else.

 She did manage to spot her Dad when he walked in.  Here she is waving at him.

Look who came to the program with us!

John took us to the bakery afterwards and then Holly and I went back to school to pick up the other kids.  We made it to a little bit of Katie's class party.

Saturday we went to Sam's last indoor soccer game.  It was a SUPER game.  The boys played so well together.  Sam was goalie the second half and let NO goals in.  They ended up winning 5 to 3!  Afterwards Holly and I spent the evening in Bellingham.  We went to a swanky restaurant downtown and then to Mallards for ice cream.  It was one of those ice cream places that has really weird flavors.  I wanted Holly to try "beets" or "cayenne pepper" but she is just not that adventurous.  I had Belgium dark chocolate.  It was super yummy.

After that we went to the Mount Baker Theater to see Dancing for Joy's Christmas recital.  They basically act out the Christmas story through dance.  Holly had gone last year and really enjoyed it so we went together.  It was amazing.  I would highly suggest, I'm definitely taking John next year.

Sunday night was Katie's Christmas program at church.  She was the cutest little lamb that ever was.  I forgot my camera but I'm pretty sure John took some pictures.  Afterwards, the kids got to open their stockings.

Today our tree guy was back digging up stumps.  We had a little issue.  This picture is of the electrician.  It's not a good thing when your electricity goes out when they are digging stumps out.  I think we got it mostly taken care of.

 Those are some big roots! 

Our back yard looks pretty rough right now.  I'm pretty sure John knows what he's doing but right now I'm just not seeing his vision.

Today was the first official day of Christmas vacation.  I'm ready for Sam and Katie to go back to school.  I'm just kidding.  Sort of.  We did a little crafting...

 and a little reading...

in between all the fighting.  I'd tell them Santa Claus doesn't bring presents to naughty kids but I don't think that's going to work.