Finishing up 2019

Just finished making my dip for the New Year's Eve party tonight.  Only seven more hours until 2020! Where did the year go?!
Here's to finishing up 2019!
When the kids are in 6th grade the parents mom is required gets the privilege of making a poster for their student.  All the posters are hung up in the classroom for the month of December.  I made my last poster!  Yeah!

We were treated to this beautiful sunrise one day on the way to school.

The kids before church.

Santa was taking pictures with pets at Tractor Supply so we had to take our favorite dog.

Sam got asked to TOLO (the dance where girls ask guys) with a cute sign.

John started a new yard project.  

A new bed along our driveway.  He used all plants we already had in the yard.

We've been getting lots of rain so our creek is really full.

We opened presents on Christmas Eve.

 

John's mom got him a new spatula and wrote a note that now he needs to get rid of his old one but I'm pretty sure that will never happen.

Christmas day was spent with John's family.  We had a lovely day!

I cleaned out a cupboard in the bathroom.  I'm pretty sure I don't need to buy floss for awhile.

I miss Holly.
The end.

Stuff that happened in December

December started out with this sweet lady's 90th birthday!

A party was in order.

I made a bulletin board in the library.

Katie had her Christmas band concert.  That's her way off to the right in the back.  She does percussion and I must say although she did really well on the snare drum, she completely rocked the sleigh bells.

For Sam's 16th birthday (back in June) we gifted him with a Packers Game.  Him and John spent five days in Wisconsin doing all things Packer.  They took a tour of Lambeau Field, went to the Packer Hall of Fame and the highlight was watching the Packers beat the Bears in some suite seats.

Both my guys picked a game in December so they could experience the Packers in their element but neither one complained about the heated suite they were in!

 Apparently the windows opened so you could still experience the roar of the crowd.

 Both my Packer fans had an amazing time!

The guys spent a couple extra days in Wisconsin and this sweet gal drove to Grandma Hiemstra's house to see them.  I'm not sure if I was more jealous of that or of the dessert cart that came to the suite at half time....

Back at home, Katie and I did not sit around and mope.  I told Katie we could have a girl's day out and do whatever she wanted.  

We started out at Fairway Café or as Katie calls it, "the place where they have all the jams."  She tried them all out.  

We then got our nails done.

She was on Pinterest the night before and picked out just what she wanted.  I think they turned out pretty nice.

We then went to the mall.

Every time we go to the mall she asks to go on this bungee thing.  This time I said yes.

We ate at Red Robin (her favorite).

And ended the night back home with popcorn and a movie.

She declared it one of her best days ever.
I thought so too.

Yeah! A blog post!

Yes, I am mucho far behind.  No, I am not quitting my blog.  I am not very good at taking pictures or journaling unless I have the motivation to put it on the blog.  Because I'm quite sure that future generations of Hiemstras are going to want to know that their great-great-great-great grandfather John was a medical doctor but his true love was cutting down trees or that his lovely wife had a skeleton she kept out year round and dressed up for special occasions or that their three children were somehow turning out okay despite their parents.
Also I am not quitting my blog because my mom wouldn't like it.
Hence, I will catch up 2019 before 2020.
Here goes.
Katie learned to make bar graphs in school.  The bottom one is the difference in ages of the Hiemstra family and the top one is her ranking of how much she likes Sam's friends.  I covered up the names on that one so no one's feelings would be hurt. :)

Gramma came to visit the week before Thanksgiving.  She came for Katie's 6th grade musical but mostly I think she just likes us a lot.

We did some Christmassy stuff while she was here like shopping and baking.  Here we are waiting to get into True Value so we could get our free socks!

I had to work a couple days in the library so mom brought me mochas!

 Ryan has obviously been drinking stuff stronger than mochas.

Holly surprised everyone (except for me) by flying home for Katie's musical too!  She came in late Thursday night so she woke up Sam and Katie on Friday morning.  So fun!

One VERY HAPPY little sister!

When Grandma came in from the cottage, she got a big surprise too! 

The musical was so good.  Katie did an amazing job.  Grandma and I got to see it three times!

It was Gramma's birthday while she was here so we celebrated by going to see the Mister Roger's movie and then out for Mexican.

We got Gramma a BIG margarita.

Feliz Cumpleaños!

After Gramma left, we still had a couple days of Holly.   We really miss that girl.
Her and Katie decorated the tree.

Her and Sam pestered the cat.

She knew she'd have to work on Thanksgiving so she requested a turkey dinner.

My friend Julie came over to take a Christmas card photo.

Thanksgiving was spent at Gary and Sally's house this year.  I love this crazy, loud family.

Being a librarian really has it's perks.  I have always wondered why butter comes in blocks rather than sticks here in Washington.  I finally found the answer when I was perusing a book before giving a book talk.

And this is one of those memories I just wanted to capture because I know it isn't going to last much longer.  Katie spends a lot of time on the floor by the tree playing with the ornaments.  I remember doing the same thing when I was little.  Sometimes I get a little envious when I see trees that are beautifully decorated with matching ornaments or color themed, then I remember this and think that pretty trees can wait.

I think that pretty much sums up November at the Hiemstras.  I have three more days to sum up December.  Stay tuned.