Christmas

Merry Christmas!
We attended a wonderful church service this morning (we sang about 10 Christmas songs). Then we opened stocking gifts before heading over to Grandma's house.

Anna was really into opening gifts this year. She especially loved rrrrripping the paper off the gifts! We opened gifts after lunch so the evening didn't get too late.
Matt was in charge of a large part of the evening meal. First he had to make some bread. Since bread baking is one of Anna's favorite daddy-daughter activities, she was delighted to lend him a hand. She got her own dough and after eating a good portion of it, made her own little loaf.
Matt's next activity was to make the traditional cheese fondue. It was, of course, delicious! We had a really nice time and enjoyed our Christmas Day!

Christmas Eve

We spent a wonderful day together today! Matt and I (with Anna's help when she was in the kitchen) finished up some last minute baking during the day and did a little prep for our evening meal. I was quite amused that Anna didn't really know what day it was today and what it means. We didn't really make a big deal about opening presents until after supper and then she was raring to go!

She was extremely excited to get a big-girl dolly. Fortunately for us that meant a doll with hair and not something like an American Girl doll. I'm sure that day will come. She named her doll Amy. (Mommy suggested Amy after Anna wanted to name her Anna or Lily--her other baby's name.)

Daddy and Mommy got to open a few presents, too. Anna was a very good helper.

Anna was very excited about all her presents! It was so fun watching her be enthusiastic about all of them. She'll be very busy after church tomorrow playing with her new stuff.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Wonder Red and Penguins

WGVU, our local PBS station, had a little fund-raiser at On the Border today. Ten percent of our food purchases went to the station. They also featured characters from "Super Why". Anna was thrilled (and a little scared) to meet Alpha Pig and Wonder Red. She liked them, but didn't want to get too close.
We headed downtown to the Children's Museum after lunch while Matt went back to his studies. They had their penguin display up for the season. Anna had a blast there (as she always does).

Gumdrop Tree

Our Christmas activity for today was putting together a gumdrop tree. After doing some tasting we got to work. Anna did a great job putting toothpicks on the gumdrops and then sticking them on the tree...for awhile. Then I helped her put the gumdrops on the tree after she had toothpicked them. She was quite proud of her work. Now we have a yummy Christmas centerpiece on our table!


Notice anything new in this picture? Yes, we are now in the cheesy-grin stage. She's also taken to twirling her hair if it's not pulled back! We still think she's extremely cute, though!!

Christmas Program

Anna was really excited Sunday morning to get all dressed up in her Christmas outfit and head off to church. (She actually loves going to church every Sunday and is never ready to leave!) She was in her first Christmas program! It was held after the service and the littlest ones had to sit through the whole program before their big part. We practiced the two verses of "Jesus Love Me" that Anna and her classmates from the 3- and 4-year old Children's Worship class had to sing. Anna was also excited that she got to stand next to her friend Colin during the program.
We were very proud of her! I'll admit that even though I wasn't surprised, I was a little disappointed that she didn't sing at all. After the program, she told one of our friends that she, "was singing with my mouth closed"! What a hoot!! (She was later informed that we call that humming!) She had such a good time and it was really a very nice program. All the kids did a great job. (Hopefully I can get the video uploaded later, it's having trouble today.)

A Cousins Christmas

On Saturday, my sisters and their families came over for a little Christmas party. After dinner, we made the kids sit on the couch together for the cousins picture before they opened presents. I told them this was for Grandma and they cooperated. Better be sure to get this picture on Grandma's digital photo frame. What a good-looking bunch!


The kids exchanged names and were excited to give as well as receive gifts. They decided to open presents beginning with the youngest then moving up to the oldest. Justin was not in favor of this arrangement, but was quickly out-voted by the others. Anna was thrilled to get a princess sleeping bag!

We had a really fun time together.

'09 Blizzard

Anna and I have been taking advantage of our blizzard status the last couple of days. We stocked up on supplies and have been busy. We made two kinds of cookies and some banana muffins. Anna's cookie making skills have improved over the last year. It's nice to see her be so proud of her work, too.

Here's one of her rainbow cookies.

I was pretty impressed when she came up with this one all by herself.
Today we did sugar cookies. I frosted while she decorated.

This is Anna's "Papi" cookie. Don't you love the beard?

Turns out that Anna would rather eat the cookies unfrosted and undecorated. Crazy kid!

Our blizzard conditions at noon yesterday.
Yesterday at 3 pm looked like this.
Here's our house at around 2 pm today. It's been cold and windy all day!

We decided we needed a break from cookie baking this afternoon. We bundled up and headed outside for a little while. We had a lot of fun running around in the snow all around the yard. Maybe Anna will go out again when Matt comes home and needs to shovel the driveway. I'll be inside--cleaning the kitchen.

FFM Christmas Party

Last night we went over to the Elgersma's house for our annual (and last--it's hard to believe this is our third and final year. Three of the guys are set to graduate in May) FFM Christmas party. Matt's Formation for Ministry group from school enjoyed a Christmas party together with families. There was good food, lots of laughs, too much talk about school, and lots of fun. It was such a great evening.

The guys all together.

Sharing the love.
Sharing the real love.The seminary kids in the group--minus Katie.


Anna had so much fun and was totally worn out by the end of the evening. She couldn't find a place to sit down, so she just laid on the floor with her blanket. After a few minutes I looked over and found her like this! That was some party!

Our First Snowfall

We have been having fantastically beautiful fall weather this year. It's been mild and SUNNY! We've been doing a lot of things outside and loving it! Friday was our first snowfall of the season. We got a good amount of snow (I hear between 6-10 inches) and many of our area schools had a snow day. It was really beautiful and since it wasn't too windy or cold, we spent some time playing in the snow and shoveling the driveway. Anna was so excited to make snow angels, eat snow, and just play in it. Time to get the sled out!

Decorating for Christmas

My sister, Sue, and her family came over on Friday after Thanksgiving. We did a little shopping and then worked on some fleece tie blankets for all the girls. We were very happy that while the first one we did took 2 hours, by the time we were to the last blanket it only took us 30 minutes. There's a good possibility that when we get together again we'll be making 2 more blankets--one for her and one for me. They are so soft and warm--and the girls don't want to share theirs with their moms.
On Saturday, we put up our Christmas tree. It's always so fun to reminisce about our ornaments. Anna was so proud to hang a few that she made last year. She was also excited to have Papi lift her up so she could put the angel on the top of the tree.

Oops!

Let's try that again!


Our beautiful tree and our beautiful daughter.

Thanksgiving 09

Time for me to catch up on blog posts! We certainly have much to be thankful to God for this year. We have been very healthy this year for which we are very grateful. School and work have been very busy and not without their stresses, but have been very good for Matt this semester. We're grateful for income and Calvin Seminary. We are so thankful for our churches (here in GR and in Ripon) and our friends in both places. I also continue to be thankful that I'm able to stay home with Anna while she's young. We are having a good time together! When asked, Anna's most frequently mentioned thing she's thankful for is Colin (a friend from church--who is also thankful for her). We spent Thanksgiving with Matt's extended family. We shared a delicious meal together and after the table was cleared and dishes were done, we did a little craft. Matt's cousins wrapped apples with caramel ahead of time then put out chocolate for drizzling and toppings for decorating the apples. I thought Anna was excited about doing this, until I realized she was hungry and wanted to eat some apple! It was a lot of fun. Yes, she's wearing a nightgown. Matt's cousin's daughter, Aubrey, was so excited to have Anna over and had lots of dress-up plans for the day. At craft time, they were into pajama dress-up!