Christmas

As usual, we had a wonderful Christmas. Our kids are at a wonderful age for enjoying all the magic of Christmas. They were so cute and so excited. We wrapped every possible little thing separately, so it looked like they had a lot of presents. Anna came up to wake us up and said, "Mom, there are a hundred presents down there. Come on!" There really weren't, but if she thought so, all the better. Sophie really got into the opening of gifts. She kept grabbing and opening whatever was closest--didn't matter whose it was. We had a great morning trying out all the new stuff, and then headed down to exchange gifts with the cousins and have dinner with the family at my parents. Great day!
T with the "not your average" remote control car that Santa brought Thys and Mel--can you guess who drives it the most??? It is waterproof, mudproof, and who knows what else, so it's been out for many a spin in the snow. We won't tell what "Santa" did to get this car.

Only Santa would be crazy enough to bring a girl an over-priced remote control dog. Her reasonable mother and father, on the other hand, gave her rollerblades with all the protective gear.
Soph loves her pillow pet--she mostly loves that she got the same thing that Thys and Anna got!
The aftermath.
Thys trying out the new Wii game.
Anna learning the ropes of LiteBrite in the privacy of her room where the little sis can't "help." Did you all have a LiteBrite back in the day, or was it just me? I was sooo excited when I realized they were still around!
Mel getting the new weather station all set up.
Soph with her new doll that zips, buttons, buckles, etc.

Christmas Eve

We had a fun Christmas Eve. Usually we go down to Orem to my parents, but we were the only ones who were not with the in-laws (however, we would have loved to be with Bupa and Mimi if possible). So instead, my parents came to our place. We decided to have prime rib since we had a small crowd, but the cooking time got messed up, and we waited quite a while for our meat. So, we read Christmas stories and decorated Santa's cookies. After our dinner was finally cooked, we ate and then went downtown to see the lights at Temple Square. We were worried it might be crazy, but it was really nice. It was a nice "warm" evening, as far as winter evenings go, and we parked easily right by the Trax stop at Gateway (we had to ride the train of course). As we walked down the Trax stop the trained pulled up, and we hopped on and rode to Temple Square. There were really not that many people at Temple Square, at least no more than any other night. It was perfect!Sophie and Grandmas working on a cookie. Don't think that this little girl is going to miss out on ANYTHING Thys and Anna do!


Anna decorating cookies.
Thys decorating cookies.
Cute little Sophie in her apron.
All of us at Temple Square

And More Holiday Fun

Anna is our tradition child. If we've done it once during the holidays, we have to do it every year. We varied the gingerbread house tradition by doing a train (for Mr. T). But as usual, we had a great time, and we ate more candy than we put on the train!


Anna sang with the 1st grade in the school Christmas singing program. It was cute!
And then they had a little ballet performance for Christmas. . .
Sophie. . . oh my. What a two-year-old she is becoming. Here is her latest invention of how to NOT eat in her high chair. This was all her own doing. Resourceful little pill. . . .
Becky's program was entertaining as usual. We do love Becky so much! She is so good to us and to the kids. We almost missed the whole show because something was wrong with T's eye, but Becky said the show could not go on without Thys because he was her best singer. So we snuck him in at the last minute and hoped that he didn't interact too much with the other kids. I think we were safe. No one, not even Anna or Sophie, got pinkeye or whatever it was. Thanks goodness!
MR. T the elf.
Anna the reindeer who is almost too cool for all of this (but deep down she loves it all).
Once again, Sophie wasn't really part of the official show, but she took Thys's reindeer hat since he opted for the elf hat. She was sitting with us, and when the kid started singing, up she went to stand with Anna and the other kids. She is a funny little girl.
I don't know why the kids look so somber when they are singing, but they were really happy and sang really well! It is all so cute!

Holiday Fun. . .So Far

We had a good holiday week. Last night we spent the evening with the Springer family at their family Christmas party. They are a great family and are always so welcoming to us "adopted" folk. Ray is the missionary who baptized Mel's parents, and Mel lived with the Springers when he went to high school here in Utah.
The Springers always read the Christmas story and create the nativity with the grandkids. Anna wanted to participate, so she dressed in shepherd attire. Thys wanted nothing to do with the whole thing. When Anna got up and sat down, Sophie looked around, went and picked up a shepherd cloth and brought it to me. She cracks us up. She has been so shy, but yet if there is a performance going on, she wants to be part of it. So here are our two little shepherds, and the whole Springer nativity, minus the four-year olds. (Ours was not the only one who refused to participate.)


The early part of the week was fairly warm , and Mel is working the early shift, so we decided we should take advantage of the warmer weather and visit one of the Christmas light spots. The kids wanted to go to Thanksgiving Point and ride the wagon through all the lights, so here we are, all bundled up. Sophie was hilarious. I think she was a little scared, but also fascinated. She wanted to be touching me but also see everything. She sat is the funniest neck-craning position the entire ride. (See below) She never moved. After the wagon ride we got to go see real reindeer, but I left the camera in the car. Darn.

Sinter Klaas Weekend

Our Sinter Klaas weekend has become a very exciting tradition. This year Sinter Klaas was on Sunday. On Saturday we got our tree, decorated it, and slept under the tree. On Sunday Mel cooked a "lekker" Indonesian dinner and we ate with Grandma and Grandpa (you may wonder why we are eating Indo food on a Dutch holiday--Dutchies eat Indo food like those of us in the West eat Mexican food; Indonesia was a Dutch colony), then right as we were finishing dinner, Sinter Klaas came and left a giant bag full of gifts on our porch. Oh, oh, oh! Were we excited. Sinter Klaas is so practical. He brought our Christmas PJ's, our Christmas books, and our Christmas T-shirts. He even managed to get a hold of Anna's old Christmas shirt for Sophie. What a resourceful guy. Then each child got a small toy. It was a fabulous weekend full of fun family traditions.


Picking out our "fat" Christmas tree

Waiting so anxiously to decorate the tree.
We couldn't wait, so we put the star on a few times first.

All done and ready to go to bed.
I forgot to take pictures while we were getting ready for bed and reading a Christmas story, but I had to get up after everyone was asleep and work on a lesson and do midterms, so I took a picture of the kids really asleep under the tree.
Indonesian dinner on Sinter Klaas
Emptying the bag from Sinter Klaas
New PJ's

Thanksgiving

Around here, Thanksgiving is the beginning of the holiday season. The kids get so excited, and we do too. We spent Thanksgiving with the Jorgensen's, as usual. Thanksgiving isn't really popular in Holland. Mel always makes the joke that the pilgrims were celebrating their departure from Holland (if I remember correctly, the pilgrims made a brief stop in Holland before leaving for America). The Dutch-Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving a month earlier, so we Americans have a pretty easy choice for where to spend Thanksgiving.

Anna as a pilgrim.

I got to go help with the Thanksgiving Feast in Anna's first grade class. It was so fun! I love being at school with Anna. I don't get to go very often because I am at work in the mornings, and I have a napping baby in the afternoons. I also got to help with the Halloween party, and that was a blast. I think Anna likes having me come as well, so it works for all of us!
Half way through the feast, Anna switched to the Native America hat. Have to be politically correct, right?

Here are out yearly turkey pictures. The kids have grown. If you care to see how much, flip back to November 2009 blog entries, and you can compare. I am too far behind on my blogging to spend time uploading pics that are already on here.

Big year for Sophie--sitting to standing--baby to toddler. Sad, but she is soooo cute!
Mr. T
My not-so-little-anymore little Anna.
It's always a fight over the turkey leg. T won.
Anna went with the next best thing: the wing ( it looked like a leg, so she was happy).
Soph is just happy to not be asleep. I tried to give her a nap, but Pops took mercy on her after one minute of crying and brought her out. I put her down again, and she kept hollering, "Papa, Papa." I wouldn't let him get her, so then she started hollering, "Gama, Gama." My mom doesn't have to listen to me, so Grandma rescued Sophie from the nap. My mom said she had to be pretty desperate to be hollering for Grandma, so she was going to get her.

Lots of Snow

We had a lot of snow early this year. The kids have had a blast. If you think Sophie was going to miss out on the fun outside, think again. Fortunately, we had just gotten some boots our cousin had outgrown (and who needs snowboots in Louisiana?!?!), so Sophie was equipped. The snow was really too deep for her to walk in, but she had fun being out with the other two.
Anna actually had strep this day and was home from school, but we seem to be developing a resistance to strep. We've had it 7 or 8 times in the last year. The kids hardly get sick. They just have a sore throat. And as you can see here, after a dose of antibiotics, they're good to go. Anna couldn't figure out why she couldn't go to school.


This picture is a bit blurry, but so funny with the big coats and the pose. Had to share.