We decided to leave a day earlier than planned because of the prediction of a snow storm. We made our best time ever on our trip...10 1/2 hours with only one stop!
Thursday, December 23
A low key day just settling in. Nathan drove over to Dordt to meet with the Provost. It's nearly official now! We met Lyle and Brenda and their family at the new Mexican restaurant in Sheldon for supper. Then mom and I went over to her store just to look around for a few minutes.
Friday, December 24
Heidi and Kerry and their families arrived at mom and dad's house. The boys had a blast playing with their cousins and with Belle. The Bolkema Christmas party was in the evening. As is tradition, Grandpa and Grandma bought pizza for all of us for supper. Then we played a game of volleyball, the young people verses the old people and the cutoff was 30. So I played with the old folks and we won! Then followed our famous Bingo game. Grandma Bolkema loves picking out Bingo prizes so we all go home with a gift. We also played Catch Phrase which was very funny...lots of laughter! The boys were up late, but they did very well.
Christmas Day! We ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast, the kids opened stocking presents, and the guys each opened a new Fondue pot. Mom and Kerry had made plans for us to have a Fondue dinner for something different. Then we went to church. I love the tradition that they have there of singing the Hallelujah chorus at the end of the service. After a quick lunch, everyone sat down to open gifts. We had bought a new camara for mom and dad and it was set up so they could begin taking pictures! The cousins had traded names so they opened them first. Then they opened the gifts that mom and dad had gotten them. Levi was first and the most comical! He unwrapped the paper off of a box and said with genuine excitement, "It's a box!!! I got a box!!!" He stood on the box and for a couple of minutes, we all just laughed and watched his enthusiasm. Then one of the cousins broke the news to him that there was probably something inside of the box. :) It was a sleeping bag, but once it was out of the box, Levi continued to play with his new box! The boys also got remote control cars and Dorian was super excited about these! It was so much fun to watch all of the excitement. All of the girls got American Girl dolls so there was a lot of excitment there as well.
In the afternoon, Heidi, Nathan and I went over to the hospital to visit Grandpa. When we got back there was a little more prep work to be done for our dinner and then we all sat down and enjoyed trying some new things to eat in our Fondue pots. It was fun...just wish that hot oil didn't smell so strong!
Off to church again this morning. After the offering, Dorian quite loudly asked Nathan why we didn't have any money. So loudly in fact that Kerry heard him from the pew behind us and I could see her laughing. Soon Rodney tried to pass up some money for us. :) Guess we'll have to remember our offering next time! Lyle and Barb, Nathan, Katie and Lindsey joined us for dinner. It was nice to see them all again! It was a pretty relaxing afternoon and evening.
It was Dad's birthday so he had decided to take off from work for the day and Rodney also took the day off so we could spend it together. Mom made a delicious breakfast for all of us...dad loves a big, hot breakfast. At the last minute, Dad, Rodney, Nathan and I decided to drive over to Sioux Center to look at houses! I couldn't believe how many new houses have gone up in the last 10 years. It was nice to have a better feel for where the new neighborhoods were. I was feeling nervous about all of the upcoming changes, but at the same time it's also very exciting to think about getting a new house. For supper we ate out at the Pizza Ranch! Mmmm. After that, Heidi and Kerry's families went back to their own houses. A great long weekend. And one of the biggest blessings was that we were all healthy while we were together! It's been a few years since that was the case I believe and certainly an answer to prayer!
Tuesday, December 28
Nathan had a research meeting in the morning. Dad was back at work. So mom and I were home playing with the boys. After supper, we made popcorn to eat in the van and drove over to the house that had lights set to music. I was quite impressed and so were the boys. We listened to about 4 songs and the boys never took their eyes off of the lights. Then we visited Grandpa again at the hospital.
Wednesday, December 29
We were up early and driving over to Sioux Center again. Mom and the boys went to Heidi's house to play for the morning while Nathan and I met with a realtor to look at houses. We all joined up to eat lunch at the Bakery and then mom and I took the boys back to Sheldon. After the boys were in bed, we watched the videos Nathan took of the houses that we looked in with mom and dad. And we talked more about the possibility of building. There are many possibilities!
Thursday, December 30
Back to Holland, MI after driving through fog in the whole state of Iowa and after a 40 minute delay from missing an exit. It's good to be home again. At bedtime, it was very sweet to read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See" with Levi and he said every word along with me!
I love my boys!
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