the Bolkema Christmas party

It was late afternoon on Friday, the 23rd when we drove over to mom and dad's house to celebrate Christmas together.  It felt strange since we've been traveling at least 12 hours for nearly 10 years to be with family over the holidays.  It felt strange that there was no snow.  And the other thing that made this Christmas not feel quite right was that Rodney was not there to celebrate with us.  Even though we enjoyed our evening, there was a sadness that he was missing.  Kerry did organize a time of remebrance for our family and she had some gifts for us to remember him by.  I received a beautiful quilt and the boys each received a teddy bear that were made from some of Rodney's clothes.  Nathan was given one of Rodney's ties.  

For supper we had a very delicious ham with many yummy side items to go with it.  Dorian taste tested the ham for us and gave it a thumbs up.  He asked me if he could have ham for supper because he really loved it.  :)

 Levi had a long narrow gift to unwrap and I think he tore the wrapping paper into 50 different little pieces.  :)  It was fun to watch him!  It was a tent.  And then dad came out with a gift for Dorian that was shaped the exact same way.  Hmmm...  Levi's tent has farm animals on it and Dorian's tent has a train on it.  They are adorable and I'm sure that the boys will use them often!

Dorian and Levi traded names with Aniah and Eden this year.  Dorian opened Dinosaur K'Nex and Levi opened a cash register.  Heidi said that there are only about 2 toys that the boys play with when they are over at her house, and a cash register was one of those things.  Levi was excited to have his own.  Dorian was thrilled when he found out that there was a button on his dinosaur to make it roar.

Then we opened a family gift.  Our very own Wii!  I didn't think the boys would know what it was, but they did since they have played it before with the Lamfers family.  I'm looking forward to some good family competition.  :)  Thanks Dad and Mom!