The first Saturday in December was spent in Sioux Center. Mason went with Nathan to run errands and the highlight of their afternoon was stopping at the mall for free train rides! I took Dorian and Levi to see the movie, Minions, and we topped it off with popcorn to eat!
After the construction at SCCS there is now a great sledding hill that Nathan took the boys to one Sunday afternoon.
Sunday night is pizza night. How cute to see all 3 boys lined up watching football. :)
Levi celebrated Clifford Day at school and his half birthday on the same day! That's a lot of excitement!
Yeah. We made cut out cookies with the boys one night and frosted them on a couple of other nights. What a fun tradition. The boys were rightly proud of their cookie creations!
I love cooking when I can make 10 meals at once. :)
Levi was Star of the Week at school and we had fun going to hear him present the poster he made to his class! He chose the pictures, the layout and the captions and did a great job answering all of the questions from his classmates!
On Christmas Eve we spent the night at the Village in Sheldon for the extended Bolkema family Christmas party. My grandma ordered pizza for everyone for supper. We played volleyball, opened presents and played Bingo. What a fun night!
Silly boys.
Mason like his "spyer" that Breanna made.
Christmas morning!
The boys came upstairs filled with excitement! Dorian was dressed for church, Levi in his clothes from the night before, and Mason in his pjs. :)
In their stocking they each opened a spinning toothbrush (which Levi has been wanting for a long time) and a kit to make a hand print ornament.
Dressed and ready to head off to church. What handsome boys!!! Love them so much!
After serving in the nursery and the boys going to church, we spent the rest of the day at Grandpa and Grandma Bolkema's house. We ate a delicious lunch and then opened presents.
Mason likes his new sleeping bag and his cuddly dog Chase from Paw Patrol (his favorite TV show right now).
Levi's favorite show is also Paw Patrol and he loves cuddling in blankets so he was thrilled with his new blanket!
Oh my! Levi got a new bike!
Dorian loves fishing and got a new fishing pole which he is excited to use (instead of the kids size poles that we have)! And he's thrilled with having a backpack that will actually fit his folder, snowpants and boots that he takes to school!
How blessed we are!
Grandpa and Grandma's cat made an appearance in the house which Mason was excited about!
Levi had to try out his new bike! Since we didn't have a white Christmas that worked out quite well.
On Saturday, the 26th, we had our own family Christmas party at home. When I got up, the boys had already taken out all of the presents from underneath the tree and sorted them by who they were to. :)
My MOST favorite part of the day was seeing the boys open up the gifts that they had made/wrapped for each other. Dorian put a lot of thought and love into the things that he gave to his brothers. He made a bookmark for Levi that says LOVE, a Ninja that he wanted, and a couple of other things from his room that he knew Levi would love.
Mason spent a long time coloring cards for his big brothers and putting stickers on them. Then we added a pack of baseball cards for them.
Levi gave Dorian a really sweet note and his favorite football card. He gave Mason a cars toothbrush that he had just gotten from the dentist.
Dorian gave Mason the snowman that he made in Kindergarten. We took it out with the Christmas decorations and Mason couldn't leave it alone. Dorian also wrapped up a shell, a bracelet and a couple of other things from his room that he thought Mason would love.
The boys opened 5 new family games to share.
They also opened up 2 different footballs, a basketball, ping pong balls, and Wiffle balls to share. They each got a new book to read and an activity book to work on. Dorian and Levi got new waterproof winter gloves. And we also gave them coupons for some dates with us. Mason has a play date with dad and Dorian and Levi each got a date to the Dordt game room and a meal out to a restaurant!
Nathan got a pair of sneakers that he needed and I got a new faux fur blanket which looks great in our living room. One of my favorite gifts though, was these Christmas towels that Dorian secretly took off the Bingo prize table at the Bolkema party so that he could wrap them up and give them to me. How sweet!
Thanks to Aunt Suzanne for thinking of our boys and sending them this new Cornhole game! They love it and we've had quite a few competitive games already! Aunt Cara sent an activity/coloring book for each of the boys from Maddie!
Mason likes playing with his new play-dough toy!
Organizing football cards!
Learning how to play Risk!
Our day was topped off with Christmas cookies and hot chocolate for dessert!
Sunday was Dad's birthday so we went to their house for lunch. After our busy and fun weekend, the house was a mess. I was so thrilled on Monday after the house was picked up and the dishes were all done to my liking that I took the following picture. :) I think the thing that I was most thankful for each day over the holidays, was that our whole family was healthy!!! This was far from the case last year so it was even more of a blessing this year that we could enjoy all of the parties together as a family!
On Wednesday of Christmas vacation, we woke up to having water in our basement. :( Nathan was able to take most of the day off and my mom was able to come and take the boys to her house overnight. Unfortunately it took a lot of time to get the correct equipment rented and get everything dried out and back where it belonged. The boys felt bad because the water was only draining on the floor after they knocked out a tube from the water filtration system while playing hide and seek. Accidents happen, but hopefully this won't happen again.
Some other December highlights: making peanut butter blossom cookies and thimble cookies, spending an evening at Grandma Bolkema's apartment, shopping with friends, Christmas party at the Ross's house, date night to Blue Mountain for supper, listening to the boys playing Christmas songs on the piano, the church and school Christmas programs, Levi's Lego club at the library, Dorian finishing with swimming lessons at school (which he very much disliked), and a couple of play dates for Levi and lots of time playing with Jayden at our house!
On New Year's Eve, we decided at the last minute to have some friends over for supper and to play games at our house. A perfect ending to another very blessed year!
