Van Wyk Christmas 2011

It was still Christmas for us on Tuesday night the 27th. We gathered in Pella for an evening with my mom's family. This would be the Van Wyk gathering on my mom's side, not to be confused with the Van Wyk gathering on my dad's side.

Another wonderful evening of food (this family knows how to throw a potluck!), fellowship with cousins I only see once or twice a year (Facebook doesn't count) and the kids had a great time playing with second cousins their own age.

Eliza and Kate playing with Eliza's pop beads.

Emmet and I played ping pong.

Ephraim playing Mexican Dominoes with Uncle Marv, Uncle Bob and Grandpa. Ephraim says he won one game.

Evan and Emmet playing fooseball.

Michaela, Eden, Reed & Eliza playing football.

Oh, it was a wonderful time and wish that we could have stayed longer, but alas, it was way past bedtime for the kiddos.--we were still the last ones to leave! And the party was concluded with a bit of a chicken bag exchange--Peggy gave me a couple of cute chicken feed sacks to make into bags for her. Who knew they had the cutest chicken feed bags in Minnesota?

Van Zante Christmas 2011

Christmas continued right into the 26th for us with the extended Van Zante gathering at Michelle's house. We had a wonderful meal, nice fellowship and an afternoon of card playing.



Playing Spit, of course. Left to right clockwise from the top: Michelle, Chris, Cara, Renee, Haley, Jenny, Brian & Paul. Kristin was also playing with us for a while.
The kids had a good time playing in the basement and outdoors considering the warmish December weather.

Presents from Mommy & Daddy

We opened presents with our kids on Christmas Day afternoon. We enjoyed a lovely Christmas morning church service--on Christmas Eve the sermon was about Jesus being the light of the world and on Christmas Day we were encouraged to be the light to the world. Great message!

For gift giving, we keep it simple. Three gifts each. That's it. One item is usually clothes, one item is usually a toy and the last item is something educational (usually a book/game--but this year I did puppets).

Ephraim picked which gifts the kids should open first (since I'm a little OCD that way--if the girls are getting the same thing, then I want them to open it together).

They would open their small package first. What's inside? Glove puppets that they helped me pick out a long time ago in one of our homeschool catalogs. What's a glove puppet? Not to be confused with a hand puppet. Glove puppets use each finger--like a glove--to operate the puppet. Ephraim got a horse & t-rex. Emmet got a fawn and pterodactyl. Eliza got a ladybug and duck. Eden got an owl and giraffe. The kids love them!

Showing off their puppets.

Next, it was time for their toy.

Emmet had requested a new remote control toy since his other one is broke. So, I got him one from Discovery Channel. It's a four wheeler Orca remote control and he is thrilled!

Eden's toy is a hair accessory set for her dolls. It comes with rollers, a cart, a cape, pretend shampoos & creams.

And Eliza's toy is a large pony!

And Ephraim is excited about his 4D Shark skeleton/puzzle from Discovery Channel, too. He's been eyeing this in the catalog for a year or more, but I was waiting for him to get a bit older--and for his siblings to get a bit older, too. Now Ephraim can tell you all about the insides of a shark.

And then it was time for their clothing item.

The girls got a comfy/cute outfit from Gymboree that I bought on clearance a long time ago.

Emmet got a green John Deere hooded sweatshirt. The boys loved the hooded sweatshirts I got them last year that were Case IH, so this year I went with John Deere.

And Ephraim's is gray.

It was at this point that Eden launched a full range tantrum about wanting more presents to open. She was hysterical for quite a while. Sorry, honey. Three presents is more than enough. If we bought more, they wouldn't appreciate all the gifts. Three gifts was good enough for Jesus, it's sufficient for my kids, too.

Seth and I did exchange a few gifts too. Seth now has a magazine subscription to Answers in Genesis (Ken Ham's creationist publication) and some DVDs of Dirty Jobs. We don't have cable, so it is nice to buy the Discovery Channel DVDs and enjoy them at home, whenever we want, as many times as we want. Seth got me a new pair of outdoor work boots and some pajamas.

We finished out the afternoon playing cards and watching movies with my parents and Paul.

Truly, what a Merry Christmas it was!

Christmas Family Pictures

Christmas morning: our church had one church service instead of the usual two, which meant we had a few extra minutes in the morning. We were going to make the children wait to open their presents until after lunch. Cruel? I don't think so. It teaches them patience and what's a few more hours anyway. They only had three presents to open.

They do love each other and it is great to see their relationship as siblings evolve. Also, this is a good look of the girls in the dresses that I made for them.

Wow, love these kids!

And a few individual poses--hard to come by in our house sometimes!

Eden with her new purse (on clearance from Children's Place over a year ago).

Emmet showing off his new tooth opening!

Eliza with her cute grin.

Ephraim with his dot to dot book that he has been working on continuously.

Ephraim took these pictures of Seth and I.

For lunch we enjoyed the company of my parents and Seth's brother Paul. We grilled steaks, had cheesy potatoes, beans, applesauce, jello and rolls. It was perfect! And then the kids were ready to open their presents. We do three gifts per child. That seems to work well and it keeps our holiday simple and focused. We usually do a clothing item, a toy and something educational.

With their gifts.

My parents and my kids.

Seth and I with the kids.

We are a so blessed by God with all that we've been given.

Christmas Stockings 2011

With a varying Christmas schedule each year, we do our Christmas stockings at a different time each year. This year, we did them after lunch on the 24th. We had the whole morning and afternoon at home. In the evening we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve candlelight service.

The kids in front of their stockings. They could see a few of the items sticking out so they were anxious to open them.

Pulling out their first items. Ephraim was thrilled with his Extreme Dot to Dot book. Each picture has 500 to 1000 dots! He loves these!

The girls got two books, a few bracelets, a purse and two hair ties. The boys got a pair of pliers, a small Lego boat, a paddle ball and an educational card game on Space & Ocean Life.

All the kids got a DVD (Gigi, Strawberry Shortcake & Answers in Genesis Creatures), CD (Veggie Tales & Adventures in Odyssey), a toothbrush and a toy animal--horses & cattle.

Emmet took this picture of Seth and I waiting to open our stockings.

I think she loves her horse.

We had an enjoyable afternoon with their new items. The DVDs on nature from Answers in Genesis were great! So educational for kids and parents--and they all point to a Creator, not evolution or "billions of years ago."

The kids were also able to get outside to feed the cattle and enjoy the unseasonably warmish weather.

All I want for Christmas is to LOSE my front tooth . . .

We left for church and were just about one block away. Wait, I should back up and say that Emmet's prayer for the last few days has been "and please help my tooth come out on Christmas." He had a loose front tooth. So now we're close to church and Emmet says "Oh my, I think just lost my tooth."

"What?" I say.

Yes, it's true. He lost his tooth and wasn't sure where it was at. I give him a Kleenex for the blood and ask if he had been wiggling it. No, he had tried another method. He and Eliza were playing with a tape measure. Eliza was in the back with the tape measure and gave Emmet the end to let go and snap it back at her. And then Emmet got the bright idea to put the end in his mouth, open his mouth and let it snap out. Great. That did the trick. We have found his tooth and now he'll get to pick a special meal. (We don't do Santa or the Tooth Fairy).

Then it was time for our candlelight services. It kept our focus on the birth of Jesus--the whole reason we celebrate Christmas. And we sang all the favorite Christmas songs. Christmas isn't about the presents, the lights, the food, the tree. All the kids did great job holding their candle--nobody dripped wax and we didn't get any pigtails caught on fire.

After the service, it was time to go home and go to bed--a hard task for any child on Christmas Eve.

All through the house and no one was sleeping -- not even in the middle of the night. We had three kids up in the middle of the night, all for different reasons (scared, thirsty, potty break).

We are now ready for Christmas morning! May you all have time to stop and focus on why we celebrate this time of the year. Jesus came to earth, as a part of God's Master Plan to bring us a Savior.

Van Zante Christmas 2011

Our first Christmas party would be Saturday, the 17th at Seth's parents' house.

I was in charge of desserts! Here we are, that morning, frosting a chocolate tree cake. I had baked the cake on Thursday and then we frosted it Saturday morning. I had hoped to frost it on Friday, but I was out of shortening. Somehow, I had gotten all the groceries for pumpkin cheesecake, party mix, caramel corn, homemade 3 Musketeers, apple pie and the cake, but didn't realize I was out of shortening. That's something that you just always seem to have.

Ephraim did the green frosting. Originally, this was a picture of Ephraim, but notice Eliza in the corner of the picture eating the chocolate frosting that we used for the tree stump!

Emmet wanted to do the yellow star!

Eden did the red berries/ornaments.

Our dessert table! Bet you wish you were here.

Mark, John & Ephraim in the back row.

Emmet, Eden & Eliza in the front.

And a goofy shot!

A photo with Grandpa & Grandma.

All of us: Tom & Michelle, Paul, the grandkids, Grandpa & Grandma, Seth & I.

Just Seth, Michelle & Paul with Mom & Dad.

And one just for fun :)

And let the presents begin!

A dinosaur card game for Emmet.

The girls both got Strawberry Shortcake DVDs.

A cute shirt and vest from Grandma!

A COOL Lego set for Ephraim. Notice the Bingo cards at the bottom of the pictures. We started out playing Bingo and whoever got Bingo, would get to open a present. It really only lasted a short time and the kids were getting antsy to open gifts!

And a cute shirt and vest for Eden from Grandma.

A NEAT Lego book for both boys. I highly recommend it for your boys. It has ideas in there of what to build with Legos that you already have.

It is hard to see in this picture, but Paul got Grandpa a big fish net. That's the long pole in the middle. And Emmet is the big catch!

A pretty stamp set for both girls!

Seth's presents: DeWalt batteries, a warm blanket and hitchpins.

The Playmobile Underwater set for Emmet.

O-la-la! A pretty costume for Eden's doll.

And a blue one for Eliza's doll! Thank you Aunt Michelle!
Everyone had a few presents to open under the tree, but Grandma had also hidden two per grandchild around the house. They had to solve riddles to find their presents. Presents were hidden under the bed, in the piano bench, in the dryer, in the freezer, in the closet, etc. That was a neat idea and the kids loved hunting for their gifts. It also provided us with some good laughs, mostly inside jokes that I won't publish and embarrass us.

Eliza got a few things in one box: a Fancy Nancy book, Dora crayons, gloves and a set of magnetic dolls with magnetic clothes.

And the same for Eden--only she got a Fancy Nancy card game, too.

A dot-to-dot book for Emmet and an Animal Planet activity book.

Extreme Dot-to-Dots for Ephraim and an Animal Planet activity book.

Ephraim reading one of the riddles.

The girls each got a set of Pop-Beads. They can make and remake necklaces, rings and bracelets.

Oh wow! The Harbor Lego set for the boys to share!

And the Lighthouse Lego set for Ephraim.

Yes, a new Adventures in Odyssey series to listen to in the van! We love these audio stories from Focus on the Family.

In this picture, it did not capture the noise level, screaming, sheer excitement in the kids! Paul's gift to us went like this. We had a series of clues and related items to open.

All leading up to one last big gift. "For your present this year, please have no fear. To find out what you are going to get, you are going to have to read a bit. Open your gifts starting with one, don't worry this will be fun."

Gift #1 "You will need some items for the car because for your present you will be going far" and we got a travel game.

Gift # 2 "You will be in the sun while having fun" and we got sunscreen. At about this point in time, we had the kids convinced that we were going to Hawaii. In reality, Seth and I didn't have any clue as to where we were going.

Gift # 3 "Once you get back you will want to keep track of the fun you had in the sun" and we got a photo frame.

Gift # 4 "Do you know where you are going? It's not fun not knowing? Use and map and you'll be there in a snap!" This gift was a map of Iowa . . . with arrows showing the route to Omaha.

Gift #5 "Now you know where you are going but what are you going to do? Get excited and start packing for you are going to the ZOO!"

THE KIDS WERE ECSTATIC! They were jumping and hollering! Thank you Paul for the tickets to the zoo.

Grandma Donna opening a personalized photo puzzle that we got her. I got her a 750+ piece puzzle of a picture of the grandkids from this summer.

And for Grandpa: a fish camera. He can drop a camera into the pond and then see on the monitor what's in the water. Now we'll know for sure why the fish aren't biting--maybe there aren't any fish!

And with the weather being what it was--we went outside to try out the camera. Oh, wait. There was a bit of ice on the pond--but nothing two men in Carhartts with oars couldn't fix.

Anxious to see fish on our new reality tv.

Breaking the ice to see what we can see. The camera is very clear underwater considering the murky pond water. But, perhaps the fish were sleeping . . . or maybe all the commotion of the ice breaking scared them away!

Overall, it was a great day spent with family. We enjoyed a lot of food, fellowship, laughs, presents and Spit (the card game). Spit did get a bit wild there for a bit when cards started ripping . . . and a few players were playing other people's cards for them. All in good fun, of course!