Tres Christmas'

Ornaments and Evergreens with packages as yet unseen all wrapped in paper colored bright, reflecting candles in the night with carolers and mistletoe and stockings all hung in a row on fireplaces glowing red with children safely sent to bed! - TSO

This year we had Christmas with the Verwys family, Christmas in Chicago and Christmas at home - all in 2 days! What a fantastic whirlwind of excitement! Enjoy the photos -

Grandpa opening his Chubs

Jim and Vicki - Christmas cheer

Grandma and her new sweater

We drove to Chicago Christmas afternoon and picked Marvin and Lindsay up at the airport, then headed to Michigan Ave to the Conrad Hilton Hotel - absolutely stunning!

The Grand Foyer

A life size gingerbread house, real gingerbread and candy - it smelled so good!

Taxi Cab!

In front of the hotel

Garretts! A Chicago must-have!

We drove home in the afternoon of the 26th and had Christmas at home in the evening.

The tree and all our gifts

Marv and Linds

Mom and the most perfect find ever! A matching bowl for her antique china!

Dad checking out the new garment bag

Merry Christmas from Puff! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season, I was reminded again and again how absolutely blessed I am with family, friends and a Savior who came as an infant for me.

Tomorrow, or really today, we're off to Washington DC to meet Ellen and round out the season with more Christmas!

It has just come to my attention

I never gave a shout out to my new niece on my blog! The other day I posted that I'm going to DC to 'SEE ELLEN' - Ellen is my daring new niece and we're going to visit her this week! :) Check out her mother's blog for pictures!

Coming soon: Christmas weekend photos!

Only one creature stirring

I'm the only one awake right now, even the cat is sleeping on the bed! but I thought I'd take a minute to write about what's going on for Christmas this year.

Already Been:

Department Meeting - very fun, great food!

Annual Meeting - see above post, super awesome!

Angel Tree - 45 gifts, what a blessing to be a part of

Prism Concert - beautiful, cant wait for next year!

Wrapping Gifts - I'm getting better every year :)

Lamb dinner - saw a Christmas Carole <-- CREEPY!

Yet to Come:

Visit Aunt Lois and Uncle Howard - they're absolutely fantastic, cant wait!

Christmas Eve Candlelight service - my favorite service of the year

Christmas at Grams - a tradition, I'm gonna eat me some rolls! haha

SEE MARV AND LINDS - It's like my two best friends coming home, YAY!

Grand Lux Cafe - Yum.

Christmas at home - one of my favorite memories of the last few years

Koning Family Christmas - great friends and a mouse sleepover!

Dinner and a movie with Dana - A cousin pick-me-up! :)

Trip to DC on 31st - SEE ELLEN!

That is a stacked lineup and I cant wait! Bring on the fun!

And all this celebration to remember what our blessed Savior did for us those many years ago.

Hallelujah - What a Savior!

A Great Company

Lately things have been great on the work front. The Annual Meeting was this past weekend - Carnival theme! So fun! There was a complete indoor carnival set up in the DeVos Place. I rode everything except Tilt-a-Whirl and the upside down roller coaster; I even did bumper cars for the first time! I didnt get and Elephant Ear or corn dog, but they sure smelled great! :) Here's some photos, enjoy -

The Ferris Wheel!

Took this from the top of the Ferris Wheel - I rode the Cliff Hanger later, it was SO great!

Some of the rides - so great!

AMY! Glad we ran into her at the end of the night!

Mr Dizzy - Jeff

Amy, Jeff and I practically closed this ride down for the night!

Like I said work has been great this week too. I work for a fantastic company and with fantastic people and I'm so proud to say that we were able to place 45 gifts under the Angel Tree this year because of the generosity of my department!

Karla and Amy matching Angel Tree tags and gifts

Karla was so excited to buy electronic Hampsters and virtual pets for 12 year old girls!

Tonight I'm having a sleepover with Marta and Eliza! They're eating popcorn and playing with Hoppy VanderHare :)

Happy Wednesday to all!

92 years and counting...

December 5 was grandpa's 92nd birthday, we had a little family party for him Sunday night here's a few photos, enjoy -

Smile! Almost cake time! :)

6 mismatched candles, so happy

Almost got them all in one shot - impressive really

Gifts! Mostly candies and mixed nuts, yum! He wanted to hurry through the gifts so he could get to his cake and ice cream - some things never change :)

Reading his cards

Nobody opens a gift quite like Grandpa Marv.


I asked him when he got his knife, he couldnt remember, but he said a long time ago, I think when he was a kid. More guys should carry pocket knives.

We took Puff over to visit tonight, they love her. They baby talk to her and let her jump on the kitchen table and laugh when she hops on the counters, 'Oh look Marv, she's on the workboard!' I think she might go on a little vacation there over New Years.

Check out Kari's blog for a weekend recap!

Happy Monday All!

1st Snow!

It's snowing and sticking! the sticking part makes it count as real snow. No pictures, sorry. My life has been a little boring lately, winning a Poinsettia at the Christmas party I planned was probably the highlight of the week...what a life. Although tonight was Ladies Missionary fellowship, it's so inspiring! They talk about living in Africa, raising kids, not having electricity...holy smokes! Talk about the bold and the beautiful!

Headed to Indy tomorrow for bridesmaid dress shopping, should be a good time, hopefully pictures to follow!

Have a great weekend, Happy December!

Friend Making Monday

I havent done Friend Makin' Monday in quite sometime, but I dont have much else to post right now, and I feel like I need to get something out here! Everyone loves something new to read! Hint hint - keep updating! anywhoo this week is all about Thanksgiving, which I think is probably my favorite holiday, I mean what are we if not thankful for all the blessings poured out on us? So, here goes -

1. Turkey or Ham - Turkey, turkey, turkey! yum yum yum!

2. Favorite side dish - squash, or perhaps corn casserole (I love food, it's hard to pick a favorite friend!) Ooo maybe onion dill bread! num num num!

3. Favorite dessert - Pumpkin pie, which often times ends up as lunch the next day! hehe :)

4. Black Friday: Are you going or not? - Not really, maybe in the afternoon on the way home from work.

5. If so, what's on the top of your list? - Nothing really, so no reason to get up early!

6. Going out of town or staying close to home? Home :)

7. Hosting or helping? Helping

8. Name one family tradition at Thanksgiving - listening to Arlo Guthrie at noon (Alice's Restaurant)

9. What do you do after dinner? pass out! chat, clean up, walk

10. What are you most thankful for this year? Friends and family, the grace of God to make decisions, my Bible study group (great women of faith), the list goes on and on!

Thanks for coming by today; a big congratulations to everyone who joined our church last night, what a great night for the family of God!

Fall Sky

We've been enjoying some lovely autumn weather over the last few weeks, and the sky has been simply brilliant! Enjoy the photos, no commentary necessary :)

Congratulations to Becca and Jamie on the birth of their beautiful baby Evelyn Lucille!

Clean Sweep

So my mom has this lady come to help her around the house from time to time. Today they tackled the garage - I didnt know this lady did miracles too! Holy Sweet Rolls Batman! If any of you were familiar with our garage, this is an amazing transformation!

2 cars : 1 garage - whoa!

Room to get out of the car

Junk hung up, and a bike not wedged

Room to walk in front of the freezer and car

Everything in it's place

What a great day! :)

Coming soon: I've been taking some photos of the autumn sky - this time of year is just great in Michigan!

Why does the clock say 1:53?

The title of this post pretty much sums up my weekend in Atlanta - staying up late to chat with friends and sleeping in - most days anyway! Thursday night Alisa, Laura and I flew into Atlanta and were met by Olivia - it was a true tennis reunion! We stayed up late, chatted, laughed, ate, chatted, pedicured, got turned around, shopped, laughed, ate, 'Kept secrets', watched movies and TLC (true CU tennis right there), hiked, got turned around, laughed, shopped, and ate! Enjoy the photo journey -

Thursday night - first things first, we stumbled upon the original Chick-fil-A! I knew my sister-in-law would be SO proud! It's really more like a diner, you're seated, someone takes your order and you can order other things that are not on the fast food menu. It was very fun! Alisa was pumped!

YAY! The Dwarf House has a little dwarf door for kids - cute!

Here we are in front of the sign to prove it! The first one ever!!

This is Olivia's Aunt Sue - she hosted us, took us to breakfast, and treated us to...

PEDICURES!!!!!!

We sat for hours in those chairs getting our toes and backs worked on, what a great way to spend a Friday morning! - Thanks Aunt Sue! :)

Ta Daaaa! The finished product! Looking like the Rockettes right here!

Next we headed to Ikea - Alisa and I hadnt ever been there. Very cool, so many great ideas! Alisa's checking out the oven which she declared could, 'Hold like 10 casseroles!' :)

Enjoying the Ikea deliciousness all delivered by GFS! - A little piece of home even here :)

After we had made plans to go to ATL this weekend Sarah informed us that while she couldnt hang out with us the whole weekend, she was going to be at a Secret Keepers event in the area! That worked out so well! Here we are -

We got to have a little dinner with Sarah before the event - love the outfit rockstar!

Here's Sar and her friends from the Secret Keepers tour - such a great ministry! Many blessings to it and all those involved with it!

Oliva, Me, Laura and Alisa waiting for the show to start!

ROCKSTAR!

Sarah signing autographs for her fans - so cute!

The next 'morning' we decided to hike Stone Mountain - it was very cool! Olivia promised us that it was not too far and a 'pretty flat climb' - yeah right girlfriend! :)

At the top with Atlanta behind us - such a great view, and worth the climb

That night we shopped a little and then went to dinner at a little pizza place we spotted - a great find! The 'za was soooo good, I think Olivia will be taking people back there for sure! Just dont ask them to take your photo - but if you do tell them you're not from the city!!

Fellini's - YUM!

And once again eating! This was on the way to the airport, we stopped at an Atlanta staple - The Varsity. YUMO! If it hasnt been on Diners Drive Ins and Dives it should be!

Holy Sweet Rolls Batman - I'm so glad we met down there! I vote more friends and more adventures next year!

Happy Monday everyone!