Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

As I write this, I hear the boys talking to Grandpa and Grandma N. Now that they are here, our snowman Christmas countdown is counting the days until Christmas rather than Gpa & Gma's arrival. We also look forward to spending time with Jill and her family over Christmas and New Years. What a joy it is to have family around us at the holidays! To the rest of our family members celebrating this season, we will miss you!

I know the traditional Christmas letter includes looking back over the year, but since you are reading this post, you have a pretty good idea of what we have been up to in 2010. In case you don't want to go back over all the entries, here's a quick recap of this year's highlights:

January: basketball coaching for Paul and many games attended by the boys and me; worship symposium in Grand Rapids (yep, I stepped onto Calvin's campus which I admit was beautiful); visit from Gma B. who watched the boys while I was gone

February: more basketball for all of us; a visit from D's sister and nephew

March: visit to the emergency room for Isaac to get a staple in his head; visit from Gpa and Vicki

April: nothing too exciting to report besides regular life

May: birthdays for both boys; playing violin in the high school musical for D

June: basketball camp for P; quick midwest trip for D to deliver the boys for their extended stay with the grandparents; Hawaii for D & P with friends

July: quick midwest trip for P to pick up the boys; Camp Dunamis and Hollywood Bowl for D; camping with friends; and a road trip to the midwest to vacation

August: vacation with family; B & W's wedding; study skills class for D; preparing for and starting school for P

September: the start of preschool for Isaac

October: youth workers' convention for D; visit from Beav & Denise; Ephesians life group (through December)

November: Thanksgiving with D's cousin and family; baking holiday goodies with the boys

December: a weekend with the girls; learning about Jesus' birth and what that means for our lives today through Bible readings, picture books, and reviewing the story of the first Christmas with our Advent calendar each day with the boys; visit from Gpa & Gma N.; Christmas with Jill and all

Once again it is a joy to see the evidence of God's working in our lives this past year. We are blessed to have wonderful families whom we love, and we have been blessed richly with good friends in our lives. We pray that God will be foremost in our hearts this Christmas season and that we will continue to grow in him on a daily basis in 2011.

Girls--3, Boys--3

Maddie and Mackenzie spent a weekend with us while Mark and Jill got a couple days away as our thanks for the great pix Mark took of the boys around their birthdays. (Thanks, Mark, for doing such a great job--I smile every time I pass their smiling mugs hanging on our wall.) It was chaotic at times, but it was so fun to have all of them under one roof and an even number of boys and girls as well!

If you look at the date on this, you will see that I did start writing this while they were still here, but I must have been needed since I never got back to this post until more than a week later.

A few things learned:
1. Four kids really are not that much louder than two. (Notice only two kids looking quite crazy in the picture below...this was the end of the week, and they were showing how much fun they had.)

2. I do a better job of making my boys' hair look nice than two little girls with fine longer hair!!! (As you can see from the pix, that last one deserved three exclamation points since the bow from my wrapping box improved the look of Mac's hair!)

3. I'm glad the boys are old enough to feed themselves and use the toilet. I had to remind myself to check the li'l one's diaper (no worries, Mark and Jill--I don't think she got a diaper rash on my watch).

4. Have all the food on plates and drinks in cups with plenty of napkins handy before even letting the kids know that food is coming.

5. Even boys like playing with a princess or Barbie-type doll--though she turned into quite the superhero in the boys' hands.

Like father, like son

When I picked up Isaac from preschool this past week, his teacher greeted me with, "So, the other teachers and I were talking about Isaac today."

As a former teacher and now parent, that is not usually music to one's ears so I asked, "Is that good or bad?" And this is how our conversation continued from there:

Mrs. Michelle: "Oh, no, it's good. We were just saying that Isaac is quite the ladies' man." (Again not necessarily something a mother wants to hear though a dad might be proud of that one. ;-)

Me: "Oh?!?"

Mrs. Michelle: "Yeah, at recess all the girls yell for him to come and play with them. He just kinda looks at them with that 'silly girls' look on his face, ignores them and goes back to playing with the other boys."

We continued chatting for a bit, and I was reasurred that he is playing okay with others and is being nice. (I was concerned when she mentioned that he is pretty "popular" since that word conjures up images of kids with power who don't necessarily treat others very well.) Paul and I had a good laugh over this teacher chat and were thankful it was nothing too serious.

Isaac with Mrs. Michelle

We also got his first "report card" which gives a summary of Pre-K things that he can or cannot do. He was able to complete all types of things (i.e. recognizing letters, shapes, colors, etc.) except for one--he has not mastered clapping and marching in rhythm. We really laughed when we saw that since he is so surrounded by music and should have no issues with that. Oh, the things that will keep us on our toes.

Oh, the title to this post refers to Mrs. Michelle's description of Isaac at the beginning...not the marching and clapping in rhythm. (Paul has mastered that!)