Christmas 2009 Highlights

The last few days are kind of a blur. But, it was a fun blur. :) Bryan and I are blessed with families that celebrate Christmas very well, and I'm excited for Elise to grow up in that Christmas spirit every year. Here are a few (okay, many) highlights of our Christmastime 2009:

Christmas Eve morning at my parents' house

My parents and their grand kids: Ella, Noah, Elise, and Felmata. This was Felmata's first Christmas in the Hoekstra family!

I received beautiful jewelry made by my brother-in-law, Paul

Bryan made my sister, Abby, beaded serving utensils

I made a platter for my mom's famous "big plate" Sunday lunch



My mom made Bryan this amazing quilt.


Elise, a little worn out by all the excitement, enjoyed her Christmas eve dinner at
Burger King on our way to Ft Wayne.



Elise with her grandma on Christmas Day

This is Marylyn Cecilia, Elise's cabbage patch kid who was adopted into our family thanks to grandma and grandpa Linn. Elise loves her already!

As tradition, we donned our Santa hats to go caroling in Bryan's mom and dad's neighborhood Christmas night. I look forward to this all year!

The weekend ended with a colts game for Bryan and his dad. Unfortunately, they witnessed the colt's first loss of the season, but had a great time at the Lucas Oil Stadium.

Not a Santa Fan

I've never been a Santa fan. I'm not anti-Santa, I just don't care for all the fuss about him. Bryan, on the other hand, grew up with Santa as a pretty big part of Christmas. Now that we have Elise, we were at a crossroads as to what to do about Santa this Christmas. We decided to take Elise to see him. It was a free picture, and she's so little, I reasoned that it wouldn't hurt anything to have a quick visit. So, on Friday we found out just how Elise feels about Santa, and I'm pretty sure that she's in my boat on this one...

it was too quiet.....

I was being a bad mom on Friday afternoon. After a week of long days for Bryan at work, Elise was probably just as sick of me as I was of her. (and I mean "sick of" in only the most loving way) I just needed a small break from reading books, singing the alphabet of nations song, playing peek-a-boo, talking to, for, and about farmer Jed..... Yes, a bad mom for a few minutes. Anyway, as I was deep into facebook I noticed that the house was way too quiet. I also noticed that Elise was no longer playing in the living room, which means she's definitely in the kitchen. I got up from the computer and turned the corner to find her in this mess:

snow excitement

West Michigan is finally covered in snow. It was so nice to have the sunny days and warmer weather through November, but now that it's December, it's time for the snow to fly. And fly it did! After only a few hours of snowfall, the houses, trees, and roads were layered with the beautiful white cover. There's just something so magical about the first snowfall. When Elise woke up from her nap yesterday she delighted by all the snow outside. I also decorated the house with all of our christmas stuff, so the timing was perfect. As far as she knows, the decorations just came right along with the snow. :)

Elise's new winter coat. So far, she doesn't mind it at all.

Checking out the snow from the front window.

Snowsuit time! I bundled her all up over top of her jammies this morning to take a walk with Indy in all the freshly fallen snow.