OUR USA ADVENTURE!

On Christmas eve, we went to the Bouwmans with a few other families and had a games night. The adults played a couple of games, the boys played pool and I think the girls did a round too, as well as some other games. I don't have any photos but it was a lot of fun!

On Christmas day, we had church at 10am. Immediately following the service we had a Christmas program with songs and hymns where the kids aged 3-5 also sang a few hymns. So Taleesha went up there too and sang along with the other kids. Here's just one they sang. You can actually hear Taleesha right at the end. Very low voice and a tad behind the others. She's on the front row, black and white dress, to the right.

After that we had coffee and cake in the gym. The two little girls each got a beautiful book from Ladies Circle. A bit like Kerstfeest years ago!

Later in the day, we headed off to the Willis' for our Christmas dinner.

The kids all played games till dinner time.

And then we had dinner! It was delicious!

The little girls were very intrigued with the fish water jug on this photo.

It gurgled and splashed when pouring!

After dinner was more games and chatting and eventually it was time to go home. Thank you Willis' for having and putting up with us! Very enjoyable!

The following day (Friday) we headed off to the Abbotsford Recreation Centre and enjoyed the warm pools and hot tub. No photos but the kids loved the waves which came on twice and playing on the slides. Shantel even jumped off the diving board at least 5 times!

The next day Shantel had fever and was not her normal self.

She perked up a bit when it was fruit loop necklace and bracelet time though!

On Sunday after the pm service, we headed off to John and Veronica's for dinner. Another delicious meal and then the kids sat on 'Uncle Jan's' lap and watched a nature film on the iPad and a Veggie tale. They loved it.....and so did he!

On Monday mid afternoon, along with a few other families, we headed off to Warm Beach (1.5hrs drive) and visited the Christmas Lights Festival. Over a million lights! It was very cold but what an array of lights. There were train rides, a talking christmas tree, story telling, food stands, and pony rides. The lights were amazing! My (phone) camera just could not capture it!

Both girls got to ride a pony. Taleesha was very excited as this was her first time on a horse!

We went home with Bernice, and Jaclyn, Aliesha and Elyssa took our car and went further down to Seattle and explored there for two days! They had great weather and a wonderful time!

Wednesday night was New years eve. And of course the traditional thing to do is Olliebollen! So here they are in the making. They turned out delicious. I omitted the raisins due to common consent but did have diced apple which made them very yummy and moist! After I was done, Anthea made a batch of apple flappen. They were good too!

After dinner that night we were nice on time because we then did gift exchange. I planned to take more photos however here are just a few. Taleesha got to start.

After the gifts were all exchanged, we headed off to church for the last service of the year. And it was the last sermon by Rev Berends. He did all the month of December. After church, we headed back home as the quite a group of young people were coming over and celebrating new year's at our house.

The little girls excitedly put together the playmobil one of them received.

And loved playing with it too!

The four girls here played games and made lots of noise!

These seven young people probably also made lots of noise but I didn't hear them much because they were in the garage equipped with two heaters to keep it warm!

And so the new year entered with a bang. The guys let off a few firecrackers left over from 4th July! Welcome 2015!

Meanwhile in Australia, Steve arrived safely and is enjoying his time with his parents as well as meeting up with family members from both sides of the family. The weather is nice and warm and he is enjoying the sun and the beach and lots of cold coffee!

He arrived late Christmas afternoon so he had Christmas dinner with his parents.

Enjoying a cuppa with Mum at the Dome

Making the most of the the beach and sunny weather. Ohh look at the yellow sand!

Fish and chip dinner at the beach

And well, Dad hasn't changed much!

John and Caren at the beach

Now that pulls at the heart strings….

And an ice-cream from Baskin Robin. A bit like Edaleen but a lot more expensive!

Steve enjoying his cold coffee and sausage roll!

Steve also visited with my Oma and we also face timed! It was very special for both us to see each other face to face. For Oma, the technology is amazing. Being 94 years old, she has seen a lot of changes!

And two more photos I found.

A nice photo of the two cooks.

And mother and daughter!

This photo is for Mrs Siegers! She loves looking at our blog and is always looking for updates. So Mrs Siegers, here is our latest update and with a photo of you and Steve!

And last by not least, Shantel won a coloring in competition from one of the grocery stores! She was delighted!

Next week school starts again, as does Bible Study and catechism. Basketball games commence again too which are lots of fun to watch!

That is all from us. We wish everyone the Lord's blessings in the year 2015.

Thanks for looking!

Time flies when you're having fun! And it's been awhile since I've worked on the blog....I know, I'm lagging behind. So much has happened since the last update! School is over (well almost back on again now!), Steve went to Australia, we've had Christmas and New year's celebrations and of course, lots of other happenings in between.

With Christmas approaching, the lounge took on a festive look!

So cozy with the fire on, candles and fairy lights!

Cassie came over for a day and they did a big floor puzzle and were looking for all the objects around the edge and finding them somewhere in the puzzle. These two have so much fun together!

And finally Anthea's two friends Marlies and Natalie arrived!

And along with them came a whole lot of goodies! So exciting!

When Mum visited in July, she made myself and two little girls trace out our foot size on paper. The result were these beautiful warm slippers just in time for winter! Thanks mum, they are warm, snug and cozy!

On the last day of term, the high school students went iceskating and the elementary students went roller/inline skating. Shantel knew how to skate and had a wonderful time! She just flew around that rink!

On Saturday, Steve took some of the girls up Mt Baker. Natalie stayed behind and helped the girls cut out cookie shapes.

And here are the girls on the mountain!

Of course a snowman was a must!

So the house is filled with girls. Here they are planning or at least trying to!

So now that the cookies were baked, it was time to decorate them. The girls thought this was so much fun, especially licking the icing!

Not sure, but looks like icing got on her face too!

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Jaclyn and Aliesha had a go at decorating too!

Their results were amazing!

We have two weird cooks but they did a great job cooking up a storm, oops I mean a meal for us.

Aliesha cutting up the fixings for a salad.

Jaclyn working on chicken cordon bleu.

And Elyssa was the supervisor/quality control manager!

The table was beautifully decorated!

And we had a crowd for dinner!

And a chocolate mousse pudding for dessert to finish it off! It was delicious girls! Great job!

The meal was a sort of farewell meal because the next morning Steve left for Australia. He had an opportunity to visit his parents who are getting older and was looking forward to spending some time with them. More photos of his visit there to come. Here he is at the airport ready to go through to the departure lounge.

Another project for the holidays was make/decorate gingerbread houses. One house and the train were shop bought and the other two houses were made with graham crackers and hot glue!