time to play ‘catch up’ – part 2

Callie was involved with our big kids church Christmas program this year. I’m not sure what happened to my pictures, but I only took a couple while she was practicing. What you would have seen was 50 kids all singing and doing the actions and one little girl in a nice polka dotted dress, standing nicely in the front row. She stood there looking around, sometimes moving her mouth to the words, but no actions were going to be done by this little girl!

Here were a few of my attempts at a nice picture of the kids in front of the tree.

My mom arrived for Christmas on the 17th of December. Her time here was . . . well, interesting to say the least.

We had family pictures taken . . . (photos below by Kristi Shanks)

Zachary was fading and when Kristi got out the candy Zachary was fairly content. Don’t plan to take it away from him though!

We were so thankful that Kristi was able to take these pictures of our family. My mom is soon heading back to Africa and it will be nice to have these pictures. Hopefully by Christmas next year we will need to have another family picture taken. Eric and Julie are adding another one to their family and we are so excited! Check out Julie’s blog about their journey.

So, the plan was for my mom to stay with Eric & Julie for a few days and then she would come stay with us for a few days before Christmas. That all changed when a winter storm blew it’s way in to the Midwest. The roads were icy and snow was beginning to blow. So, instead of having my mom go to Molly’s with the possibility of being snowed in there I went and got Molly and brought her to our house. That was Tuesday the week of Christmas.  When the wind starts to blow out by us you never know what will happen. We were prepared to lose our electricity and not get out for several days.

Tuesday the roads were icy and I slowly made my way to get Molly from her home about 25 miles away. The storm was supposed to hit on Tuesday night. We got Molly settled at our house. We took the car my mom had been driving and put it in the shop at Roger’s work. We woke up Wednesday to . . . a very disappointing snowfall/storm. I thought to myself . . . “That was it. That was horribly disappointing!”  I made my way to work, but Roger informed me that the storm was supposed to last until Sunday now. If I needed to get anything from town, make sure I get it before the end of the day. Molly was short on meds (because she was initially going to go home on Saturday morning), so we needed to head back to her house to get them. The roads were a little iffy and I really didn’t want to send my mom and have her end up in the ditch. The guys at work told me that I should go instead of sending her alone, so I took my mom and Molly (so they could get out of the house for a little while) and off we headed to Molly’s house.  The storm blew in on Wednesday night and didn’t let up until Saturday.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM

THE VAN BEEK’S

On Christmas morning the four of us were able to enjoy some time by ourselves to open presents.

Opening stockings

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I made books on Shutterfly for the kids and Roger. I think they were a hit.

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This year Callie has been all about orange and blue, so a new Warriors shirt was a hit!

Zachary liked his new train table.

Eric and Julie made the trip from Sioux Falls on Wednesday night and stayed with Julie’s brother in a neighboring town about 12 miles away. On Christmas day they borrowed Julie’s parents Tahoe and made the 12 mile trip over to our house. Here is Roger blowing a path for them to get in the driveway. It’s not worth blowing much more than what is needed because of all the wind it will fill the hole in with in no time at all!

Callie found a little spot to hole up in on the porch while daddy was blowing a path on the driveway. We started the day with a wonderful brunch of scrambled eggs with mushrooms and onions, french toast with strawberries and whip cream, and fresh pineapple to dip in sour cream and brown sugar. Oh was it yummy!

Callie loved the art supplies that she got from Alexa and Emma!

The iPod Shuffle from aunt Molly was a huge hit!

After opening up presents, Eric and I decided to head outside with some of the kids. It was still snowing and blowing, but we needed to get outside for a little while.

This hill on the side of the house made a good sliding spot for the kids. (Now the hill is about 2 feet higher!)

Emma and Callie

Eric and I thought it would be fun to take the four wheeler out and have a little fun with it. As we left the driveway, Roger made sure we knew where the shovel was in case we should need it for any reason. Hmmm, guess the drift was a little bigger than expected!

Of course, Julie was standing at the front door taking pictures with her telephoto lens.

  The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, playing with new toys, and setting up the girls iPods.

The boys played with Zachary’s new blocks.

The girls had their iPods on all afternoon! (Don’t ask why Callie is in her swimsuit. I have no idea!)

We ended the evening with some great pasta that Eric & Julie made. It was awesome and I still need to get the recipe!

Give us another year and I’m pretty sure that we’ll have our hands full with these two!

By Sunday, my mom and Molly were able to head back to Sioux Falls and Sheldon (respectively). I think that we were all ready for a little space of our own again.

I’m sure that my mom’s time here wasn’t as she was planning or expecting, but her final day (Monday) was probably the icing on the cake for her.  While visiting some townhomes with a real estate agent she slipped and fell on a driveway and broke her wrist. We are excited that she is planning to buy a place in Sioux Falls, so that she can see the grandkids (and us) a little more often, but we are even more excited that she will only be living in Sioux Falls during the summer months and in Africa the rest of the year. Okay, we aren’t really excited about that. Just excited that she won’t have to brave the Midwest winters with the rest of us!

We hope your wrist is better soon, mom!