Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Since they have already celebrated it in the Netherlands and we are really close here:

We hope you had a great “Roetsj”!

More pics about our Christmas Break soon.

Mountains Of Snow

Getting Ready For Christmas

We’ve been busy with Christmas-related activities these last few days.

We saw a glimpse of Santa at the Kids with Cancer Christmas party, tried to go see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, but ended up having a dessert date with the Aaron’s and Savage’s, had a fun time unwrapping gifts and making graham crackers houses at Grandma’s, saw Santa again and talked to him at Cheri’s party, hung out with family at Aunt Denise’s house, and finally put up our Christmas tree.

Pretty busy, right!

We even have some pictures for proof:

Tessa at the Kids with Cancer-Party

Grandma’s Party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa at Cheri’s Party

 

The decorated tree

And finally…

Happiest Place On Earth

We went on a quick trip to Disneyland last weekend! Kris and Keelie came with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World

of

Color

 

 

 

 

 

Will’s favorite: Indiana Jones

Tessa’s favorite: A Bug’s Life

Sinterklaas Kapoentje

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje

Gooi wat in mijn laarsje

Dank u Sinterklaasje

 

We celebrated Sinterklaas a few days late (it’s a long way from Spain on a horse, and some of the Dutch goodies still didn’t make it in time), but we celebrated no less. Luckily both Will and Tessa have a pair of wooden shoes. We sang some songs, made sure there were carrots and water for the horse, and milk for Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet, and then it was off to bed.

And this morning they found this…

Will couldn’t wait unwrapping the gifts and Tessa only really cared for the clementines and stroopwafel letter. (Sinterklaas normally brings chocolate letters, but those are still on their way. Stroopwafel letters work just as well.)

While singing the Sinterklaas songs in Dutch, Will was wondering if there were any English songs. So we just used some Santa songs and replaced him with Sinterklaas. Obviously the Good Man didn’t mind.

 

Want to know more about “de Goed Heilig Man”?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Grandma (Kristi) wrote a blog post for her work about Sinterklaas.

You can read it here: http://lib.byu.edu/sites/worldhistory/2010/12/08/sinterklaas/

Grades

Will is not a huge fan of school.

He likes science, recess and lunch, but that is pretty much it.

He has been doing pretty well, but they are still figuring out if he needs extra help and in what form that help would come. We have another assessment coming up this week, to test his focus.

So, to be honest, when he came home with his report card on Friday and threw it at Trevor, we were a little worried.

(P is for Pass)

He was bummed he had a B in science. We were really impressed. It good to see that all the hard work he put in really paid off.

Pretty proud of our big boy!

Sneak Peak 2

Lindsay Dyches took our pictures last week.

Here is a link to some more snapshots:

http://photographybyld.blogspot.com/2010/12/finally.html

I’ll post some pics as soon as I get them!

Christmas Spirit

This video will definitely help you getting into the Christmas spirit (if you need any help, that is).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4BWhvIlFVE&feature=player_embedded#

Just so you know, Paka (Jim) was involved in this, and even did some of the camera work.

We get to go to their Christmas Program in a few weeks!

 

Some background information for my Dutch readers:

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a choir sponsored by the LDS Church. It consist of 360 member, all volunteers, and was founded in 1847.  They have won Emmys and Grammys, and are world famous.