Christmas Eve

Adam spend most of the morning snow blowing and shoveling. He decided to 'work from home' today. After some help by Gerrit, he went to Julie's so Adam could work and I could do last minute things before the festivities began. We ended up meeting friends for breakfast at Bridgett's, getting new cell phones, and Adam went skiing. (So much for getting any 'work done' today!) I put together the few things we needed to bring to our party and got in a quick little nap.

We were almost late for church and sat in the front row! Surprisingly, Gerrit did very well. It was a nice service and we sang a lot of the good 'ol Christmas hymns. After church we headed to Dahlen's for a gathering of friends. I realized I didn't take many pictures to capture the evening, but basically it was a few of the Team Beat families eating - what we do best (besides the guys biking!)

Top left: Logan home from college, Nathan holding Anders, and Dave - in front of the great spread of food we grazed on all evening. A few gifts were exchanged between the kids. Gerrit got 2 Lightening McQueen's (from the movie Cars) and was in heaven! He also got his first baby from Langley's (his godparents). He knew how to hold it (middle, bottom), feed it (top right) and Pam helped him change his clothes (bottom left). It was very sweet to see how much he knew about holding and feeding a baby. He preferred to feed it the juice instead of the milk! The bottom right is Gerrit drinking from a wine glass (full of sparkling juice!). I thought it was very risky to give him a real glass, but he used 2 hands and did well.

The Dahlen boys got Rock Band so the evening ended with listening to bad singing, poor guitar playing, and off-beat drumming. It was a late night but a lot of fun.

If we couldn't be with our 'real' family, this was the next best thing!

SNOW update: Most of the day the temps were around freezing so we didn't get near the snow they predicted. Not going to be fun to deal with the ice when it does get cold enough!

PS - Adam and I tried Leftse for the 1st time tonight. (A Minn./Scandinavian thing for you Michiganders who don't know what it is). We had it the "german way" (with sugar) and the "norwegian way" (with butter). It wasn't bad; nothing we'd go and snack on, but if it were served, we'd eat it!

It's Almost Here...

Gerrit made this Santa countdown in daycare on Dec. 1. He has faithfully added a cotton ball to Santa's beard each day. Between Santa's beard and 'opening a door' to the Advent calendar, he was pretty busy each day. Rarely did he forget to do either one!

On one of the recent Sat. am donut runs, Gerrit lucked out and got a cookie as well. He finished his donut and wanted his cookie. Why wait? He was going to eat it at some point, so we got it over with...

Above left: how to eat a cookie

Above right: what the cookie looks like when you are all done

The face of a cookie, or should I say, frosting eater...

(He had a shower following this episode)

Shovel, Shovel, Shovel

The title pretty much sums up the next few days around here. We got about 3" the other morning. The community snowblower was slightly out of commission so Adam used the smaller blower (how nice to be able to choose which one to use?). Gerrit was very upset he missed the opportunity to help - he was too busy watching a kid show and eating oatmeal. I promised him he could shovel when he came home from Julie's. Little did he know, there would be a lot of opportunities for him to shovel this weekend. There is probably 6" of fresh snow on the ground with another 4 coming today and another 5-9 tonight. The only problem with Gerrit shoveling is that he takes the snow from the banks and puts it on the driveway or sidewalk - a bit backwards!

Adam bought a bigger sled yesterday so they will be able to go sledding in the next few days too. I think I'll lay low and try and keep this babe inside as long as possible! We don't want to have to push the Subi's limit getting to the cities in this storm! Ideally, I would like to wait till next Thurs as my Dr. will be on call for a few days over the New Year weekend. (Adam would really like next Thurs for the tax break.) I had a dr. apt yesterday and continue to progress - a bit faster than I'd like due to this storm. Luckily we don't have a lot going on so I can relax.

Stay tuned to hear about our Christmas festivities...

Need for Concern?

Gerrit can name mascots and spot them a mile away. He often finds them well before Adam and I can find them! He knows the Vikings are football, Gophers, Michigan State is "go state", etc...

Today we were reading a book on colors and I asked him which lollipop was the red one - he pointed to all the other colors and finally ended with the red one because that was the last one. He may know his sports but we need to work on his colors!

[As much as Adam is hoping for an athletic scholarship and saving money on college, I think we may need to use that money for a tutor so Gerrit will make it to college! :) ]

Reversing Roles

While watching MSU basketball today, Gerrit loves to play on his own hoop. I think he looks at what the guys are doing on TV and then tries to do it himself (he tries to hang on the rim, but gets in trouble when caught - Fisher Price just isn't as strong as a breakaway hoop!). He offered me a chance to shoot today as well which I thought was kind of him. I took a few shots from a seated position on the couch and missed them all. Soon Gerrit took it upon himself to show ME how to make a basket (granted, he was 2 feet from the hoop!). How thoughtful of him to teach his mommy how to shoot a basketball.

Moments before I received my coaching lesson I had to take his band aid off his thumb. It was getting in the way of his shooting!

The Rock

This am while watching Sports Center (after eating his oatmeal), Gerrit said to Adam:

"Throw me the ROCK, dad!"

Watch out - if Gerrit throws his butt into your legs and elbows you - that is because Adam was working on 'boxing out' last night!

A Special Visitor

Z-town was lucky enough to have a special 'sighting' of Santa tonight. We were lucky enough to remember he was going to stop by the library after dinner so we hustled over there to get a quick glimpse of the man.

Before we left, I changed Gerrit's shirt so it would make for a better photo when he went to say hi to Santa. Adam didn't understand why because he knew Gerrit would not go near the guy!

And Adam was right! Maybe next year?