Spoelman Christmas

The whirlwind of Christmastime events started on the 20th with a service at our church - my dad came and played guitar & sang with Kyle for the service, so that was really cool.  Maguire played "drums" on the steps during the worship.  It was too funny! 

That afternoon, my mom, Ashlyn and I went to my sister-in-law Brittany's parents' house for the annual women cookie decorating and exchange party.  I love spending time with this group of women and I'm so glad my brother married into her family :)  I'll have to see if my mom took any pics of our time there.  After the cookie madness, we went back to our house and met up with the menfolk for our traditional dinner and gift extravaganza at our house.  After a yummy salmon dinner (also somewhat of a tradition) which Maguire truly wolfed down, we dove right into the gifts.  It's so fun to watch the kids get so excited about their gifts.  And I do have to say that Ashlyn is the best gift receiver I've ever met.  After each gift she would exclaim, "Thank you SO much!  It's JUST what I wanted!  I love it!"  I know, it sounds like it would start to sound disingenuous after a while, but it's really genuine and very endearing :)  And she's "teaching" Maguire to respond similarly to gifts, only he says that it's just what he "needed".  Cute kids!  Maguire's gifts had several themes:  Music (drums/guitars), John Deere and HotWheels.  Ashlyn enjoyed things from her detailed Christmas list:  binoculars (??), a password protected journal (this came from "Santa"), Barbie in the Three Musketeers DVD and doll, and things for Angel (her Bitty Baby) such as clothes, accessories, matching "Mommy/Baby" outfits, and a reservation for lunch at American Girl Place in Chicago a few days later.  Kyle and I enjoyed the generosity of my family as well with a couple small gifts, a Flip video camera (so fun--I highly recommend!) and spending money for our Chicago trip.  But so much more than the gifts, we were grateful for the time spent with my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and their new little guy Oliver.  We love them!

 

We also played up the Santa angle this year.  I have to admit, I *may* have used Santa/naughty/nice a few times with the kids to get them to behave...don't judge!  The really fun part, though, was that the kids decorated cookies for Santa and left them out with milk on Christmas Eve.  The next morning they were delighted to find the cookies and milk gone, and a note from Santa in its place.  Then they enjoyed a few gifts each from Santa--things that had been on their lists.  It was so fun to see their excitement!   

Preschool Christmas Parties

I organized Ashlyn's class Christmas party this year.  I think the kids really enjoyed it!  We had them make and decorate popsicle stick Christmas tree ornaments, decorate Christmas cookies, read a story, have a snack, and do a gift/book exchange.  It may not sound like much, but it took up the whole time and we actually ran out of time to "present" the teachers with their gifts--oops!  Then the kids went to chapel where Pastor Love (that's his real name--Mark Love.  Isn't that the coolest name for a pastor?!) showed really fun pictures of Legos depicting the Christmas story and sang some Christmas songs with the kids.  We love Pastor Love!

Remember how I was so bummed that Maguire's Christmas party was canceled because of the snow day?  Well...because school was canceled 3 times before Christmas, the school decided to have a make up day on the Friday before break--perfect!  Unfortunately, only 3 out of the 6 kids in Maguire's class were able to make it that day, but the 3 that were there had a grand old sugary time!  I made the "Pin the Nose on Rudolph" game for the kids to play and they didn't want to be blindfolded, but they were very honest about closing their eyes really tightly!  And the other funny thing was that, even with 2 chances each, none of the kids got the noses in the right place.  But they were all very symmetrical in their placement :)  Maguire just adores preschool and he & I both wish he had school more than just on Fridays! 

Dip baby, dip! Come on come on dip, baby dip!

For our Girls' Christmas dinner we went to the Melting Pot--YUM!  Who doesn't love cheese, chocolate and cherished girl time?!  Love these girls!!!

Megan and Kim

Cindy and Amy

Kristi and me

FLAMBE!

Uh, yeah...YUM!

Such fun!

Let it snow, man!

The kids sure loved playing out in the freshly fallen snow.  They were SO anxious to make a snowman.  It wasn't the greatest packing snow, but Ashlyn, Maguire, Kyle and neighbor Elizabeth weren't to be deterred.  It was a short, stumpy snowman, but they were proud!

 

 

 

 

It's about time...

So, I'm a little weird about our family traditions.  I absolutely LOVE creating and sustaining traditions with our family of four (as well as traditions with our extended families)...to the point that they end up a tad sacred to me and maybe a little annoying to Kyle ;)  When I was growing up we had an artificial Christmas tree.  I vividly remember setting it up and decorating it while listening to Amy Grant Christmas music (which I still maintain is the best Christmas music ever!).  Great memories, but when Kyle and I got married we decided that we were going to be a cut-our-own-real-tree family.  We bought the expensive--and often frustratingly complicated--tree stand to seal our decision.  The part of this that sometimes annoys Kyle a bit is that I have to wait until there is actually a good amount of snow on the ground before getting our tree.  He'd just as soon get it the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Oh yeah, the other thing is that I don't like going on the weekends.  When Kyle worked for the church, he had Mondays off, giving us the perfect crowd-free time to get our pumpkins, Christmas trees, etc.  I was spoiled and now don't like fighting the crowds to get our tree.  After the first good snowfall in December I was SET on getting our tree.  We weren't able to get out to the lot until 5:30ish and it started getting dark...and inevitably colder.  We took the "hair ride" (as Maguire called it--AKA hay ride) out to the Fraser Fir section of the lot and began our search.  Even in the biting cold and growing darkness we had fun finding the "perfect" tree.

On the hunt

 

Ashlyn really wanted this tree.  "It's just my size!"

 

In front of our final selection

Maguire supervising the cutting of the tree

 

Another "tradition" dating back to when Kyle was growing up - "TIMBER!"

Waiting for the "Hair Ride" to come back for us, Ash got tired and decided to make a snow bed, silly girl!

The boys

The girls

Untying the tree

Silly kiddos!

Mama reindeer and my little snowman

My little angel placing the star on top of the tree

The finished product 

Thanks, Kyle, for putting up with my stringency with our traditions...there's nobody I'd rather create or carry out family traditions with!

SNOW DAY!

Well, I was super bummed to wake up this particular morning to a text on my phone telling me that school was closed for the day.  You have a much different perspective on these things as a parent :)  Anyway, I was bummed because it was supposed to be Maguire's class Christmas party that day.  He only goes to preschool one day a week so I hate for him to miss any day, but I especially hated for him to miss his Christmas party.  And the kids -- being that they're still young enough to LOVE school -- were bummed at first too...until they heard the neighbor kids playing outside.  They hurriedly put on their snow gear and ran outside.  We're blessed to have such great neighbor kids around.  Even though they're older than our kids but quite a few years, they genuinely seem to enjoy playing with Ashlyn and Maguire (or "Buddy" as they call him).  After my hour of disappointment and a cup of coffee, I "warmed up" to the idea of a snow day, pulled on my boots, grabbed my camera and headed outside myself.  Freshly fallen (and still falling!) snow makes for some beautiful pictures!  Maguire was especially thrilled when Kyle came outside to put the chains on the John Deere and plow the driveway.  Saying that this kid is obsessed with the green and yellow is putting it mildly :)

Bowl-A-Rama

After Thanksgiving, my sister-in-law, Brittany's family rented out a local bowling alley for the evening and invited us to come along. The kids love bowling and were thrilled to go again. And we always enjoying spending time with the Tubergen/Deaner/Perkins/Caldwell clan!

Giving Thanks

1. My family - Kyle, Ash & Mac
2. My extended family - Mom, Dad, Nate/Britt/Oliver, Heather/Chris/Stone/Olivia/Eliani/Blaze/Skydra, Chad/Courtney/Luke/AnnaMay/Cooper, and the rest of my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins
3. The fact that both my side of the family and Kyle's side of the family enjoy spending holidays ALL together
4. The fact that both my parents and Kyle's parents live within 45 minutes of us
5. My two newest nephews (Cooper and Oliver)
6. Our new church/church family
7. The kids' Christian preschool
8. Ashlyn's Christian dance school
9. My girl friends
10. Health
11. A steady income
12. A warm home
13. The best neighbors
14. Family trips
15. The changing seasons - yes, even winter :)
16. Ebay
17. My new phone :)
18. Books
19. My growing relationship with Ashlyn as she moves from toddler to a little girl
20. Kissing Maguire's cheeks and that he still lets me
21. DVR
22. My camera
23. Ashlyn's love for God, dancing, reading, Spanish, laughing and singing
24. Maguire's love for God, guitars, drums, cuddling, outdoor sports and his Daddy
25. God's unfailing love
26. The fact that I could go on and on...

Introducing...Oliver Neil!

In early October, my brother Nate and his wife Brittany had their first child--a small dark and handsome little guy named Oliver Neil (Neil after my late Grandpa Spoelman who passed away days after attending Nate and Britt's wedding back in 2007).  They live in California, so I couldn't wait until they came home for Thanksgiving to meet him!  Skyping was great, but just not the same as holding a tiny infant and smelling that newborn smell.  He's such a sweet baby and the kids LOVED holding him and looking at him.  I'm guessing he'll be doing a little bit (not much) more when we see them again at Christmas :)

So...do you like how I've been updating my blog backgrounds to match the seasons/holidays...but not actually updating my blog?  I thought so :)  I've decided to just give up on trying to catch up.  Maybe I'll predate some updates later on (for when I want to make a blog book), but for now it's too overwhelming!