Twinkling lights

On Christmas Eve Ralph and I took a drive in the Kingsway area and took pictures of the Christmas lights.  It was so pretty to see all the tree's so nicely decorated.  I'm not sure how they get the lights so high into the tree's.                                                                                                                                                                

Christmas joy!

Joy to the World!

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Wishing you all a Christmas filled with Joy.  

Love,
Ralph and Grace

Twas the weekend before Christmas

We spent a lovely day all together.  Our day started early with Ralph getting up and preparing a really nice/hearty breakfast for us all.  The family was still sleeping while Ralph and I enjoyed a relaxing cup of tea together.  We called everyone out of bed at 8:00 a.m. so that we wouldn't have to rush for church.  We were surprised that the girls were still in bed.  Brody woke up with a smile and before we knew it we were all together at the breakfast table.

After church, we went home and made finger food.  We always let the family choose what they would like for Christmas dinner.  This year is was hot and cold snacks.  Ralph made delicious chicken wings, shrimp and lamb pop's. Laura made some really nice jalapeno poppers and cheese sticks.  I added some cheese, veggies and sausage to complete our snack table.  There was a lot of food and plenty of left overs.

Later in the afternoon we shared some gifts together.  We had a wonderful time.

Family Christmas

This weekend has centered around family events.  On Friday evening we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner with Harry and Marian and Lawrence and Teresa.  Dinner was really nice and we finished off the evening by coming back to our house for dessert and drinks.

Today we enjoyed our family Christmas with the van Bolhuis side of the family.  We meet at Springdale Church in the later part of the afternoon and enjoyed a fun time together.  Thank you to Homer and Linda for organizing a fun day for all of us.  The games were fun.  Thank you Linda for raising the bar for the next Christmas event.  It was fun.  Ralph loves his new tie (wink wink) and I'll treasure my crown.  I'm sure that by the end of the day tomorrow, Hailey will have convinced me that it looks better on her than it does on me.

It was so nice to have everyone together.  Janice was feeling well enough to join us and it was so nice to have her with us.  Liz was down from Georgia and was able to join us as well.  This was the first year in the last couple where we have had the whole family with us. I really love it when we are all together.

Happy 25th Anniversary Jim and Deb

Linda explains the rules of the game

Opening up the first layer

Ralph sports his new tie while I show off my new crown

The van Bolhuis family picture. We have been blessed so richly.  

The week before Christmas

It has been a busy couple of weeks and now we find ourselves almost at Christmas.  Last Saturday, Teresa organized a shopping day with mostly family members. There was 13 of us all together.We planned to meet at Teresa's house for 8 o'clock so that we could get an early start. We were on the road by 830. We had arranged to pick up Bethany along the way. Sadly Bethany discovered that she had grabbed Kyle's passport instead of her own so she had to go back home to exchange it. Lydia arranged to meet us all at the shopping mall. She would drive Bethany home along with the rest of her daughters and then they would join later. Approximately 5 minutes before reaching the border we get a text from Linda saying that Yolanda just discovered that her passport was expired. We weren't sure what was going to happen. Fortunately it was only expired by a couple of days and they let her into the country. We enjoyed a wonderful day of shopping and just before heading for home Teresa realized that she had left her shopping bag in the food court. After a little bit of worry and a mad run back to the food court  she was reunited with her shopping bag. We really enjoyed the day and look forward to doing it again sometime.

On Monday Claudia, Arja, Teresa and I went out for dinner and celebrated the Christmas season. Sadly Grace wasn't able to join us this year and we all missed her. Dinner was very nice and we spent almost 3 hours relaxing over our meal. Dinner was delicious and it was a really nice evening.

On Tuesday we went to visit Mom. We had arranged in advance for Jim and Debbie to join us as well as Ed and Janice. Unfortunately Janice wasn't feeling that well so she stayed home. We celebrated Christmas all together with Mom and had a really enjoyable evening. We are planning to get together again with the whole family on Saturday and we are looking forward to that as well. The next couple of days are filled with work events. I will be having Christmas lunches and dinners for the rest of the week.  I'm looking forward to our family get together on Saturday and also our get together on Friday evening with Harry and Marion and Teresa in Lawrence.  This has become a yearly tradition for us and it's a nice way to relax before the busyness of the weekend.