Holiday Happenings Part II

Well our Christmas was white! That's right, as I am from So Cal, this was my first white Christmas. The snowflakes had been sporadic over the last weeks but when Eric woke up on Christmas morning and told me to take a look outside I was speechless...our whole yard and street was covered with powdery white snow! It was beautiful!

Adam came for a brief visit on the 14th-18th (if memory serves correctly) so we got to have an early Christmas with him as a family. Unforturnately those pics are too big file size to post and if you wait for me to resize photos then you will never see any =-)

The real start to the holidays for Eric and I was on the evening of the 23rd, Eric lit up the fire pit we had been given as a gift for our wedding and we sat out in the 20 degree weather drinking Bailey's and cofee. Please note when you look at the slide show how our back yard transforms from fall to winter, it's so cool!

Christmas Eve we had the Guddat fam over for a Mexican feast and Eric made his wildly popular carne asada and I ventured into making my first flan!

Christmas Day as I mentioned we woke up to the white stuff and after our breakfast and devotions headed up Kingsbury Grade to see Lake Tahoe. At first there was no lake to see as the sky was white with continuing snowfall but after we a had a quick lunch at the Tahoe Biltmore and started heading back the sun broke through. I literally took dozens of pictures!

Friday was back to work but then we had a great weekend again with an outing to Cabela's to buy snow boots and a dutch oven. Eric is excited about using this for camping in the future as well! Saturday night we had UFC 92 night at Jeff and Harmony's house....again with a Mexican feast and Eric's carne was a hit. Sunday after church we had a young lady's fellowship at Eric's parents' that Alicia organized. We had Fran's home made pizza which is pretty much better than anything else you are going to get. We had a good time and I think a lot of us of got to interact and get know each other better. We also got our customized Christmas gift from Eric's parents...a wood rack! No more multiple trips outside (at least for DH) to get the wood we need to keep the house warm!

http://www.rockyou.com/show_my_gallery.php?source=ppsl&instanceid=132833845

Holiday Happenings Part One

Merry Christmas Everyone! I know I am one day late but I hope the day was one of relaxation, time spent with family and contemplating the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. I have been a bit behind with updating our happenings as you can see so I will try to do my best to catch you all up.

Thanksgiving weekend we drove down to Southern California to spend the holiday with my dad, Anne, Grandma Ida, Mike, Zabrina, Mike' mom Doreen and the kids (although Jaymie is not really a kid anymore). We had a full house and it was great! The day before Thanksgiving Eric and I spent all day cleaning and prepping the condo in Riverside for our new tenant. Having a tenant is definitely something to be very thankful for! We had been praying hard for an income in that area so we are so grateful! It was nice after a hard day of all that work on the condo to spend the next with family and eating great food. Anne did a fantastic job as always with the cuisine. The afternoon was spent playing Nintendo Wii which the kids definitely schooled Eric and I in. The kids still think Eric is a pretty cool uncle as he is so accommodating with whatever they want to play. We spent a couple more days with my dad, Anne and grandma and basically just watched old movies with A Christmas Story thrown in for good measure.

Eric and Carsyn play "Spies"

Further on in the weekend we drove down to the San Diego and spent a couple days with my mom, Kurt and brother Jeremy. My mom had Thanksgiving on Saturday night and my Grandma and Grandpa Dykstra came over. My mom went non-traditional and had ham which Eric loved as it is his favorite. Mmmh, I don't have pics of that meal as Kurt took them but it was a good time. Oh, we also showed the fam wedding pics and lots of them! More movies, family time and we got a ride in my brother's VW Beetle convertible. Come Monday morning it was time to make the long trip back but we decided that the new Tahoe beats out my little Honda for comfort on the long distance drive.


The day after we got back Eric flew out to Portland to update his OSHA trainer certifications and was gone for the week. We have decided that we do not like the whole being apart business. Fortunately my sister-in-law Alicia came over and stayed with me for the week. She was a great help and I enjoyed her company. She helped me put up our Christmas tree (compliments of Grandma Ida) and the decorations so that the house could be all cheery when Eric came home. The other big accomplishment prior to Christmas is that we got the garage (with Alicia's help, are you seeing a recurring trend here?) cleared out enough to get the Honda in it. Ingenious though I know, a car in the garage.