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.