12 years and counting!

Hard to believe that I've been in the Nieuwhof clan for 12 years now. We celebrated our 12th anniversary on January 13th. We had a wonderful family day together. I had been teasing Marten that I would love another trip (we had taken a cruise for our 10th anniverary). We had never been to the east end of the island so Marten suggested a road trip. It was really nice. We took the long way there. We checked out Wood Islands, then Montague, through Souris and finally arrived at the East Point Lighthouse. The kids were grateful to get out of the car but it didn't last long. It was so cold. We rushed back to the car to warm up. I did manage to get these pictures but I'm shooting myself that I didn't give the camera to Nicolle to get a shot of Marten and myself. Oh well. The sight of the windmills was impressive. The picture does NOT show how BIG they are. As we were driving home, we were driving into the sunset. Awwww... how romantic. There was a cloud that looked like a sideways heart. It had a line through it like an arrow (I think it was from a plane.) I regret not getting a picture of that as well. I teased Marten that he was so romantic to put that in the sky for our anniversary. He laughingly said that he had prayed for two hours for that one. :) We arrived back in Charlottetown at supper time so Marten took us all to East Side Mario's (notice the 'east' theme for the day, hee hee). The kids were exhausted from the 'big' trip and went to bed as soon as we got home. And even though they weren't too thrilled with being in the car all day, we really enjoyed the trip and spending time together.


Love to all, Karen

A note to my nieces: we have had our fireplace for 2 years now. It was tucked in the corner between the two couches. We bought it for extra heating because I was always cold in our livingroom. Even though the heat was nice, you could never see the fire when you were seated. I'm glad that it's in a place where we can see it now.

Furniture Arranging

So there I was... taking all the Christmas decorations down. (Which is a sad thing. But then again, if they were up all the time, it wouldn't be so exciting next Christmas would it?) I had to move a few pieces of furniture to fit in the tree and now it was time to move them back. Thought: wouldn't it be nice to have a change of scenery? Maybe we should move the whole livingroom around. So I waited til after supper and "Marten, whatcha wanna do tonight?" Being the ever pleasing husband that he is, he willingly agreed to lug heavy furniture around the room til we were both pleased with the outcome. I really like it. You'll have to come for a visit to see. OK, I realize that those of you who are off the Island will not make a special trip just to see my livingroom so I took a few pictures. What do you think?

So, from our cozy livingroom to yours, we luv ya! Karen

Happy New Year!

2008 already? Seems incredible! We hope you all had a great Christmas and shared a wonderful time with family and friends. We had a terrific holiday. All went according to plan (as mentioned in the last blog) and the hard work was worthwhile when the house was full of loved ones and we were having such a good time. That's the best part of Christmas -- being with family and friends. We were so excited to have all the nieces and nephews home from away.

1. Jason, Nana and Nicolle 2. Caleb, Jason and Aaron 3. The 7 youngest Nieuwhofs

New Year's Eve was quiet for us. It was storming so we couldn't make it to town for our plans with David, Paula and the kids. Oh well. I was tired and didn't mind an evening in.

We continued the spirit of celebrations with Marten's 41st birthday on January 3rd. :) Randall, Elisabeth, Jordan, Dianna, Klaas, Alice, Tineke, my sister Kathy, and our friends David and Paula came over on Friday night for Apple Pie and Fondue (Marten's favs). Yum! It was great fun. It was especially nice to see Jordan and Dianna before they headed back to New Jersey.

We wish you all many blessings for the new year. May it bring love, health and a renewed relationship with God.

Love to all, Karen and family