MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!

2 more sleeps (as the kids would say)! I believe that we're all ready for the big event. 2 school concerts, 1 Sunday School concert, 1 Cantata, shopping till we dropped, wrapping, baking, cleaning, decorating,... can I sleep through Christmas? I'm exhausted. :)
My mom and sister arrive tomorrow. We'll all head in for the Christmas Eve service. Then we'll settle in for a long winter's night and be up nice and early to get that Turkey in the oven. Mmmm...
I've told the kids I don't want to see them before 7am. Perhaps they'll sleep in? Yah, right. They're pretty excited.
My uncle comes for dinner. Then Aunt Shirley, Lorna and family come late afternoon for supper. It's a lot of fun. Christmas wouldn't be the same without them. I've spent Christmas day with them my whole life.
Then, of course, we're off to Randall's house for Boxing Day. Can't wait to have all 24 of us celebrating in one spot. The neices and husbands are starting to arrive and it'll be great to have everyone (except Tetcy's) together. We'll miss you Tetcy and Ray and Craig and Joe.
It's late and tomorrow promises to be a busy day... so I'll say goodbye.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas...

My sister Kathy made the kids an advent calendar. They are having so much fun opening each little present every day. (Things like chocolates, Christmas foam shapes that open in water, candy canes, ornaments, christmas stamps, ...) The other two pictures are of the top of the fireplace and the top of the piano.

We enjoyed Nicolle's first band concert. I was amazed at how much they can learn in 3 months. After the concert we drove around North Rustico and enjoyed all the christmas lights. It's quite a show down there. LOTS of lights.

And here's a picture of Jason's friends that were at his school Birthday Party. We're looking forward to the family party on Sunday afternoon.

We're also looking forward to Tineke's party tomorrow evening. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TINEKE!!!

I made fudge today for pakje night. Mmmm... three flavors. I can't wait to share it with you all. Hope you like fudge. :)

This can't be long... Marten's waiting to start a movie. :) Who would have guessed?!?

So, enjoy this final week countdown til Christmas. I have 2 more concerts, cooking and present wrapping to go. It's such a fun time of year. I love all the hustle and bustle.

Love to all, Karen

Busy Times

December 9th already? Sure goes fast when you're having fun. We've celebrated 2 snow storms since the last posting. What a winter wonderland on PEI. Tons of snow, COLD weather, school cancellation, and lots of playing in the snow (for the kids anyway -- I do hate being cold).
I've been successful at my Christmas shopping and believe that one more trip to town should finish it. Marten's my holdup this year. I'm not sure what to get him. ??? MMMM.... I hate to disappoint.
Yesterday was Jason's birthday party for his school friends. Nine boys are very loud, I might add, when they are together and excited. This year's theme was car racing. We had checkered flags decorating the driveway and garage; a "Welcome Race Fans" sign in the entryway and tons more flags and red, black and white balloons in the house. Looked great with all the christmas decorations. haha! All games were centered around racing and the boys had a hoot. I did too but I was so tired afterwards. Jason was so happy and that's what it's all about. We're doing the family party on the 16th for him since he'll be in school on his actual birthday. We have treat bags put aside for Caleb and Aaron and he's excited to play the race games with them.
We had a nice time at Alice's birthday party on Thursday night and are looking forward to Tineke's this Saturday. We'll be partied out. Is that possible? Naw... it's too much fun. Birthdays, Christmas (with my family), Boxing day with the Nieuwhofs, Marten's birthday is not long after that.... What fun!
The school concerts are coming up too. Nicolle has her band concert this Wednesday night and the Christmas concert for both of them is next Tuesday. Our Sunday School concert is on the 16th (Nicolle is playing a flute solo in it). I'm excited to see my children smiling and doing their best up on stage.
Our church service was awesome today. I love to hear Christmas music. We had special visitors that sang "O Holy Night" which is my FAVORITE Christmas song (it gives me goosebumps) and Stewart Lewis had a great sermon. He compared Moses' visit with God in the burning bush to Mary's visit with God to inform her of the virgin birth. Both were favored by God and honored with a request to do his bidding. Both turned from their own plans and wishes and did God's will, therefore pleasing Him. Will we turn from our own life's plans and do God's will? He's asking us to! [I'm not a preacher and I hope I got the gist of this down correctly. I never heard Moses compared to Mary before and thought it was so cool. I pray that I don't turn God down when He asks me to do things!]
On that note, God Bless. I love you all! Karen

I Can Feel My Toes Now!

The weekend went as planned. Marten had a great time fourwheeling. I got some dutch treats and I took the kids to the parade. Let me just say that I'm still thawing out. I was SO cold. It started at 5 and was over at 6:25. By then I was good and frozen. Even with snow pants and coats, hats, scarfs, gloves, and blankets. Brrrrrrr... Still, we all enjoyed it. The highlight for Nicolle were the dogs and the horses. Go figure! Jason just liked all the lights and being out at night. For me, the parade might have been boring during the day but it sure is pretty at night with all the lights. There was one point in the parade when a float went by from a church and it touched my heart. I had tears in my eyes at the thought of how many people they could witness to. It was the nativity scene and they were praising God with Christmas music. We've all seen it a hundred times before, but in that setting, it reached me and God filled me. It was so nice to sit there in the dark and be warmed with God's love for a moment.
Other churches passed out phamplets of their church's holiday concerts, etc. and candy canes with the story of how candy canes were created. Nice outreach. They could reach 100,000 people along the roads. Pray to God that some received The Message.

What's New? ...

Well, to let you all know (because I know you're dying to find out)... our date was quite nice. The company was OK (just joking you guys -- it was great to be with you all). The restaurant was yummy! I think Marten's favorite was the seafood chowder. I enjoyed everything (salads, biscuits, ham, sausage, chicken, chocolate fondue, desserts...). Did I mention it was buffet? Gotta try a bit of everything, right? The 'farm' is considering taking the crew there for the Christmas banquet. What? No Dutch Inn? Apparently the service and food were not good there last year. So we'll try something new.

Marten went to Halifax yesterday with David Andrews. David had to go to recycle some copper and he asked Marten if he wanted to travel with him. Of course, it was a resounding YES! They have so much fun together. The highlight of the trip was a visit to Princess Auto. Marten's never been there and it was quite fun for him. I mentioned before that I wouldn't mind getting a case to organize my makeup. He saw a red tool box for sale and almost bought it for me for that reason. I laughed. Sigh. Men!

Marten and David (and some other guys) are also traveling this weekend to Carl Gallant's for some four wheeling. He lives just this side of Truro. They leave Friday and will be back Saturday night. There a Dutch food show at the Dutch Inn on Saturday that I'm going to and I plan to take the kids to the Christmas Parade on Saturday night.

I'll be travelling to Crapaud tomorrow (whoopee! I get a trip too :P). Mom has to get some blood work done and Dr. Visser is her doctor. Way out in Crapaud. I usually go with her because she can never remember what the doctor tells her.

I've been busy with scrapbooking this week. I haven't touched it in so long. Nicolle got out her albums on Saturday and it inspired me to get started again. It's so much fun. And so rewarding to get a few pages finished. I don't have a little area like Tetcy, so my livingroom is a disaster area right now. I'll clean it up... some time.

We took the kids to a movie last Saturday... Mr. Magorium's Wonder Imporium. (I'm not too sure of the spelling. Can you blame me?) It's about a magical toy store. Very cute and touching. It inspires you to believe in yourself. We hardly ever GO to the movies because we have so many here, so it was a real adventure for the kids. We were going to see The Bee Movie but Jason wasn't excited about that ("It's for babies") so luckily this movie was playing.

In my Wednesday morning bible study, we just finished "How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life" and we will be starting "A Woman After God's Own Heart" next week. Have any of you read them? I'm sadly negligent in my prayer life and am trying to develop that part of my relationship with God. I'm kinda a one sentence quick prayer throughout the day. I must find the time to stop and dedicate some time to "proper" prayer. We're also challenging each other to fast once a week. That doesn't nessarily mean a day without eating. We're focusing on turning aside from other things that take away our focus on God and interferes with our prayer life to Him. For me, I have chosen a day without snacking between meals and without computer. I spend entirely too much time on this thing - blogging, facebook, games. So every Tuesday, I will not be on the computer to read your blogs. I'll catch up later, OK? I'm also going to memorize a piece of scripture during that time. Last week was Deut. 6:4-9 and this week was II Corin. 12:9-10. Come on... look them up. :)

That's what's new. What's new with you? I love to hear about my favorite people.
I love you all, Karen

I Have A Date Tonight!

This doesn't happen very often so I thought I'd better record it. :)
Last Christmas, Marten and I were given a gift certificate to the Top of the Park restaurant by the farm crew. It expires on Nov. 28th. Where did this year go? On talking with Randall, they have one too. Add Klaas and Alice and the 6 of us are going tonight. OK, not so romantic with your brother and sister-in-laws :) but we'll have fun. I'm really looking forward to it.
Hope you all have a great weekend too. Love ya.

Christmas Shopping

I'm already excited about Christmas shopping. In fact, I almost have it all done. I know, I know...shocking to most of you. :) It makes me so happy to buy for other people. I just hope they like what they are getting. It's so much better that way. Sigh... the money goes fast though, doesn't it? $40 is gone before you know it. I wish I could spend a million on all of you.

We have another 4 day weekend ahead of us. PD day tomorrow and Monday is off for Remembrance Day. The only plans we have is Church, lunch with my family and then Kathy, Nicolle and I are going to the Three Oaks craft sale in Summerside. The three of us go every year. Kinda fun!

I have absolutely no exciting news. I just wanted to touch base and remind you to check out Nicolle's Blog. She's awaiting comments. :)