Christmas in Iowa

We made our Christmas trip to IA again this year for Christmas with the Zevenbergen side.  We always stay with my 'Dordt' family which everyone loves. We spent time with them on Friday evening and then on Saturday morning. Early in the afternoon we went to the mall to ride on the train and I saw my college classmate that works there.

riding the train in the mall

The afternoon and evening were spent with the Zevenbergen clan at the Dordt Alumni house.  It was a crazy bunch of characters, but lots of fun was had.  My kids look forward to being with their cousins, even if it is a short time.  We played games, we ate, we laughed.  I decided we've all raised a bunch of competitors.  They were making up their own game of who could land the plastic shaker egg on a pillow when thrown from the loft.  Seriously, we can't make this stuff up!

all 12 of them - who are these kids anyway!?

We spent 12 hours on the road on Friday and 12 more on Sunday.  We had safe travels, dry roads and plenty of technology to keep everyone busy.  Matt stayed home to take care of things here.  I loved listening to the books on CD we had gotten from the library.  To the point that if the kids wanted to talk to me,  I was rather annoyed!  I was listening to a  book for goodness sake!  But we made it home and then off to school and work again on Monday!  But the memories are forever!