Birthdays

Some of the Christmas craziness is brought on by four birthdays. At our house we say.... mom, Jesus, Jessica, Anika.  Whew.

This year, we woke up Christmas morning just a bit off. No one felt great, so Jesus' birthday coffee cake waited to be eaten until two days later, but it was still yummy.  Jessica had been sick two days prior, finally moving, talking and being part of the world on Christmas Eve morning. We had a wonderful Christmas day at our friends where the kids were once again spoiled. This year they received new gloves, mittens, facemasks and books.

On Carla's birthday, we went to church and then on to Grand Rapids to celebrate with Aunt Kathy. First some ice skating and then some supper and games.

There is never a dull or quiet moment when Jessica is around. Her eyes sparkle all the fun she brings into a room, often bouncy and singing. She is pretty sure she wants to be a famous singing pop star some day.....  And she quite obviously is still in the 'let's be as silly as possible for pictures' phase. She loves clam chowder and marshmallow brownies. Happy 10th little girl!

Anika is growing up. Its been fun to see her personality and sense of humor develop. She is creative, always seeing the possible beauty in garbage or leftover items. She decorated the lunch room for their Christmas concert this year. She takes pictures of strange views that turn out amazing. She paints for fun. She encourages her dad's jokes (WHY OH WHY). She loves to play the flute and can't wait to get her braces off. She likes baked potatoes and candy cane pie, although Aldi changed the recipe this year, and we ended up throwing it away, it was that gross! Happy 14th birthday!

Christmas Cookies

We love Christmas Cutout cookies. These were made a bit AFTER Christmas, but they are just as fun to make, and especially to EAT!

Eburg Christmas

The E family got together one Saturday evening in early January. We missed Mark and Tammy and Ben and Jen, but we had fun with who we had! Anika spent a night with Elyse and Elizabeth and Brandon spent a night with Colton and Austin.

The E cousins minus the ones that are out of the country!

The E family minus two families

Christmas Break Fun

This year we intentionally took things much more slowly. In past years, we have been busy EVERY night in December, to the point that we didn't enjoy much of anything.  This year we attended fewer concerts, no parades, no light shows. Those are all good things, but we were ready to stay home this year.

Over Christmas break we try to complete a puzzle. Last year at New Year's, we discovered our neighbor LOVES puzzles and has LOTS in her home. This year, we had the first 1000 piece puzzle finished in two days. Its amazing how quickly a puzzle gets finished when six different people work on it. SOOO, we kept going  and finished several more!

New Blankets and Pajamas

New fuzzy fleece blankets. Puppies for Jessica, Owls for Maria.

New footie PJs - Owls for Maria, Leopard for Brandon, Sock Monkey for Anika, and Cow for Jessica!

Christmas concerts

The Calvin Church Christmas Program. Calvin Church is the church we partner with for youth programs. They performed a bell choir, a Christmas Cheer, and some songs.

6th grade band!

Middle School Choir. Anika and the classmate to her left also sang 'You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch' as a duet.

Celebration Church Program. Maria read a verse at the church service and then was the angel that appeared to the shepherds. Jessica was the Narrator.

More Basketball and some Volleyball

Jessica and Maria played basketball for Mona Shores again this year. Its the local public school district. They had five Saturdays in November and December that were skills and agility. Then in January and February they were split into teams and had one practice each week and a game on Saturday for five weeks. They managed to win their last games. Some of it was quite painful to watch, others, rather entertaining. Jessica was quick and fun and could steal the ball from about anyone. She would dribble down the court and rifle it line drive at the backboard. The rebound often flew out to the free throw line. After weeks of convincing, the final game, she would steal the all, dribble down, do a jump stop, and shoot it 'up' as I had been begging for weeks. She ended up with around 16 points that game.

Maria is generally happy to touch the ball and then get a snack afterwards. It could take some convincing to get her to play again next year.  

Two high school varsity players help coach each team. Our girls had some amazing gems. So encouraging and helpful, especially when the girls were on the bench.

Brandon's 6th grade team was quite successful. He often plays point guard and does a good job handling the ball and driving it in. His team won the end of season championship!

Anika moved on to volleyball. Her team does fine but their personalities are all so different. I guess that is middle school girls!  She plays all around and generally sets when she is playing front row.  I am trying to convince her to practice her overhand serve a bit more, but I haven't gotten too far.  A few girls on her team have never played before so its so cute when one of them hits it over or gets a serve in!