Christmas!

The Christmas season was wonderful again this year! We loved spending so much time with family and friends as you will see from the slideshows. The first is of Amelia's third and final birthday party at John and Jo's on the 22nd. Three parties to celebrate a third birthday is about right, don't you think?

The next slideshow has various pics taken while Laura and Ben and the girls were here for Christmas. How thankful we are that they have made the trip 'home' every year for the last nine years (and every summer as well as other special occasions!)!

Next are pictures taken at the 'Christ-mass' and Christmas Eve with Tom and Anna's family. It's an annual tradition to have a great Racklette meal before the kids' program at church - followed by more eats and lots of gifts.

Have no idea why I took so few pictures at our family Christmas party....bummer. We had such a great time sharing gifts and playing Bingo!

The last slideshow has lots of pictures of our trip to Chicago, part of our Christmas gift to Abby, Sophie, and Noah. It was our fourth annual trip and the kids had a great time cashing in their gift certificates at the Lego Store and the American Girl Place. We also explored the hotel, enjoyed Chicago pizza at Giordano's and meals at a traditional diner and Yolk's, and went swimming. The crowds were massive at the Shedd's Aquarium - over an hour's wait in the rain just to get to the ticket booth. So we opted for a movie in Michigan City on the way home instead. We called this excursion our 'Plan B' trip but had a wonderful time!!

Finally, a few pictures of other special occasions this Christmas season. The first two are of our evening with our Empty Nesters' small group. (I took two pictures and you'll notice a few of the folks are in both :)



Our friends, Don and Sue, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary at a terrific surprise party hosted by their children. It was great to see all of them as well as lots of other friends.

Bill, me, Sue, Don, Dianne, Luke

We lit the candles on our mantel on Christmas evening.....

The Light of the World is Jesus!

Looking back with thankfulness for all our blessings in 2011
and looking forward with peace and confidence to 2012.

And the Celebrations Continue!

LOTS of fun times this month!

Abby, Noah, and Sophie welcomed Tom home from his business trip to Japan with signs that were quickly tossed to Anna as soon as the kids saw Tom coming from the terminal. He was greeted with hugs, hugs, and more hugs :)


The next afternoon we were invited to their home for a belated birthday dinner for Tom who had a birthday while he was gone.



On Wednesday, some of my favorite people in the whole world came to our house for our annual Christmas brunch.

My Joy Club friends

Marilyn, Lyda, Gert, Hilda

Wednesday evening we LOVED a progressive dinner - three stops, fabulous food, cherished friends.

Jan and Lin

Some of the guys singing Christmas carols - do you think Bill was enjoying
the songfest a bit too much?

Laura and Ben and their girls arrived safely at midnight on Thursday - yeah!!!! We've had some carefree, casual time together as well as two birthday parties. Amelia will be three on the 22nd and Ben will have a birthday on the 23rd.

Three !!!

Ben's brother Matt and his wife Deb hosted a birthday party on Saturday morning. Their daughter Greta was born the same day as Amelia :)

The birthday girls with the amazing cakes
made with love for them by Aunt Elissa - incredible!

Laura and Ben, Amelia and Annemieke

Saturday evening was the Brummel Christmas party. How WONDERFUL it was to be surprised when Ron and Rose walked in! All five of us Brummel kids were together :)

Denise, John, Rick, Marva
Me, Rich, Mom

The fam :)
(Sorry, Dave - out of eight pictures, this was the best one of you. Guess you're not thrilled with having your picture taken :)

Amelia and Annemieke with their Great-grandparents

Sunday afternoon we celebrated the birthdays of Tom, Amelia, and Ben. Anna made delicious cupcakes and the kids added the frosting and decorations.

Amelia added the decorations :)

Birthday princess

The birthday gang

More.....

Tonight....great to spend some time with Gary and Shirley who have been enjoying the sunshine in Florida :)

More parties ahead to come :)

How blessed we are!

Festivities!

December has already been packed with celebrations and special events! Just some quick pictures....

We celebrated Tom's birthday with dinner and the Parade of Lights in Holland.

Tom! How thankful we are for him!

Sophie and Abby

Noah and Sophie

Fun with cousins, Aunt Martha, and Grandma Nancy :)

Tori is wrapping all of my Christmas gifts. She is a huge help to me!



Tori also had her first band concert. She is a great musician and is already making beautiful music on her clarinet.

Proud Grandpa with Tori

I spent last Friday in Holland, shopping with some friends from our small group at church. We followed our shopping trip with dinner with our husbands and then the Festival of Lights at Calvary Church. What a great day!

Me, Dianne, Jeannine, Nancy

On Saturday morning Bill and I helped to make Christmas cards for the children who are sponsored by families from church. Neither of us are very creative, but we sure had fun :)

Ila and Tom Wilson

Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a wonderful hymn sing with our Kelloggsville friends and in the evening we went to the South Christian choir concert. I promised Deven I wouldn't embarrass him by taking pictures.....but we sure loved the program!


I spent Monday at Meijer Gardens with Beckie and her sister Darolyn, who visited from California. Beautiful trees, great lunch, fun day!

Beckie


I took this pic for my friends in Germany :)

Darolyn and Beckie

Laura emailed this picture of Amelia showing A Mae all of her Disney princesses :)



Missed photo opportunities of a great evening at Bredeweg's, time with Tom & Anna's kids on Tuesday, a visit with our friend Jimmye at Ionia prison on Thursday, and dinner and the Gaither program with Dave & Marva and Rick & Beckie tonight. So much fun.....

Jesus is the Reason we celebrate!