Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Poelstra family!  We are celebrating Christmas today as Steve leaves for work at 5am tomorrow. 

 

Despite the kids having a rough day yesterday, Santa still decided to bring them some presents! 

 

Olivia received her very own car or "beep, beep" as our family calls them!  When Steve brought her into the living room this morning she was squirming away from him.  Of course I thought she wanted to come and sit by me!  But no!!  When he set her down she went straight for the car!  It was really cute!  And the excitement has not waned yet!  She has been on and off that car all day!  Her enthusiasm for it actually surprised me as I didn't think she would love it as much as she does!

 

Faith opening her first gift! I don't think she would have cared what it was as long as it was not clothes or a book!  She has not let us forget that last year that was all she received!

 

Shane was very excited about his Batman sweatshirt!

 

I knew it was coming...clothes!!!  Her exact words were, "Not again!"  And while this looks staged, it was totally candid!  But thankfully we did not end the day (or start the morning!) with clothes...

 

Receiving the Star Wars Trilogy caused the words "best Christmas ever!" to escape from two little kids!  In fact, they are watching one as I type! 

 

Olivia playing with her beep beep!  It plays quite a bit of music, which is especially fitting for our little dancer who likes to groove anytime she hears music!

 

This was from yesterday!  We finally made the time to bake and decorate some Christmas cookies!  We hope everyone has a Merry and Bright Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus our Savior! 

Church Christmas Program

Even though the actual Christmas program will not be performed until Christmas Eve at 7pm, I received a preview today as I helped with the dress rehearsal!  And of course it was the perfect opportunity to take a few pictures!

 

Faith is an Angel - Angel#1 to be exact! - and has a few lines announcing the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds!  In this picture she is singing "Angels We Have Heard On High" with the rest of the children in the performance.

 

Shane is King Herod, and he plays the role quite well!  Here he is telling the Wise Men that when they find Jesus they must come back and tell him so he too can go and worship the newborn King.

 

More singing by the kids!  It shall be an interesting performance as today's rehearsal was pretty chaotic!  But then again, so is real life, right?  If it doesn't go smoothly at least that will make it memorable!

Last Week's Fun!

It has been an action packed December!  I'm convinced that with Thanksgiving being so late this year, all of the Christmas activities have been squished into a shorter time period!  Fun abounds, but  so does tiredness!!

Wednesday night I celebrated Christmas with some of my friends eating dinner and doing an ornament exchange.  What a treat to have some time together without our kids!  And we tried a new restaurant that we will for sure be visiting again!

 

Because the week was not busy enough, the older two kids had their check-ups on Thursday afternoon!  Since Shane was so incredibly brave receiving his four vaccinations (no tears!!!), we celebrated with ice cream! 

 

Friday night I attended our Church Christmas Cocktail party!  It was a fun evening, and it was especially fun to wear the same colored green dress as the hostess Cindy (on the right) and another friend Lucinda!  As always, Lutherans have more fun!

 

One of the themes of our current season of life is Olivia trying to do absolutely everything the big kids do! Faith was practicing her piano playing before going to her lesson, and Olivia just had to play along too!  Their first duet!!

 

On Saturday we celebrated Christmas with Steve's family!  Faith was beyond excited to receive a DS from Uncle Russell!  I think it has been on her Christmas and birthday list for the past two years!

 

Shane was pretty excited too with the gifts her received, including a remote control car!

 

Olivia enjoyed her new toys too, and it was great to have her busy with something to entertain her for awhile!  She sat with Russ and Jaime for quite awhile!

 

Such great brother and sister love!  They actually took turns sharing the DS pretty well, and they sat together for a long time just watching the other person play! 

Awana Skating Party

Last Tuesday night was the annual Awana Christmas party at Skating Plus!  So once again we attempted the keep the kids upright as much as possible!!  Thankfully the kids feet are still small enough to fit into the skates that can have the wheels tightened!  Faith did pretty well...she still can't skate, but she didn't fall too much!

 

Shane wanted to really skate, as in go fast!  So, he ended up on the floor...A LOT!!!  Because a broken bone is on no one's Christmas list...

 

We paid $5 to rent a skate-mate!  The wheels were loosened and the little guy had a blast!! 

 

Faith loved dancing to the songs such as YMCA and some other choreographed songs!  And of course the real dancer in the family, Olivia, had to be out on the rink the entire time too being held by Steve or I.  There was no way she was going to be left out of anything!  Especially something that included music and disco balls!  Our goal is to go a few times before the next party so there is less parental help needed!

Preschool Christmas Program and more

Thursday morning Shane portrayed a shepherd in his preschool's presentation of the Christmas Story!  Naturally, we thought he made the cutest little shepherd there ever could be!

 

In this picture he and his fellow shepherd's are giving their best surprised faces as the angels just flew in to announce the birth of Jesus!  It was very cute to watch Shane and his classmates perform and also sing some Christmas carols for us!

 

I had to snap a picture of my girls from Thursday night.  Olivia was a bit fussy as I was trying to make dinner, so sweet Faith offered to feed her some yogurt for dinner to make her happy!  It is so wonderful to have a helper like Faith!  She is such a great big sister!

 

And finally, my MOPS small group Bible study crew that has met together all fall!  We had a nice Christmas brunch on Wednesday morning!  While this Christmas season has seemed busier than ever, it's a treat to take time out to celebrate with all the different people in our lives!

Knott's Berry Farm!

On Tuesday we took the older two kids to Knott's Berry Farm for the day!  It has become a December tradition for us (thanks to the great Firefighter discount they offer!), and it was such a treat to just take the older kids!!  Olivia was well cared for by Grandma Poelstra.  We had a great time as there were no lines, it was perfect weather, and the kids had a blast!  What a treat it is as parents to watch them have so much fun.

 

A couple years ago Shane was on this very ride and ended up screaming and crying, which began a fear of some rides for him!  While he would not go on many rides at the very beginning of the day, he found one that he really liked, and suddenly he became a ride-going machine!  We were very proud of him for conquering his fear of Woodstock's Airmail!  He went on it three times at the end of the day.  And on the ride home he said it was his favorite ride of the day.  Kids!! 

 

Cute little truck driver!

 

Faith went on a number of roller coasters this year.  She was pretty excited to be over the magical 48 inch mark which allowed her to go on virtually every ride!  Overall, the kids could go on quite a few rides without an adult, which was nice!  Steve and I enjoyed watching them from a quiet bench!  Before Shane started going on all the rides, he chose to pose for pictures while we waited for Faith and Steve go on roller coasters!

The Kids!

As Olivia grows older, it's a delight to interact with her more, and especially to see her with her siblings!  The other day all three kids were playing together in their room!  It was so sweet!

 

Olivia has discovered the joy of crawling into and over things lately!  While in the kitchen, she loves to crawl under her high chair and play peek-a-boo with anyone who is around!

 

Then she wanted to play peek-a-boo with me by the back door!  And this is why my house is a mess, I'm behind on my laundry, and nothing gets done too quickly!  She likes to play all day long!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

Since the weather is very Christmas-like (extra cold temperatures for Ventura this week!), we knew it was the perfect time to set up our Christmas tree!  The kids have been anticipating the tree going up and decorating it all week!  Last night as we started the process, they were literally bouncing off the walls!  Faith and Shane did an excellent job putting on the ornaments!

 

What amazed me this year was that they could pretty much do the decorating all on their own!  While I did help in putting a few ornaments up higher than they could reach, they did most of the work!  It was cute!  And of course Steve actually set up the tree! 

 

After the tree was up, we started a new tradition.  Steve bought an Advent wreath earlier in the week, and so we lit the first candle on the wreath and did a responsive reading that talked about why advent candles are lit and the meaning of the first one.  While we do this at church too, it feels even more real and personal to bring in into the home for the kids.  This morning Shane shared with us, "God is real, but Santa is not!"  Sounds like he heard something at school!!

Happy (very late!!) Thanksgiving!

Once again I find myself a bit behind on the blogging!  I guess it's just that time of year!  Even though we are well into December and fully immersed in Christmas, I wanted to post some pictures from Thanksgiving!

After going to church for our Thanksgiving service, we drove down to Seal Beach to celebrate Thanksgiving with part of Steve's family!  We were especially thankful for the DVD player in the van along with headphones as Steve enjoyed a very quiet (even though we hit traffic and it took extra long!) ride down to Seal Beach!

 

Olivia on her first Thanksgiving!  It was her final "first"!  It was pretty crazy to already be one years old, but have this be her first Thanksgiving!

 

It was so nice to have Steve's Aunt Sue, Uncle John, and some of their kids join us on Thanksgiving!  Little Hudson is just a month younger than Olivia, so it was fun to have the little "cousins" together!  Olivia was really into hugging Hudson, but he wasn't as interested!  It was cute!

 

We really enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving weekend as a family, complete with a walk at the beach on Saturday evening!  It was a gorgeous sunset!!  Then we went out to a great Mexican restaurant for dinner!  As always, it's nice to have Steve home for those long weekends!