December's Little Dancer

In the middle of December we went to watch little Ari's first dance recital.

She had a long wait, beacuse her performance was towards the end.

We managed to get a little video of her. She is the second from the left end. She sure is a cutie, and she did a fantastic job.

Grandparents' Day

Cirrus invited us to Grandparents' Day at her school. Opa predicted correctly. As soon as she saw us, she was out of her seat and running towards us, "Oma, Opa you came!" She was excited. She made us a card.

The teacher had everything all set up for making Christmas ornaments. The boy next to Cirrus was a fast worker and finished his early.

Opa and Cirrus hard at work pushing pins through sequins, then marshmallows, and then into the styrofoam ball.

Here is the finished product, one for us and one for Cirrus.

We had a lot of fun. Thank you for inviting us, Cirrus!

Winter Has Arrived

It started snowing in earnest, and being really cold. Brrrrrrr....

I saw these bird tracks on our front porch.

Somehow a nice bowl of Dutch soup seemed to be the right thing for dinner.

Sinter Klaas

We had Sinter Klaas on Saturday, Dec. 5th. It is a big deal for our family. We met at my Mom's place. If you own a pair of wooden shoes, you wear them there.

Sometimes the little shoes are passed down to the younger ones.

We have a slide show that my brother David and myself prepared. Our Mom narrates the little program. This year my brother added some words to songs for us to sing. One of our relatives in Holland, Jan Van Leer, sent Mom a CD with Sinter Klaas songs on it. It was a great addition.

After the slide show all the shoes are lined up, people "sleep and then wake up" to find what Sinter Klaas has brought them.

Mom makes her own chocolate letters, and the kids love them!

Thanks for all the hard work; the chocolate letters, the peppernotten, the little toys for the younger ones, and the fruits It is a fun time for us all.

Wow, Pretty Surprising

Mrs. Reed came into my room this afternoon to share a student's assignment with me.

Who would have thought that a ten year old girl would want to be a fifty something year old? Actually, I really am appreciative of the sincere compliment. It is delightful to have been able to read this, and thought I would share.

November's End

November has fun and lots of different activities.

The day before Thanksgiving I spent sometime watching Ari and Bree. I love their little blouses.

My Dad's sister Nellie has come for a visit from Alameda. I love this picture of my Mom and Tante Nellie.

We spent Thanksgiving Day with Keith's sister Susan. Black Friday, Emma and I went to JoAnn's and spent over an hour in the fabric cutting line. She bought some really cute flannel pieces. I couldn't resist and bought some flannel as well.

Saturday was the annual Tweed - Widdison Pie Feast. We had soup and rolls first, minor details. There was table tennis, and general running and playing by the little ones. We had 15 little ones from ages 9 years to baby, no teenagers, and ten adults. Let's see that's 25 people.

We had 14 pies. If you click on the picture it should enlarge it so you can see what kind of pie we had. As usual we had left overs to divy up and take home. Yum...

Step by Step

During the summer we had the air conditioning installed. The plenum, duct that takes the cold air out and about, is what I painted blue and put snowflakes on.

I cut out the snowflakes, glued them on, and then modge podged them in place.

When Cirrus saw it she asked if it was a snow making machine. I love the imagination of young children.

Friday, Keith finished screwing up the sheetrock in the solarium. Then he started to mud and tape it. Yipee!!! This is exciting. This just might be our first finished room.