Old friends and good times!

I want to start this post by thanking everyone who came to see Paige in Nutcracker - it really meant a lot to her (and us)! I hope you enjoyed it.....

Monday we all slept late and then ran around doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Yesterday was more of the same, with a bit of grocery shopping and a run downtown for (what else!) ballet thrown into the mix. Yesterday afternoon our good friends from North Carolina came over. They are in town for the holidays to visit family and carved out a little "Van Kuiken" time....and we are so glad they did! We had a wonderful, festive, pre-holiday Chinese dinner (Love Ming Moon!) and then went outside and made s'mores around the fire pit....and talked and laughed and laughed and talked....it was a lot of fun. I think the kids were all a bit awkward around each other at first - it has been three years since they have seen each other, and that is a LONG time in the life of a child! But, they quickly remembered each other and got along great. The two Tims are both quite funny - I'm not sure if they bring out the best in each other or the worst...maybe a bit of both. Suzette and I have always gotten along since we met years ago in a bible study group....she is a voracious reader like me and a ton of fun to be around. She brought me a big bag of Trader Joe's stuff...yum, yum! We miss them, but it was great fun to get together!

Today I have absolutely nothing planned until this afternoon. I plan to sit around and be lazy! OK, OK, I might bake some cookies with the kids....and get a head start on prepping stuff for the Christmas dinner tomorrow...and the kids are acolyting at church this afternoon....but other than that! Then we will have our traditional Christmas Eve pizza dinner....I hope you all have a wonderful and peaceful day and a joyful Christmas!