Our Christmas Celebrations, 2011

We've had a wonderful, busy Christmas season!  We were fortunate enough to celebrate with all sides of our families this year, which means lots of parties!  Thankfully, Sara started having a decent run of good days just in time for all of our Christmas parties. 

First up was Christmas Eve with the Burge family at Aunt Sharon's house.  We enjoyed lots of great food, laughs, and time spent with family.  We did the adult gift exchange as we have in years past and the little kids all opened gifts from the great aunts and Great Poppy.  I think they were all very happy with their gifts.  Carson enjoyed spending time playing with Mackenzey, Gabe, and Brooklynn.  He was so excited to see Mackenzey, as she was to see him, too.  She met us with a big smile at the door, asking if she could take Carson's coat so they could get to playing already.  :) 

We woke early on Christmas morning to open our family gifts and to see what Santa brought Carson.  He was SO excited to get his Lego police station and socks from Santa.  Yes, I said socks.  He had been wanting socks from Santa for a few weeks - he does love new socks, the feel of them, but it's such an odd request from a 3-year old.  Luckily, Santa got the message and left Carson some nice, new socks.  He was very excited!  He loved all of the gifts from Mama and Daddy, too.  He wanted to get started putting things together and was busy playing almost immediately.  He was one happy little man! 

We headed over to Grandpa and Grandma's house in the afternoon on Christmas day.  Everyone was more than generous with their gifts - the tree was overflowing with gifts!  And it took quite a while to get through them all.  But we made it and everyone was very happy with their gifts again.  Carson's highlight was his last gift that he opened from Grandpa and Grandma - a Playmobil garage!  He squealed with glee when he opened it and was super excited to get it out to play with.  It is definitely a favorite toy around the house now.  As always, Carson had so much fun with all of his cousins.  They all play together very well and have a blast together!  He always looks so forward to getting together with them. 

On the morning of the 26th, we headed west for brunch in Grand Rapids at Kevin's Uncle Randy's and Aunt Gretchen's house to celebrate with the Van Heukelum family.  Carson and Rebecca were nearly inseparable again - they love seeing each other so much.  It was a wonderful party - great food, great company, great music, great times!  We had a delicious brunch and spent lots of time visiting.  We listened to the older great-grandkids read the Christmas stotry, then we all sang some Christmas songs.  Uncle Randy played his guitar and sang a few songs, Anna played her violin, and Joel played his electric guitar.  Then the great-grandchildren opened some gifts from Great Grandpa and Great Grandma and it was time for the big reveal.  The entire family - aunts, uncles, and all the cousins - went in together on a nice Christmas gift for Great Grandpa and Great Grandma... a big screen TV!  They were very surprised and seemed thrilled with it!  It was so great to see their surprise and excitement! 

Later in the week, we went over to Nana's and Papa's house to celebrate Christmas with them and Aunt Lindsay.  We had a nice dinner and then opened gifts.  Carson was very excited about his new drum set and screamed for about 10 seconds when he opened the Lego Apple Tree House set.  :)  He has been quite fun this year with his reactions to gifts.  I hope he continues to find such joy in years to come.  And he loves his new Nerf guns, too.  He and Daddy have had many Nerf wars throughout the house, much to Jet's dismay.  :) 

Finally, we celebrated with the Moore family on New Year's Day.  We were supposed to celebrate with them the weekend before Christmas, but something came up and we ended up postponing it until New Year's Day.  It worked out well.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out for Michelle and Tyson to join us.  But the rest of us still had a lot of fun.  Carson and Macie had a lot of fun together.  We had a nice dinner, opened gifts, and watched lots of old home movies from when my cousins and I were little.  What fun times we had - and they are hilarious to look back on now! 

That wraps up all of our Christmas celebrations for 2011.  We are blessed with wonderful, generous family for which we have shared and made many memories with this year.  Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Holleboom Family!

I thought I'd share our picture from our Christmas card and annual letter... Merry Christmas (slightly belated)!!

Hello family and friends! 

It’s time for the annual Christmas letter!  We sure enjoy reading all of the letters we receive and always look forward to them.  We hope this finds you well and healthy and that you have all had a good year.  It has been a wonderful year at our house.  Full of many fun times spent with family and friends, by which many great memories were made. 

Kevin continues to work for TRW Automotive as a Logistics Specialist.  His job requires a good deal of travel around the United States.  This year, he has made many trips to the Virginia/Tennessee area, as well as to Lafayette, Indiana.  We thought Kevin would have to make a lengthy trip to China earlier in the year, but thankfully he was able to handle things from his office in Livonia and did not have to make the trip afterall. 

Sara continues to enjoy her job at MDOT as the International Border Crossing and Trade Specialist.  It has been a busy year with the administration change, which led to renewed excitement and activity in several projects that Sara has been working on.  In addition to her involvement on the New International Trade Crossing, she has also been quite involved in the Accelerated Rail efforts that are currently underway in Michigan.

Carson celebrated his 3^rd birthday in February with a Cat in the Hat themed party.  He continues to be such a happy, curious, funny, ambitious, loving, sweet little guy.  Carson played indoor soccer at the beginning of the year, which he enjoyed once he got over his initial shyness.  They didn’t play organized games at such a young age, but rather worked on ball handling skills, teamwork and sportsmanship, and just having fun.  

This fall, Carson started attending preschool two mornings a week at Faith Lutheran Preschool in Grand Blanc.  He really loves the time he spends at school.  He adores his teachers and has made many new friends.  He has just really grown up a lot in the few short months he's been there.  We enjoy seeing his growth, both spiritually and emotionally.  As parents, it really has been an amazing thing to witness the innocence and undoubting faith in God of a young child.  We look forward to watching his continued growth in months and years to come. 

As always, we spent lots of time with family and friends this year.  We did so many fun things!  We took full advantage of both our zoo and children/science museum memberships and visited many different zoos and children’s museums in the MidWest.  We also attended several basketball games and waterski shows.  We went sledding, camping, swimming, hiking, exploring, and tailgating.  We took several day trips this summer to local beaches and to Lake Michigan.  We welcomed lots of new babies, went to several weddings, and celebrated many great birthdays with family members and friends.  It was just a great year overall. 

We were fortunate enough to have taken many fantastic vacations this past year.  We traveled to Scottsdale, Arizona; Denver, Colorado; Sheboygan, Wisconsin; Lafayette, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; and Niagara Falls, Ontario.  We got to see some amazing sights, do lots of fun things, and spend some great, quality time together as a family. 

One of the highlights of our summer was enjoying our backyard swimming pool.  We were offered a year-old above-ground swimming pool by a friend of Sara’s mom, which we took up on her offer.  We were very thankful that we did, too!  We spent many hours swimming and keeping cool during the hot summer we experienced here in Michigan.  Carson continues to love the water and is quite the little fish.   

The highlight of our year came in late October when we learned of a great blessing to come to our family… a new baby!  With God’s blessings, we will be welcoming a new baby into our family in June 2012!  It has been a rough pregnancy so far, but we are all very excited for the end result.  And hopefully Sara will start to feel a little better soon, as she progresses through the second trimester. 

So now we find ourselves preparing for Christmas and a new year.  We are excited to see what the new year brings, as it’s sure to be something great!  We pray that your new year is, as well!    

We wish you a very blessed holiday season! 

Love,

The Holleboom Family

(Kevin, Sara, Carson, Baby #2, Jet, and Denver)

December Fun

December has been a little better than November was for us.  Sara started taking some over-the-counter medicines to help with the "morning" sickness, which did help a little.  She still spent quite a bit of time on the couch, but definitely started seeing some improvements by the end of the month. 

We started out December by getting to see Sara's long-time best friend, Jaime, and her son, Grant!  They flew home for a quick weekend visit - what a change for them, to go from mild weather in Arizona to quite chilly temperatures here in Michigan!  We were so glad to have the chance to spend some time with them!  Grant has changed so much since we saw him in October - why do these kids have to grow up so fast?  ;-P  He's still such a cute little man - and so happy!  Jaime snapped some pictures of the three of us in front of her mom's tree for our Christmas cards, but mostly we just spent a lot of time talking and visiting, which is always the best! 

On December 14th, Sara had her first ultrasound.  There was some question as to the baby's due date, so the doctor's wanted to do an ultrasound to ensure a higher degree of accuracy.  The baby was measuring over 11 weeks at that time and was quite active.  Carson enjoyed looking at the ultrasound pictures that evening.  It finally sunk into him, too.  After looking at the ultrasound picture for a few minutes, he looked up with a look of wonder on his face and said "I really AM going to be a big brother!?  Oh this is so wonderful!  The baby is beautiful!"  We think he's going to be such a sweet big brother.  :)

December was also filled with lots of Christmas preparation and activities.  We found Carson's annual tree ornament - a replica of the Fisher Price Little People house that Sara actually had as a child, which Carson absolutely loves to play with at his Nana's and Papa's house.  Unfortunately, this ornament does not have a working garage door, but it opens up just like the house and has a working doorbell!

We made some Christmas goodies, though not as many as we usually do.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any Christmas baking done, but we did manage to make a couple yummy treats - some chocolate covered pretzel rods and white chocolate peppermint popcorn bark.  Sara also made a couple Christmas gifts this year for her friends... a padded camera strap cover for Jaime (and one for myself, too!) and a monogram painting for Sara and Adam.  Hopefully they like(d) them!  :)

Carson had a classroom party on his last day of school, December 20th.  The parents were invited in for the party and the children sang us some Christmas songs they've been learning (different from the songs they learned for their program), they gave the parents some homemade Christmas tree ornaments they have worked so hard on, and we all got to decorate sugar cookies for a snack.  It was a fun time!

The evening of December 20th, we attended the Faith Lutheran Preschool Christmas Program.  Carson had quite the entourage in the audience, cheering him on - Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Dan, Aunt Julie, Anna, Joel, Nana, Papa, Aunt Jeri, Uncle Mike, Mama, and Daddy.  He felt quite special.  :)  He didn't really sing many words of the songs (though he does know them well because he sings them all the time at home), but he did do most of the motions.  The rest of the time, he was busy giving shout-outs to his entourage in the audience,  jumping up and down the stairs, talking to his friends in class, and yes, the teacher did have to come over and speak to him about four times during the 25-minute program.  :)  He did very well, though he was a little star struck, we think.  :) 

Carson shared something funny that I need to include here, as well... when we left his class party on the 20th and got into the car, Carson was quite somber for a few minutes.  I asked him what was wrong.  He says "Gabi told me today that she can't like me anymore!"  Gabi is one of the girls in his class, whom Carson has had a crush on since day one.  A few weeks ago, they both decided they liked each other.  Well, I guess that on Monday, during the rehearsal for the Christmas program, they were talking and whatnot... and the teacher had to hush them a few times.  Well, Gabi told Carson she can't like him anymore because he got her in trouble!  LOL!  His first crush and his first heartbreak.  Carson has decided that Gabi was just having a bad day and things will be back to the way they were when they get back to school after break.  :)

Sweet November

Sweet November... I wish I could say that about our November this year... or at least about my November this year, LOL!  I think November felt like the longest month of my life... although December has been pretty close, as well.  We found out at the end of October that we were going to have another baby!  This was exciting news for us - and silly us, we thought I'd have another fairly easy pregnancy.  Ha... not so much.  ;-P  I spent much of November lying on the couch when I was home and feeling as though I was suffering through each day.  Thankfully, November is only 30 days long... although it felt like an eternity to us. 

So we didn't do much in November.  Sara was supposed to travel to the Toronto area that week after Niagara Falls and to Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula the week after that, but had to cancel both trips due to "morning" sickness.  Kevin was also supposed to be traveling on the days Sara wasn't, but he had to cancel his trips, as well.  We're very thankful we have understanding bosses at work!  Carson also came down with his first sinus/ear infection mid-month, after he and Sara had been suffering through some bad colds.  But he got over it, though we both had lingering coughs for a long time... and Sara still has hers, it just won't go away. 

We didn't do too many fun things in November, but we did make it to celebrate Great Poppy's birthday and to Thanksgiving with Sara's family.  We also got the Christmas tree and decorations up the weekend of Thanksgiving.  It took all weekend to get just the living room decorated (when it would normally take half a day), so we decided we'd stop there and forego decorations in the other rooms of the house.  We also had our first good snowfall at the end of the month.  We got about 5 1/2 inches of snow overnight, which Carson and Jet were both very eager to go play in!  I didn't get many pictures of everything, but here's a short run-down.

Niagara Falls, Ontario

The fall seems to be a busy time for both Kevin and Sara at work. And it almost always involves quite a bit of travel for both. Luckily, we're able to take advantage of it at times. Sara had to attend a conference in Niagara Falls, Ontario and make a presentation at the beginning of November, so Kevin decided to use his last couple vacation days and tag along with Carson.

This was Carson's first trip to Canada - which is kind of unbelievable considering how often Kevin and Sara are both there. The weather was perfect while we were in Niagara. We had a good time, Kevin and Carson especially. It was good for the two of them to have some good one-on-one time together. They had fun exploring the city and checking out the falls. They also enjoyed some swimming at the hotel pool and made a side trip to check out the Welland Canal Locks, which connect Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

Our hotel had a perfect location overlooking the falls and at the foot of Clifton Hill. It made for easy exploring. Carson was quite impressed with the waterfalls. He thought it was pretty cool that you could feel the mist from the falls pretty much where ever we went. And he loved the sounds the falls make - he does a pretty good imitation. :)

When Sara was done with the conference on the first day, we all took off for the Skylon Tower. Carson was so excited to ride in the yellow elevator on the outside of the tower and was not intimidated by being 785 feet in the air whatsoever. You really get a bird's eye view of the falls from that height. Its was beautiful!  

Carson also loved seeing the falls all lit up at night. Too bad we weren't there the following week when the holiday lights begin - we heard it is even more gorgeous then.

It was a nice little getaway for our last family vacation of the year.  We all had a good time. It had been quite a while since either Kevin or Sara had been there - at least 15 or more years for Kevin and 6 years for Sara. We were surprised to see what a tourist trap everything is... we just don't really remember it from our earlier trips. Everything is so overpriced and cheesy. But it's worth dealing with to see the Niagara Falls. :)