NOTES FROM THE BURROW

NOTES FROM THE BURROW
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

Sunday, December 26, 2010

'Tis the season to be merry.


Emily is ready for the chili-mac!!



Things I loved about Christmas this year:

1. Caroling at the nursing home. There was this one old lady. When I saw her, I just knew she would love to see Genny. I took Genny over by her and the lady took my hand and smiled so big. She laughed at Genny. I put Genny on the ground in her bucket right next to the lady and while we were singing, the lady tickled Genny's feet. Genny gave her the cutest smiles. Finally, I took Genny out and held her on the lady's lap. The lady held my hand and told me that Genny is the cutest baby ever. It was the sweetest thing. I'm so glad we did it.



2. The children's reaction to their gifts. They seemed to really love everything. I'm so glad when they are happy.

Calvin just noticed the xbox 360!

Lucy likes her camera!

3. Lizzie dancing with Pa playing the harmonica.

4. Making cookies with my sister. Cooking snacks with my sister. Eating chili-mac with my sister. Picking out Wixey's danishes with my sister. Hugging my sister. Talking to my sister. If it involved my sister, I liked it.


5. The mimosas that Chris made for Christmas breakfast.

6. Playing The Game of Things with Jodi and kids. Best game ever! Lots of poop! And a little pinworm.

7. When we were leaving Carol's and I just knew that she shouldn't be alone and we left Calvin to stay with her and distract her a little from her heartache.

8. The video that Emily made.

9. Eating Wixey's danishes Christmas morning.

10. Shrimp


Merry Christmas everyone!!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

It's a membership to the Jelly of the Month Club. Clark, that's the gift that keeps on giving

So no mailed Christmas cards again this year. I still wrote the letter though. Enjoy!

December 2010

Merry Christmas to you, our dear friends and family! We have had a busy year and are so excited to be receiving your news and sharing ours. We so look forward to everyone’s Christmas news. Here’s our rundown:

Emily is in the 9th grade but her teachers tell us that she is reading at the level of an average 50 year old. She plays concert piano every week at local nursing homes to lift the spirits of the residents there. She was recently contacted by the USA Olympic swimming team and is so talented she gets to bypass any kind of tryouts. Look for her in London in 2012! Emily never wastes time watching TV or with Facebook. Instead, she spends her time volunteering at local soup kitchens and knitting hats for unhatted babies in foreign countries. We love Emily so much and her bright smile is so bright that it is brighter than the noonday sun.

Christopher is in the 7th grade. He was awarded the “Best Student in our School” Award last semester. He gets A++ in every class and will be teaching next semester instead of learning. He has wrestled every available wrestler in the area and simply cannot be pinned. We are currently in negotiations with the WWE for him to become the youngest wrestler ever. Christopher abhors the Wii and all computer games. Instead he would prefer working in the garden, washing the car or writing in his journal. He will be performing on his Bass at the National Theater in Washington DC over the Fourth of July holiday next year. He became an Eagle Scout earlier than was thought humanly possible.

Calvin is in 5th grade and is the youngest person ever to be recruited by Ohio State’s football team. He will probably skip high school completely and go directly to college where he will be on the varsity football, basketball, ice hockey, track and baseball teams. Calvin is a very serious young man who loves to write poetry and was contacted by President Obama to write a poem to be read at his inauguration in 2013. Too bad that’s not going to happen. Calvin prefers playing with his baby sisters to being with his friends and can often be seen having a lovely tea party with them. After homework and his nightly 1000 push-up and sit-ups are complete, of course.

Spencer is in the 1st grade and he lost all of his teeth this year and they all grew back in within a week. His doctor said he is a miracle of modern orthodontia. Spencer keeps his room so clean that we eat off the floor in there every night. His classmates love him so much that they bow in his presence and spread rose petals on the floor for him to walk on. In addition to all of this, Spencer will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Mathematics next year.

Cameron goes to preschool where he has mastered crafts, blocks, magnets, stories, gym and snack. He is the best student they have ever seen at Tiny Tots! Cameron loves to help me do the laundry and can often be seen begging to hang shirts and match socks. Cameron has learned to tame wild animals and often I will find a chipmunk or squirrel nestled next to him on his pillow at night. What a dear!

Lizzie is 2 and has been contacted by Baby Gap to be the face on their new ad campaign. So in addition to her already rigorous competitive gymnastics schedule and her traveling dance troupe, we now can add modeling to her schedule. Lizzie started playing the tuba last year. She just picked it up one day and we were all amazed! Lizzie has the most beautiful hair that we suspect that Pantene will begin calling any day needing a new hair model. Be on the lookout for her sweet face everywhere.

Genny was born in June. She was born reciting the ABCs and had all the Articles of Faith memorized before she was four weeks old. Genny started eating solid foods at two weeks. She was also born potty trained! What a blessing! Genny has never cried. She uses her words to tell us when she is hungry or tired. She is literally an angel sent from heaven. We are planning on starting her on piano lessons next month. She loves to sit at the piano and play Emily’s music. I think she’s ready to start.

Chris has had a rather eventful year. Not only did he complete one of his life goals of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest but he also ran in a marathon every month. Chris makes so much money it is absolutely ridiculous. We just don’t know what to do with all of it. He stopped speaking in regular sentences this year and now will only quote scripture to communicate. In Chinese. He was elected president of the local Rotary Club, Lions Club, Civitan Club and Optimist Club. He re-sodded our entire lawn this summer, build an addition on our home, taught all the local children to ride two-wheelers and reads for the blind twice a week.

Jennifer has a cleaning lady that comes daily to make sure her house is always clean and organized. In addition, she drops off her van for a daily detail while she shops and gets a massage. Jennifer pays her nanny really well and that’s why she has so much time for the hair salon, mall and volunteering. She is room mom for every child including the older ones. The schools said they didn’t really need room mom’s in high school and middle school, but Jennifer is proving them wrong. Jennifer’s scrapbooks are so up to date that she has already scrapbooked the future. Jennifer bakes her own bread with the wheat she grows and never serves her children anything artificial or store bought. She prays daily that any future pregnancy will bring twins. She lives a storybook life.

We have a pet dog, Nala. We love her so much. She recently won the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. And rescued a family of 6 from fire.

Our house is just full of love and never a cross word is spoken. Share our joy with a visit this year!

Merry Christmas from the Vos Family! Chris, Jennifer, Emily, Christopher, Calvin, Spencer, Cameron, Lizzie and Genny


Monday, December 31, 2007

Weekly Top Five 12/31/2007

My last top five of the year! These are the top five Christmas songs that I hate.

1. "Please, Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas" by John Denver. Think I'm making this one up? I'm not. My mom's family used to sing it and she hated it too. Check it out here.

2. Any Christmas song sung by *nSync or Backstreet Boys or any boy band. I don't want to spend one more Christmas listening to their music.

3. "Santa Baby" by Madonna or Eartha Kitt. The epitome of materialism.

4. "Blue Christmas" by Elvis. I don't like pretty much anything by Elvis. Especially Christmas music.

5. "Christmas Eve on Woodward Avenue" by Karen Newman. Woodward is the last place on earth I'd want to be on Christmas Eve. I really dislike local celebrities who think they are something great.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Gee, SquidWard, maybe Santa will bring me a dictionary so I can understand what you just said.

Christmas has come and gone already. I feel like I spend so much time gearing up for it and preparing and then, Whoosh!, it's over. We had a very happy, fun and wonderful few days. It started on Saturday with a nice visit from Chris' cousin and his family. They live in Kansas and we don't see them very often. We all met at Buca di Beppo for a fun meal and time to get reacquainted. Chris' aunt and uncle from St. Ignace and his cousin and family from Livonia were there also, in addition to Chris' dad, grandpa and brother and family. Chris' grandpa turned 90 on December 13 so we were celebrating his birthday as well. It was fun times! PS: The food at Buca di Beppo is great but the ambiance is a little risque. I don't think we will be returning anytime soon. Christopher refused to go into the bathroom because of some "Inappropriate" pictures.

Jeff, Jay, Lynn and Chris
Morgan and Emily
Stephenson and Vos boys

On Sunday, we went to Church and enjoyed our ward's Christmas program. It was nice listening to the children sing. Poor Calvin hates getting up in front of a group and he hid the best he could behind taller children. They did a great job.

On Monday, we made our usual trek to Mecca...I mean Toledo...for our annual Ideal Hot Dog meal. In attendance were our family and the Onofrios. We headed out comfortably (for the first time ever!) in our 12 passenger van and had great weather conditions for our drive. We arrived in Toledo and made our way to Heatherdowns and Eastgate where lies the best dive restaurant ever. We ordered tons of chili mac and garlic bread and left with full bellies. This tradition started many years ago when my Dad still lived in Toledo and we have been keeping it alive ever since. I think Lucy must have loved it because she gave some beautiful smiles while we were there. The best thing about chili mac is that you get to burp it up and retaste it all night long!

What should I order, chili mac or chili mac?




This is the best thing I've ever eaten!!

After Ideal Hot Dog, we opened presents together. Anna, Tony and Lucy loved their blankets I made them. Lucy cuddled up in hers and went right to sleep. The kids loved the presents they received. It was fun. After presents we prepared the Christmas Snacks. Anna and I decided that we would rather eat appetizers from now on that regular meals. They are much more fun! We awarded our treats with fun names.

Best Newcomer: Pizza Dip
Returning Favorite: Seven Layer Taco Dip
Fan Favorite: Mini Egg Rolls
Best Use of Seafood: Crab Dip
Best Use of Pickled Bologna: Pickled Bologna



Emily with her blanket

Lucy nestled all snug in her blanket.
The piece de resistance


Anna and Tony left and we packed the kids off to bed. In the morning, we ran down to see what Santa left. Everyone was thrilled and excited! Spencer gets the award for most enthusiasm. He proclaimed everything "awesome!" It was fun watching them be so excited.

Awesome! I got Spongebob Legos!

Chi-chi-chi Chia!


Christmas morning we went to Grammy and Grandpa's house for traditional egg bake and presents. We had fun eating, opening gifts and playing with cousins.



Christopher and Grammy playing Speed Stack.

Tyler with his Jeff Gordon blanket

Yesterday, we treated the kids to an exciting surprise and took them to Chuck E. Cheese with the Heiners. We had been promising them a trip to Chuck E. Cheese for over a year but never wanted to spend the money on it. We pooled our Christmas money and treated them to a fun evening. They really enjoyed it!


Now the celebrating is over but we are still having fun. The kids have enjoyed putting together Spongebob Legos with dad, playing on their Nintendo DSs, playing Uno Attack and having fun. I will be sad when they go back to school in two weeks.

Friday, December 21, 2007

Puke? That's a funny word. Can I use that?


Yesterday was Christmas cookie baking day! Anna and I went to my friend, Jodi's house to bake various treats and have fun together. Anna was making cookies within cookies which ended up being very yummy. I made some date bars and Hungarian pastries. Jodi was making an apricot/white chocolate fudge that looked so good! We weren't even half-way done when I got a phone call from the elementary school. Calvin threw up in his classroom and needed to be picked up. Such a bummer! So we packed up our half-done stuff and left. I had to finish my Hungarian pastries at home. The recipe for these delectable cookies was given to my mother by our next door neighbor growing up. She was Hungarian. She made them every Christmas and I can remember being so excited when she would knock on the door with the plate of cookies for our family. They are so great! They come apricot or walnut filled. The ones I made yesterday are good but not as good as Ann Gasser's. Hers reign supreme. She also used to make great Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage. As I child, whenever I heard her pressure cooker whistling through an open summer window, I knew there would be stuffed cabbage for dinner. She would always bring some for our family. I have that recipe too and it is one of my very favorites. Enjoy the pictures of my cookies because that's all I have to share. The cookies are going fast!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

I'm cute! I'm CUTE!

Last night, we watched "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" as a family. It is a very strange holiday movie. Poor Rudolph and his family are ridiculed by other reindeer and Santa himself for a birth defect that couldn't be helped. To quote Santa, "Donner, you should be ashamed of yourself." Poor Rudolph and family, made to feel like outcasts because of their sons deformity. I hate Santa at that moment. Little Hermey is an interesting character. He wants to be a dentist. We knew someone in our student ward that looked just like a grown up Hermey. He was our Sunday School teacher and Chris would mutter under his breath to me, "I want to be a dentist" all through class. Funny thing is, the guy is a dentist now. I'm pretty sure that Hermey needs to be on the same shelf as the Gay Elves. (See previous post.) The island of misfit toys is quite disturbing. I want to know what the elves were smoking that made the train with square wheels, the squirt gun shoots jelly and the dolly that may or may not be a cross dresser. In spite of it's oddities, or perhaps because of them, this is still one of my all time favorite Christmas movies.

It's not going in the yard, Russ. It's going in the living room.

We finally got our tree/house decorated! My Weekly Top Five for this week is My Top Five Favorite Christmas Ornaments on our Tree/Decorations around the house.

1. My mom's creche. I know it is just from Home Interiors and not very expensive or fancy, but it is not Christmas without this nativity set up on the piano.

2. Wooden Snowman Ornament. My parents made a ton of these wooden, hand-painted ornaments for their first Christmas tree. This is the only one that is left.3. All of the wonderful plastic canvas, beaded, wooden hand-made ornaments by Chris' grandma.4. Emily's "Baby's First Christmas" Ornament. It is a momma bunny holding a baby bunny. So precious.5. These are a snowman couple that my mom made for a Relief Society project. I don't know how many more christmas' they can survive. You can see the styrofoam cup peeking out of the bottom of the one on the left. They are cute!

Honorable Mention: Willow tree nativity

Stockings Chris and I made our first Christmas together.

Another of Ma's Handmade ornaments

One of Chris' Snoopy ornaments

The Gay Elves. They are very Gay. And I don't mean happy.
Spongebob!!
Chris as a little boy
Baby Jesus ornament that my 2nd grade teacher gave me.
Ornament from my parents' Hallmark collection
Handpainted ornaments that Chris loves


Dumbledore. Maybe he should go with the Gay Elves.


Our wedding Every ornament. Very fancy!

The finished tree. Very beautiful!!

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