Sunday, December 31, 2017

The POLAR EXPRESS on the BIG screen!

December 28:  Thursday again?!! It is SO frigid cold in Grand Rapids that I needed to think of something to do with my little fellow that would keep us nice and warm for our date night. After we "pigged" out at Mickey D's, we headed over to Celebration Cinema at Woodland ... We arrived a little early for the movie, so we walked around the mall for a little while looking at all of the pretty Christmas trees, lights, and oh ... we did stop in at the toy store while we were there.
 It was finally movie time, so we got our tickets, our popcorn, and got cozy comfortable in our seats.
 Brendan knows this movie practically by heart and he loves it. BUT he had never seen it on the big screen (nor had I!) and he truly enjoyed himself, screaming at all the good parts, yelling about the elves and the North Pole ... singing along with Billy, etc.
I'm so glad we got to do this together, Brendan. You are such a treasure.

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Christmas Day 2017

Christmas Day 2017:  Everyone came! Dylan, Kelly, Brendan, Aidan, and Shane arrived at 3:00. Dinner was served at 4:00.
 This baby! Yikes! What a yummy sweetheart he is!

Jesse, Di, Emma, Chris, Matt and Kaity arrived at 5:00 and we had Round Two of dinner and snacks and desserts, etc. 


 I have more pictures somewhere, but I cannot figure out what I did with them--which folder did I edit them?!?!?!
 The older kids really enjoy the little boys and it is so much fun to have the cousins together. They do really well together. AND this is the first time, in a very long time, that all SIX of my grandkids have been in ONE house!
Aidan was delighted with the entire experience! Look at his scrunchy little smile!
AIDAN! YOU DARLING BABY!!!

 Christopher yucked it up on my piano for awhile. He looks like a real piano-man here!
 And my "Bubby" updated all of my computer applications (yes! THANK YOU, Jesse!) ...
And the children sat at the art table and drew pictures together for quite a long time ... 

 Emma watched some DIY videos (one of her favorite things to do) ...
 I love this picture of Diana and Kelly ...
Brendan was a little aggravated with his grandma ALWAYS taking pictures !!
After Jesse's family went home, Brendan asked if he could "make a puppet show." So we got out our little finger puppets and stage, and Brendan told us an interesting story ...
 ... complete with a watery background he had colored earlier in the evening ... his story was all about a little dolphin who "dived" very deep into the ocean ...
 ... and that little dolphin landed on the back of a WHALE ... and the whale was breaching and the two of them jumped all the way into outer space ...
... and then the story got interrupted somehow and I never did hear how the dolphin and whale got back to earth. But that's okay. I can use my own imagination to figure that out. Perhaps they just stayed out in the stratosphere somewhere and enjoyed some twinkling stars all through Christmas night ...

PS:  Shane was here too and my heart was glad to see him and have him here with us. I was careful not to take any pictures of him because my last directive from him was that he would rather not be in any. 

Christmas Eve 2017

December 24:  Christmas Eve! After a beautiful candlelight service at Calvary ...

I drove over to Calvin's beautiful boardwalk forest place (which I can never remember the name) and took a very short hike ... the cold around here has been BITTER and I wasn't layered up very well, nor did I have my hiking boots on ...




 And then it was time to go to these dear folks house and open their presents! Yay, the O'Brien-Pahman's!!!
 Brendan wanted to know WHAT was in that BIG present. I told him that since Aidan was the littlest Pahman, he got the BIGGEST gift this year.
 Brendan wasn't too sure about the logic of this ... but baby Aidan scrunched up his adorable face in agreement ...

 We got right to opening the boxes ... everyone joined in and helped our little man ...

 And look! Aidan now has his very own ZANY ZOO to play with! Isn't it great?!
 Brendan got a bunch of dinosaurs with a habitat that zips into a carry/storage case! Baby Aidan thought they tasted swell.

 Brendan got TWO separate erupting volcanoes ... we did the small one right away.
 Brendan loves volcanoes.














 Kelly got some silverware she had been hankering for ... for quite some time. She was so pleased.






Hopefully, I will do a better narrative when I am not so tired ...