Christmas Holidays

We had a lovely Christmas Holidays this year.  After dealing with constant colds during the fall, all of us struggling with coughs, congestion, sore ears, fevers, aches and what not else we where very thankful to have a sick-free holiday time.  (We won’t mention that only a few days back into school and we all had a nasty cough again.)

It was a relaxing holidays with sleeping in, visiting, playing games and just not having to rush around.  We paced ourselves on plans and made a point of not planning much as all … all of us were rather done from the busy fall with back to back to back bad colds that wiped us out, many appointments, lots of homework, tons of meetings for Rob and just life in general.  So we all welcomed just doing nothing and Rob even had time off between Christmas and New Year’s so we could enjoy some extra family time.

The kids trying to smile in the freezing cold pool at the hotel we stayed in on New Year’s Eve

We spent New Year’s Eve in Chatham this year.  It was good to catch up with old friends.  It always feels like we never left when we go back there.  We checked into our hotel early so Rob could go visit with Ben before we did some other visiting in the afternoon.  We discovered a pool at the hotel, a rather cold pool, so the kids didn’t last very long and instead opted for a nice long long hot shower.

2013 was started off with some sleeping in and then enjoying lunch and Carmen and Gerald’s before heading towards London with their family for some sledding time.   

They say the older you get the fast time goes and it sure feels that way.  As I sit here I cannot believe that it is March already.  It feels like we just finished Christmas Holidays and now we’ve completed the March Break.  We’re two thirds of the way done another school year and in another month the weather will turn nicer and spring will be here again … winter always seems so long when you’re in it, but when it’s suddenly spring you can’t believe how fast time goes.

So this pretty much completes the year 2012.  I have one more very long post to do which I’m pretty much done, just waiting to complete a couple more pictures for it and then I’ll get around to posting it (which at the rate it’s coming together might be a week or so yet).  The kids have already been asking when I’ll publish the next book … hopefully they won’t have to wait 3-4 years for this one.

Family Pictures 2012

Fall time usually means Family Photo time and this year was no different.  We scrambled outdoors one evening after supper to quickly take pictures before it got dark.  I think we managed to get them done in about 15 minutes, the fast photo shot we’ve ever done.  Okay, it was probably more like 30 minutes by time we got ourselves out into the field and got the tripod set up … but regardless it was quick.

 

 

Santa at Grandpa and Grandma’s

On December 15th my side of the family gathered together for a family evening and chance for Grandpa and Grandma to spoil the grandkids with lots of presents.

First we enjoyed a Gourmetten dinner.  It has been many, many years since I have done Gourmetten and the kids had never even heard of such a thing before. 

We let the kids enjoy giving a try first.

Then the adults got a chance to sit down together while the kids enjoyed a movie of Frosty the Snowman.

Present time

Matthew and Aiden comparing that they got similar presents.

Matthew got a new hockey helmet that actually has a face mask, which he will need next winter when he starts playing school Saturday morning hockey.

The girls had taken note of the fact that there were only a few presents under the tree for them, so they were handing out presents to the other kids and skipping their turns (we usually do it from youngest to oldest) until I suggested that maybe they should open those big presents instead of waiting until the end.  Much to their delight inside the big present (locking filing cabinets so they can keep their private things stored away from each other) were many smaller presents … needless to say we ended up waiting for them at the end as they had some catching up to do on their unwrapping.

Matthew overheard me on the phone talking to my mom one day and our Santa evening and so he picked up on the fact that Santa was coming to Grandma’s.  We decided it was probably time to let him in on the secret that Grandpa and Grandma would be the Santa.  We also explain where his other gifts came from a couple weeks earlier.  He still talks about Santa and has a hard time comprehending that he’s not real, but yet he does now understand that his presents came from mom and dad, sisters and grandparents, aunts and uncles.

And here is miniature James aka Noah.  Mark and Val’s son Noah is around 18 months old here and if you took the red highlights out his hair he’d be a pretty close resemblance to James.  Those cheeks and that grin is definitely James.  There are often pictures of Noah that I have to take a second look as at first glance I see James.

Blog2Print

The blog books arrived and this is what I seen for the next few days … noses buried in books, talks about various pictures or things that happened in the past, lots of questions from Matthew who can’t read so he wants someone to explain the pictures.

The girls each worked their way through each of the books and so they could often be found curled up reading pages of their history.  Expensive books, but when you see the kids loving them it seems like an expense worth it for the memories it brings and refreshes.

I printed the books through Blog2Print.  As far as convenience goes I don’t think you can find another place that works more effectively … as least not that I could find and I spent a lot of time looking through my options.  As far as the finished product … I would have to say for someone who like things to be just so (okay somewhat of a perfectionist in some aspects of my life) you are not going to get that with this printing program.

I would really have loved to print through Blurb.  I have used Blurb in the past for smaller projects with no problems.  I love how it designs and how you have control over every detail.  Blurb has a program that slurps up your blog so you can bring it.  Unfortunately I have had no luck using this program.  Blurb would effectively slurp up my blog but then the program would run soooooo sllllooooooowwwwww that it was impossible to work in. The computer would be bogged down and I found I would have to reboot.  I did not have the patience to sit waiting forever for a picture to move position (when you move one item it needs to adjust all the following pages and when you have 200 pages afterwards that’s a lot of work).  I tried it on three different computers so I know it’s not my computer that’s the problem.  I did some research and found that others also seem to have the same problem, but there doesn’t seem to be any answers on how to fix it.  I tried it several years ago and then again before I printed these books … I finally decided I had to give up on Blurb and find another option.

So I did research and looked around for a simple but effective way.   Really I found nothing, although I tried lots of things.  Even copying and pasting each post did not work well … so I finally decided to settle on Blog2Print because either I could spend hours and hours and hours trying to put a book together perfectly or I could spent about 10-15 minutes to have Blog2Print put it together.  Either I could not ever get the books printed, or I could finally have a printed version.  I decided I had to settle for less then perfect so that at least we had a printed version that we could sit down and look at.  Originally I wanted to buy a copy for each of the kids … but at the price of each book (approximately $100) and them being less then perfect I decided to purchase one copy.  Ten years from now they may have a nice, simple, fast, program that allows for the perfect print blog at a fraction of the bring … we’ll wait for that time :)

 

So here’s the finished project of my 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 blog books:

I put a picture of the family on the front covers

As you can see the title is small and you can’t even see in this picture that the year is printed on the side by the pictures (see picture below for a close up … yes it’s that small).  You have no options with regards to fonts or font sizes.  You have a few designs to pick from (I chose the same design in different colours) and you can write in a title, something on the side, and add a picture … it loads it in, you can change anything, take it or leave it.

 

 

There was an option to put a picture on the back so I put a picture of just the kids

That’s it … a couple clicks to upload pictures, write in a title and subtitle (or author) and hit process and it creates your blog book by creating the cover and sucking up your blog information according to the dates you asked it to.  A few minutes later and you have a blog ready to print.  You cannot change or edit anything inside the book, you either take it or leave it.  You can preview it, but it’s pointless to look to closely at the preview since you’ll just have the desire to want to correct and fix things.

Some inside page shots

The pictures are all printed the same size, doesn’t matter what size you had them on the blog.  They are not very big and so you won’t get detail if that’s what you’re looing for.  I also noticed that they are no all crisp and clear, so they seem to be low resolution.  You get the basic idea but you’re not getting high quality.

The next shot show how there are often large spaces at the end of the pages.  This is usually because the next thing is a picture and there was not enough room to put the picture. 

Or here when you have a title to a new post at the end of the page

There will be other random spaces in the book .. not too often but still you can find them here and there and wonder why they are there.  When you’re paying per page this is rather annoying.

Sometimes the writing would get all cluttered up on one page and the pictures be on different pages, as is the case with the one below where I wrote comments beside the pictures but it put it all together in paragraph form and then lined the pictures up aftewards.

Am I happy with what I got?  I got what I expected so in that sense I guess I’m content.  These would not be my idea of a good, well published books (although I must add the that quality of the printing material is good), but if I factor in the time spent preparing the books and that it’s all computer generated I am happy that I didn’t spend hours and hours on them.  I do hope that some day there will be a better program for doing this, although it likely won’t matter anymore by time there is as I probably won’t be blogging anymore. 

I am not very dedicated to my blog anymore and the only reason I do it is because the kids keep getting after me to publish more.  They love to read it and can often be found looking back through old posts and therefore I printed them so they could curl up on the couch or in their bed and read it.  I like that the pressure me to try keep up (which I never do) so that I do actually get things written down and the pictures that are taken do actually get put to use (since I’m rather far behind on PhotoAlbums/Books).  I like that we have something to look back to to remember things, but I find if I’m writing it half a year later I’ve already forgotten most of the details anyways and it seems rather pointless … I like to catch the details of the moment.

For some time I have been contemplating whether to carry on with the blog and I really think the best thing would be to stop.  The majority of my readers are looking for fructose malabsorption information and since I no longer deal with that on this blog it really is not worth the work just for the kids.  I would instead try to create a blog/journal photobook in Blurb so that at the end of the year I would have the same thing as my blog but be able to print it in a nice good quality book format with crystal clear pictures in various sizes etc. and no wasted spaces.

The girls have begged me to carry on blogging and Marietta has offered to help, but I think for the time being I am going to finish off 2012 and try using Blurb for a bit … whether I continue to post random thoughts and stuff on her instead of a family journal only time will tell (don’t hold your breath).

That said, I still have a few more posts before I hit the end of 2012 … maybe I’ll get them done before the end of March (I can’t believe it’s March already)

Santa 2012

Santa arrived on Friday, December 1st this year.

Our tradition is for the kids to put their wish list letter to Santa in their stocking a few days before Santa actually arrives, which we usually aim for a weekend around December 5th.  This year Matthew still believed in Santa and didn’t really seem to have any doubts about him, except to ask once or twice if Santa was for real.  When we asked him where he thought his presents came from he was content again to think it was Santa that brought them. 

The Wednesday before our gift exchange Matthew put his letter in his stocking and the next morning … tada, Santa had picked up the letter and left a few presents.  Kids made sure they were up on time that morning to check out their stockings.  Since I really rather not put too much candy in their stockings I try to get a little gift instead.

 

 

 

 

Matthew got a round baler for with his tractors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebecca received a bracelet; Marietta receive a razor and shaving cream (she’s dressed in her school gym clothes for the Volleyball Tournament which was that day)

On Saturday, December 1st we decided to go see the Santa Claus Parade.  Since the summer when Rebecca was on the 4H float in the parade (see here) the kids have had an interest in parades.  So off we went to see the local parade and gather a collection of candy canes.

Just before we left while the kids were waiting in the van Rob and I quickly put the presents in the living room and so when we arrived home Matthew discovered that Santa had stopped by our place on his way to the Parade and left some gifts.

We did a $5-10 gift exchange again this year (we all buy something for Matthew also but he’s oblivious to where they come from).  This year us girls pooled together and made a basket of items for Rob …some cologne, dutch stuff, work gloves.

As the girls get older and already have an over abundance of craft items and can be a bit complicate to decide what to get them, although each year we end up finding more then enough in the end.  Books is something that we give more regularly now and this year we gave the girls each some books that they can use for their nighttime devotions.  They aren’t necessarily devotions books, but church history books written for them to understand and so they can slowly work through these at night reading a page or two at a time.

Rebecca received 3 books written by Sinclair B. Ferguson about Irenaeus of Lyons, Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch.  Marietta received the book This Was John Calvin by Thea B. Van Halsema and Faithfulness under Fire by William Boekestein

Together the kids received the book Amazing Stories from Times Past, Devotions for Children and Families by Christine Farenhorst.  We have actually not read any of these books yet as we are currently working our way through the book A Message for You .  We would love to find more time to read but since the kids like to read them all together it doesn’t always work out to read a lot at a time and we find the current devotion has provided good discussions so there’s no hurry to work through it.

Rebecca received a new watch, waterproof this time so in the summer they aren’t constantly looking for or without it because they always have to take it off.  Matthew’s glee about receiving a whoopee cushion from Marietta … one the inflates on it’s own so no more slobbery gobber all over the thing … the last one only lasted a day, lucky us this one has already done just fine for two months.

A snow tube …this quickly became the new favourite once we actually received some snow.

Contigo Travel mugs and Water Bottles.  Rob gave me one of these for my birthday last year (okay, the package had two, but really he wanted one and figured I might like the other one).  Love, love, love these!!!  This is THE travel mug.  You want hot you got it.  My tea stays HOT (as in too hot to drink) for a good hour, warm (drinkable) for 2-3 hours, but 4 hours it’s might still have some heat … but it never lasts that long so I’m not sure.  And the better part … these things DO NOT spill!  Love it … just throw it in the purse right side up, upside down, whatever … no leaking AT ALL.  I just went to their website, I had no idea they had so many different options because I haven’t seen them all .. the ones the kids got is the only kind I ever see for travel mugs.  The prices on the website are interesting too since the other thing I was going to say about this product is that it is such a reasonable price.  You can get these at Costco, the travel mug comes in sets of 2 for $19 and the water bottles in sets of 3 for $19.  So there’s my sales pitch in case you haven’t heard of them (in this area they are very common)

So the kids each got their own travel mug.  I found that they were often using mine in the past year when they were sick as they were so handy for keeping their drink warm and not spilling.  I figured they would put them to good use for more reasons then just sickness (although the number of colds we’ve had this winter means they’ve been well used just with sickness … great for taking tea to school for a cough or sore throat)   Everyone in the family also got waterbottles … these are very well used for lunches and at home.

The kids open their gift

The mugs were Rob’s gift exchange item.  I put my gift exchange items inside the mugs … but they didn’t notice that the mugs were a bit heavy, so I finally had to suggest they check the inside of their mugs.  The

Matthew found dutch candies inside his mug … and this is his message to dad to say “they’re all mine, don’t touch”

The big gift did not arrive on time … even though it had said it would arrive a week already before we had gift exchange.  I was not too impressed about this since I would have waited for a sale if I knew they weren’t going to make it on time.  So instead the kids received a letter.

Dear Van Middelkoop Family I regret to inform you that one of your “biggest” presents was not prepared on time and will not arrive for a couple weeks. After much thought and consideration about what present would be well suited for the entire family I came to the conclusion that instead of a trip away for a few days, or a special event, it would be nice to have a present that can be used to remember events and enjoy the past. The present was something that my elves could not prepare in my workshop and so I had to ask someone else to put it together. They were unable to have it completed by today but I knew you would love to have your other presents so I have delivered the other gifts for you to enjoy in the meantime. Since it is a very busy time of year for me I thought the quickest way to get the present to you would be to have it delivered by mail and so you should receive another present in a couple weeks time. Hopefully you will enjoy the memories that it brings. Much love, Santa

Marietta quickly guessed what the gift was … the blog put into print/books. This has been a well enjoyed gift and while Matthew didn’t seem much interested at the time of the letter he is quite often found surfin’ through the books and looking at the pictures … in a couple years he’ll actually be able to read it.

Firehall

The kindergarten class went to the firehall in November. The kids learned some basic fire safety but the more exciting part for them was getting to see the trucks and equipment

Fireman Matthew

Taking his turn in the backseat … can’t always be the driver

The antique firetruck from 1931, used in parades and shows and such

Rob’s family

In November we were able to gather together to celebrate Rob’s step-father’s 80th birthday.  We also took the opportunity to take a few photos that day.  They were quick snap shots, too many people for anything decent, but still a memory of how the family has grown.

Mom and Children. 

Back: Lynda, John, Rob, Heather. Front: Carmen, Mom and Ingrid. Missing: Cindy and Jay

I think the total count is 44 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild (the one Mom is holding) … there should be 39 of the grandchildren present in this picture … plus a hubby, finance and boyfriends.

Mr. Pumpkin

The Kindergarten went on a trip to a nearby pumpkin patch place.  The place that they used to go to was no longer doing groups and so they tried a new place. I would say I don’t recommend the place, but the kids are young and probably did not see what the adults did, so they had a good time. Apparently this place has been around for about 20 years, basically it was a run down junk farm open for people to tramp around.  But the kids had a good time and that’s what counts … altho Matthew to this day continues to be confused about Haunted School Buses.  While the teacher tried to prevent the kids from going on it Mr. Pumpkin thought it was a great idea.  Matthew went near it and came back to me and I told him to stay off as I didn’t want him dealing with nightmares as he can be sensitive to dark and gloomy things.  He could see the skeleton hanging up and for some time asked why someone would hang that up, why wasn’t it buried, was it real, etc

Lincoln and Matthew

Visiting the animals

Corn Maze.  Since it was a drought year the corn was not very tall, as adults we could see over it, but at least for the kids it was talk enough.

We also went on a hay ride through the field.  Afterwards we came back to watch Mr. Pumpkin launch a pumpkin in his air cannon and try to hit a old truck out in the field.

You can see the end of the cannon on the right side of the picture and the truck on the left side of the picture in the trees.

Next the kids got a chance to ride on the Giant Spider Ride/Contraption made with old barrels.  Behind there you can see the barrel maze, which the kids played tag in for a little bit but the barrels were far enough apart that the kids could just run between them.

It was a morning out for the kids and they all got to take a pumpkin home.  They had a good time and came home with stories.