December Details

Needless to say, life is flying by! So much seems to happen so quickly. We were sick a lot in December. Brad and Cora got the dreaded stomach flu, Peter and I got a nasty cold. Other than that we had a lot of fun!

This is my friend Sara. She and her husband lived in the building next to us and we came to be good friends this semester. Cora and Peter adore them both, too. Sadly, we had to say good-bye to them already. They only had to be here for one semester, so when exams finished they had to pack up and go home.

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and Deb and Eric. The grandkids/cousins get along well and it's been so fun to see them having a good time together.

Peter is very into his hard hat and dump truck!

Cora got glasses! A vision screening at preschool determined that she needed to se an eye doctor, who then confirmed that she needed glasses. So far the adjustment has been a little rocky. (I'll get a better closer picture)

We have settled on a new home church: Lee Street CRC in Wyoming. Cora joined in the Christmas Program, even though she only had a couple weeks to practice what the rest of the kids had been practicing for months. It has been a challenging time to be new to a church, joining at the cusp of the holiday season, but we've been very warmly received. (Cora is in the front row, 5 kids to the left of the director, NOT wearing a Christmas dress. She had a growth spurt and didn't fit in the dress I had for her!)

Enjoying a model train display

A small nearby mall (Breton Village) had a model train display for the holidays. We enjoyed watching the trains and noticing the interesting details of the miniature village. Afterwards we drove around some neighborhoods to marvel at Christmas lights. Peter was especially excited, shouting "Na-na Mas-mas tee" each time he saw more lights. (Translation: Another Christmas Tree") Cora enjoyed it, too, but fell asleep in the car!

Since Cora's preschool is a public school they stated early on that they would not be "celebrating" any holidays. But they did invite parents to join for a special Gingerbread House decorating day. Brad couldn't miss class that day so Grandma Schippers joined us.

I can't believe I forgot to include this in the November post: Cora learned how to ride a two-wheel bike! It was quite astonishing how quickly she caught on. This video is only about the third time she even tried and she looks as steady as if she's been riding for weeks. She had been asking Brad and I all fall to take her training wheels off, but we didn't think she was ready. So Brad adjusted the trainers to be quite high off the ground and we challenged her to practice balancing on just the two wheels. She did really well going straigh but as soon as she needed to turn a little she relied on the training wheels. Well, over Thanksgiving she asked Grandpa S. (or maybe he asked her) to try to ride a 2 wheel bike at his house. I think he was prepared for a lot of work, but she surprised us all and told grandpa after only a couple minute to "let go of the bike"! And she was off. You would think she sprouted wings. She rides faster and farther without the training wheels than she did with them. It's been so much fun watching her soar!

A few other highlights from December:

• Brad finished his first semester with strong grades. I'm so proud of him. He misses working in the church, but we keep reminding each other of why we are here and we're glad we are.
• Christmas break for both Cora and Brad means that we have two and a half weeks with all 4 of us home every day, all day. It has been wonderful, truly. I'm a little sad that the new semesters are starting up again this week; I'm really going to miss having them having around. We've had a lot of fun. We took advantage of our Grand Rapids Public Library card holder privileges. There are circulating memberships available for free to 7 local musems/attractions and also free tickets to certain special events that around town. We were able to go to the GR Children's Museum, the GR Public Museum and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, all for free! Plus we have 4 tickets (free) to a GR Griffins game in a few weeks (that's a minor league hockey team). Pretty cool, huh?