The latest happenings...

...at the Veldstra home! Wow, the weeks sure do seem to fly by! We have been busy keeping up with school...trying to stay focused on our studies until the end of next week. Not only do the kids have a hard time staying focused, but so does their teacher. One more week of school...we can do it! Amidst our days of school work we have had fun cutting out snowflakes, glueing green and red paper chains, and making ornaments. Our house is now beautifully decorated with all of our creations as well as lots of lights! We always have so much fun decorating for the holidays!

During the busy holiday season we have also been counting down the days until we get on the plane to fly to the Philippines. Kind of makes us doubly busy, but just means we have to decide what are going to be our priorities for this year. Our list on the refrigerator helps keep us all focused on what needs to be done without Mom feeling like she is going crazy with too many things to do. We are all having so much fun preparing for our big adventure. The boxes of stuff going with us to the Philippines is beginning to pile up in the basement and we haven't even begun to pack!

Probably the only thing that is disappointing for the kids right now is that we don't really have any snow! We got the one good snow that I posted pictures of, but that all melted and we really haven't had much to speak of since then. Will we have a winter without snow? I remember one year as a child only having a dusting of snow for Christmas...just doesn't seem like Christmas in Alaska without snow!

Yesterday we had a new big first for our family...Ann Marie took her written test to get her permit and passed the test on the first try! AHHH, we now have a young driver in our home!! I am beginning to feel old! It was only a few years ago that I was learning to drive...right?!? Ethan can hardly wait until he can get his permit and drive. I'm sure he will be there taking the test ON his 14th birthday!

Today Steve will be taking Adams and Alyssum to Anchorage, for Adams appointment tomorrow at the cleft clinic . We took him to the cleft clinic last year and it was a great opportunity to visit a whole team of specialists that take care of all the different aspects of cleft related issues. Adams and Alyssum are so excited to be going with Dad all by themselves and they get to stay the night in a hotel...fun stuff!

Steve has completed the Christmas Decor lighting season, and is now just cleaning up his shop and spending many hours in his office doing paperwork. He has a bit of work to do before we leave for 3 months! We will have one employee that will work on taking down lights and doing repairs while we are gone.

Last week we celebrated Eric, Theresa, and Katelyn's birthdays as they all have birthdays in December. Charlie and Kristen came down from Palmer to help us celebrate, and Grandpa was still here too so we had a fun family party!