The Tjebkes Family Website: Christmas, upcoming week

Well it was another busy week! We were both off work all week, and the kids went to day care on Monday and Tuesday so we could get everything done around the house that needed to get done in preparation for Christmas, especially the first overnight trip since the twins were born.

On Wednesday afternoon we celebrated Christmas with Jeff's family in West Liberty. On Wednesday night the five of us went to church in Muscatine, which was a perfect child-appropriate 45 minute service with lots of good music.

On Thursday morning we celebrated at home with the kids. Kaelen was surprised about receiving gifts, as she is just getting the whole concept of Christmas and gift giving. We read her a book almost every night in December about the real meaning of Christmas, so hopefully she picked that up, too. She definitely knows that there was a baby named Jesus that was born in a manger.

We gave Kaelen one of those battery powered Jeeps which was tried out in the unfinished side of the basement, which was a very good thing. She understood the "gas pedal" but steering will need a little work in the spring outside.

We headed to Waterloo around noon for Christmas with Kandice's family. The night with the twins went pretty well. Kaelen didn't want to go to sleep, but I guess that's to be expected. Kandice hit Target at 7AM Friday morning to his the good sales. We're definitely set for wrapping paper in 2009.

We drove back to Muscatine Friday afternoon and got home around 6:30pm. After getting Kaelen to bed we decided to "un-Christmas" the house so we were up to midnight taking the tree down and putting stuff away. This morning the outside decorations came down, too.

On Monday we're heading to Des Moines for some eating and shopping. We're staying at a Hilton Garden Inn that has a very nice kids pool that Kaelen really likes. Hopefully our second overnight trip with the the five of us goes well!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last week or so.