Sunny and I celebrated Christmas at Ian and Dria’s house. We had a great time, our nephews loved their gifts!

Ruiter family Christmas was at Aunt Alice and Uncle Arvin’s house this year. They had recently remodeled their house and it was beautiful. We had a fun time.

Sunny and I joined Ian and Eric at the Seahawks game. The Seahawks started well, but eventually fell to the Patriots. Fun game!

Sunny and I purchased a noble for our first Christmas Tree. We had to carry the tree across the street to get it home and squeeze it though the door. The tree is the perfect size for the living room! Sunny convinced me to decorate the tree immediately, and I’m glad we did. We had a great time and the tree is beautiful. I can’t wait to wrap presents to put under the tree! Merry Christmas!

Sunny and I had two Thanksgiving dinners today! In the afternoon we ate at Idamae and Khai’s house. That evening we had dinner at Laurie and Scott’s house. We ate so much we had to roll ourselves home!

We celebrated Mike’s Birthday at Laurie and Scott’s house.

Sunny and I joined Chris, Angela, Brian, Katie, John, Jessica, Alvin and Nora, Andre and Carrie for Angela’s Birthday at Outback. We had a great time and the food was terrific. The photos below are missing John and Jessica who were hiding from the camera… I’ll get them next time… For now, they are stick figures.

In order to get my condo ready to be shown and hopefully sold, Sunny and I cleaned and staged my condo. We went with a different, more colorful look, than what I had when I lived at the condo. We moved around a few plants, added new pillow covers, new paintings, and boxed anything personal. If the condo sells, we will be on our way to owning our first home together.

Thankoween is a Verhoeven family tradition, a combination of Thanksgiving and Halloween. Thankoween is traditionally a large Thanksgiving dinner with yummy desserts and fun family games. This year Thankoween was at my Mom’s house. There was nearly 30 people around the three tables set in the living and dining rooms. We had a great time and dinner was outstanding.

After dinner we played shuffle board (another family tradition). I would have won the entire contest, but Sunny cheated so I lost to Aunt Marilyn… Next year I am going to keep track of the score myself… I love spending time with my family and can’t wait until next year’s dinner and shuffle board rematch.

Sunny and I carved pumpkins at my parent’s house. This has become a small tradition for us, and one we really enjoy. We had purchased two perfect pumpkins two days before and with our family gathered around the table, we began to clean and carve our pumpkins. My design was a cute face while Sunny carved the word love. They were two beautiful designs. Afterwards we gathered the pumpkins together outside, lit the candles, and took photos of the scene. Since Sunny and I were low on space we decided to leave our pumpkin at my parent’s house.