Wednesday Out

Hello,
We just returned from an unusual all-day outing. We went to Holland's dance class this morning to see her little Christmas program. They had a Santa come & when she took her turn sitting on his lap, he asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Well, we had seen another "santa" a couple of weeks ago when we picked up our Christmas tree, so when this one today asked what she wanted, she said, "I already told you last time I talked to you at the pretend North Pole." It was hilarious! He bluffed a bit, and I whispered in his ear (out of Holland's sight) "Easy Bake Oven." So he was able to refer to it. We'll probably reveal the truth about Santa just being a tradition next year to Holland, but for the time being we're still chuckling.

We looked at two pet stores and a humane society today for a pet for Braden. We've promised him something, but have yet to agree on what to get. Eric is set against any type of rodent, and I'm a little hesitant about doing the dog thing again--though we're in a much different situation now, both with house size and not much traveling--and a couple of friends willing to dog sit if we should travel. Hmmm. The hum. soc. had dogs that were too large, and the pet stores were way pricey, but when we arrived home, we found an and in the paper for beagle puppies, so Eric might drive to Foley tomorrow and have a look. At least we don't have much carpeting... We stopped at Chrissie's place for a few minutes (since we were in Buffalo), and the kids were able to take a short horse ride in the arena.

Eric's not feeling well, but otherwise we're ok. Just tired! Between Friday night, Saturday morning, and Tuesday night, we had over 50 people in our home this week. The parties went well. Glad they're over now. I can finally go to the grocery store and get some normal food since there's room in my fridge again.

Yeah--I'm done with school until January. After that, only 4 classes to go!
We bought Aidan a ukulele (sp?) for Christmas--it's going to be a guitar to him, of course. I can hardly wait to give it to him! It was only $17 at Walmart, but I'm hoping it will hold up against his boy-ness! Someone blessed us with a Target gift card, so Monday night, while another couple from church babysat our children, Eric and I were able to go to dinner and shop for gifts! Aside from the pet, with the exception of a few stocking stuffers, we're pretty much done shopping for our children and Chrissie. Short & sweet!

Tomorrow night we are going to a dinner theater play, compliments again this year of Daemynn's dad (our realtor). Daemynn & Tara & we have lined up 2 babysitters to come here and watch our 6 kids while we go. It's such a neat thing to get to do, and all we pay for is drink, dessert & tip (& babysitters)! I'm pretty excited!

Tonight Eric has his first premarital counseling appointment for the first wedding he will do at our new church. The couple is coming here, so Eric and I will still get to have our Wed. evening 8 p.m. date to watch The West Wing together (we've done that a few times this year).

Well I guess that's enough blogging for now!
Have a blessed holiday season!
Kelly for the Dykstras

One Hundred Sixty Nine!

Hello,
It's 7:59 Sunday night, and we're having our evaluation meeting. I just sneaked in here to jot a note. WOW! 169 people were at our church today!
The service went well, but compared to our normal high standards, from our evaluation, it was rather blah. (Eric, I, and Dave--our worship pastor--are pretty tired, and we think it reflected in our service today.) However, we had around 10 first time families/individuals, and about 10 second timers also. Eric spoke on families, and it was really practical (and scriptural, of course).
We started a "resource table" today for the first time. We're making available (at cost) a small variety of books on the topic of the current message series, as well as music cd's and cd sets of the previous series. Several people made use of ths ministry today, which was pretty neat.

Tomorrow I have to write & postmark my final paper for Business Law. Then I'm done with school until January. Eric is trying to avoid scheduling meetings this week, in the interest of getting some rest and refueling to prepare for our big Christmas Sunday next week. Please pray for me, as I need to write 3 drama sketches to be used in that service, and I'm a little short of ideas right now. I'll be thinking about that after I write my paper. We have another Christmas party to host Tuesday night, and then Thursday night we get to go to a dinner theater for the evening! I'm looking forward to that!

Please remember to email and tell us what you're up to!
Miss you all,
Kelly

Tuesday Dec. 7

Tonight Braden gets to go to his first wrestling practice! Since his daddy wrestled and has taught him some moves, we think Braden has a jump start on the rest of the guys. We'll see! Wrestling is held at a local jr. high school, and will go through March, I believe.

Last night I finished up my Business Law class, with the exception of a final paper that I must postmark by next Monday. No school again until January, and then 19 straight weeks until graduation!

This week we have our Christmas Open House Friday night for all the nursery, kids, and student ministry volunteers. Saturday is a luncheon here for new people, and Tuesday is another Open House for other volunteers--setup, tech, music, drama, hospitality, greeting, etc...

Sunday we had almost 150 people again. Very neat!

Keep in touch!