Christmas Day- take two!

Bianca, Eric, Seo-Young, Peter

Katie with "Josephina"
Elysa with "Liz Grace"

The Stoermer Christmas Tree 2008

December 25, 2008: Christmas day progressed to Granny and Grandpa Gene Stoermer's house for homemade cinnamon rolls and more family and presents! We were fortunate to have almost the entire family there for the feast of presents and turkey. My 101 year old Grandmother, Sylvia Ryder, was even able to come up from Florida to celebrate with us- she is a real inspiration!

Christnas Day- take one

Before




After

December 25, 2008: I woke the kids up at 7:00a to start our Christmas day (why wake them up?! To get to the cinnamon rolls at my Mom's house!). Santa had definitely come-- there was a little concern about him possibly NOT stopping at our house-- and there were plenty of gifts to open! Seo-Young and Bianca received t-shirts and other teenage girls paraphenalia. Katie and Elysa each received an American Girl Doll (Josephina for Katie and a "Just Like Me" doll for Elysa) and lots of little girl stuff including sparkly shoes, books and a snowboard!

Let Christmas Begin!!

December 24, 2008: The festivities began Christmas Eve at the Grandparent Grossman's house. Our whole "clan" was there plus Susan, John , Barbara, Erin and Johnathan Baughn. We all exchanged gifts first and then sat down to dinner together. The evening was ended by attending Christmas Eve candlelight service at Webster Church. Brian and Elysa called it an early night and went home when we all left to go to church. It was an interesting service with an international flair-- many of the songs were sung in different languages including Hawaiian, Phillipino, and Spanish.

More Christmas Preparations

Bianca, Seo-Young, Katie, Elysa, Ethan

December 24, 2008: Last week we went to my parent's house for dinner and decorated the tree that we helped pick out earlier this month. It is HUGE! The kids also had a lot of fun decorating sugar cookies. Which, of course, ended in everyone eating Christmas cookies!

Christmas Preparations

December 24, 2008- Our house has been all about Christmas these past few days! There has been a flurry of decorating, wrapping and threats to call Sanata to report bad behavior! It should be a lot of fun tomorrow!! Happy Holidays to all!!

Beautiful Girl

December 14, 2008: My dad took this picture of Katie at the Santa Brunch.

Christmas Brunch

Karla, Brian

Bianca, Seo-Young

Katie and Elysa

Sunday, December 14, 2008: We met the rest of the Stoermer family for a brunch with Santa out at the Portage Yacht Club. Great food, fun conversation and photo opportunities galore! This is a picture of the our expanded family.

Picking out the Christmas Tree

Seo-Young, Elysa and Katie

Most of the Stoermer Family

Back to Front/ L to R:

Eric, Brian, Karla, Gene,

Kati, Tracy, Bobbie

Ethan, Katie, Seo-Young, Elysa

Missing: Peter and Bianca

Katie (6yo) and Elysa (4yo)

December 6, 2008: We continued the Stoermer Family Christmas tradition by meeting at the Lion's Club in Dexter to pick out my mother's Christmas tree. She always gets a 12-14 footer and then everyone else gets wreaths, roping and/or smaller trees.

Thanksgiving with the Stoermers

November 27, 2008: We had our "second" Thanksgiving at the home of my parents. We had a full house with my brother Peter, his wife Tracy, her brother Gary, Tracy's mother, my parents, my grandmother (101 yo!!), and the 6 of us. Both Bianca and Seo-Young seemed to enjoy the meal. It was wonderful having everyone there to share the Holiday!!

Thanksgiving with the Grossmans

December 1, 2008- So, I kind of forgot about Thanksgiving! We had a lot of time with family and food! It all started on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We joined Brian's family at his parent's church for a community Thanksgiving. In the top picture you can see Brian, Katie and Seo-Young and in the bottom picture there is Erin, Johnathan, Ellen, Bianca, John and Barbara.

Ballet and Ballerinas

December 1, 2008: Elysa loves her ballet class! She really pays attention and knows most of the "moves" by their proper French names even! It is a neat class in that they alternate with tap dance-- also thoroughly enjoyed!