Merry Christmas from the Van Straalen's!

The Christmas cards are out and even the doggies sent one this year. Wishing you the Wonders of His love this Christmas and a very blessed 2011!

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Card designs by the amazing Hanajo:)

Christmas treat idea and Tolo...

Another fun and busy Saturday in December. Hana went to Tolo with Josh- Carlie and Zach had dinner with them before here. What a nice bunch of kids:) That day I also made Peppermint Brownie Bites. Janice told me how and I had to try them. Just stick a peppermint kiss in the brownie upside down when you take them out of the oven. I frosted them and sprinkled on some crushed candy canes. They where a hit at the Dykstra party and so I'm taking them to Enumclaw this Saturday. Let the parties begin! I was trying to achieve BOKEH(In photography, bokeh (pronounced /boʊˈkeɪ/) is the blur,or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light) with my tree lights!

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Tree, Cookies and the lighted parade!

It must be the first of December. Whoa! Carlie and Hana made cookies and they were delicious. I wasn't sure about the color of the frosting but Carlie said it looked vintage. I liked that:) I did not mean to copy The Pioneer Women. She just happen to have the same idea:)

We used the The Betty Crocker Classic Sugar Cookies Recipe. Then we had to get a tree and David A showed up just in time to help. We went to Mantheys Tree Farm on the Axton Rd. TONS of nice trees! As you can see the tree did not get decorated and is still not decorated. UGH! Before we knew it -it was time to head to the parade. We always go to Grams house on front street. Auntie Geri brought the cocoa this year. It was cold but we managed a few pictures. We left the shutter on the camera open longer to get those shots. It was a great family day.

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