Malburg Christmas

Christmas with my family was pretty different from the Jonkers. We've always opened stocking presents early in the morning (which john and I passed on this year) and then opened presents from under the tree at about 9:30 while eating monkey bread. :) It's just my immediate family, so everyone goes in a circle opening a present in front of everyone else. Then we usually go see a movie in the afternoon- this year we saw "True Grit". The funniest present (given by Stephanie- go figure) was for my brother. He has a girlfriend named Courtney and my sister gave him a Nike basketball shirt that says "Holdin' Court Daily". Everyone just about cried from laughing so hard.

John and I are so blessed to have two such amazing, supportive families!

You never have to guess what dad gets you for Christmas

New Years Eve

For New Years Eve, my parents decided to do something different. Normally, they would go to my Aunt Barb and Uncle Marvs house where their kids and my siblings and I would join for games all night. This year, my parents got a room at the Mariott in downtown Grand Rapids- right in the middle of all of the concert and business of the night! John and I headed down there early evening to grab a bite to eat with my parents. After dinner, we walked around downtown for a while- there was definitely some interesting people watching going on! It was fun to see all of the activity going on though. Grand Rapids had brought in several bands that were playing all night and the streets had been shut down and were just crowded with people ready to bring in the New Year!

My aunt and uncle (and their kids/spouses) all showed up close to nine where we took over a sitting area in the hotel and played a lot of fun group games. My dad also had written up several categories to make predictions on for December of 2011. These categories included the best male/female golfer, the Dow Jones index, MSU's basketball ranking, where John and I would be living, and some family news that would break sometime in the next year. He also brought along an envelope to put all of the sheets in to re-open next New Years. :)

Dinner with mom and dad!

Downtown Grand Rapids

Filling out the 2011 prediction sheets!

Playing games!

Got to see Becca and Allie! :)

My not-so-little brother

Our first new years eve together!!!

Jonker Christmas

For all of the Christmas anticipation, I felt like it was over before it started! Johns family has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve and my family has always celebrated Christmas day, so we were so fortunate to be able to celebrate with both families! It was the "off year" for Johns family, so his siblings from out of town, Jared and Jenn (and their families) didn't fly in. It was still a fun night, but definitely not the same without them! Everybody came over to Johns parents late afternoon for daiquiris, and we opened presents right away so we could get the kids to bed for an adult dinner. Jan gave three of the girls another american Girl doll, and their reactions were priceless- especially Monreau's! She could hardly contain herself! The Jonker Christmas is more hectic than I'm used to, but it's fun to step back and watch all of the kids together and be so joyful! Jayne and Jill do such an amazing job of making sure all of their kids feel like the best of sisters/friends, and just so loved by each other in general.

Jacob enjoying daiquiris

Best friends!

"It's Molly, it's really Molly!"

Shaelyn, The reason John and I are together