Christmas Cactus

I have owned a Christmas cactus for probably 5-6 years now. I got it from my Grandma Jo before I started Calvin and have managed to keep it alive ever since. Christmas cacti are supposed to bloom around Christmas time, but needless to say, my Christmas cactus has never bloomed. :( Until this year!! It apparently likes the climate of the east side of the state better (perhaps because Grandma Jo lives on this side, too). So I guess one thing that the east side of our fine state has over the west side is that Christmas cacti like the climate better. Enjoy the pictures!

Book List

So...you may be wondering what I'm doing with all my spare time since I'm out of school for a month (until Jan. 12!) other than posting quite often on this blog. I do have a life, although not much of one if you ask Brian. I've been catching up on my reading and am thoroughly enjoying myself while doing it. Here's what I've read so far:

1. "On Rough Seas" by Nancy Hull
Nancy was my Calvin advisor and friend and this is her first published novel. It was great!

2. "The Green Glass Sea" by Ellen Klages
A great YA novel taking place at the top secret location where the atomic bomb was made.

3. "A Midnight Clear" by Katherine Paterson
A collection of short Christmas stories Paterson wrote for her husband's Christmas sermons.

And here's what I'm reading/planning to read by Jan. 12:

1. "Plus" by Victoria Chambers
The story of a premed student turned plus-size model. An ARC I'm reading for work.

2. "White Sands, Red Menace" by Ellen Klages
The sequel to "The Green Glass Sea" about the atomic bomb.

3. "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson
I read this story every Christmas and have to again after the kids at church did this last week.

4. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
I've owned this for probably 5 years and have never read past the first one.

Any other suggestions? I think this will keep me pretty busy, but I'm always up for more suggestions!

Christmas 2008

I took a few pictures of our Christmas decorations since only Jon and Suzy will get to see them this year. They're our only visitors before Christmas who will get to see the tree. We got a decent amount of snow last night, so it finally feels like Christmas is almost here. We'll see how long the snow lasts, but our apartment complex actually got the plow out for the first time this winter.

Us with our tree.

Our new name ornaments from Bronner's.

The 2008 ornament from my mom.
My favorite ornament. A little pink because of the Great Christmas Flood!
My shepherd sheep.
My new Christmas sheep.
The three snow men that Oma made.
My African nativity scene from Katie.
My sheepie nativity scene.

Family Pictures 2008

At the end of October, my sister's boyfriend Kyle, took our family pictures. They turned out really great and we even used one for our Christmas card. I thought I'd post a few of them for your pleasure. See Kyle's website for more of what he does.

Greenfield Village in Winter

Last weekend we went on the snowiest day so far this winter to Greenfield Village. The Village is decorated for Christmas and the Henry Ford Museum has a giant Christmas tree and model trains with gingerbread houses. We wanted to see these things and didn't have anything going on last Saturday. We bundled up and braved the snow to see what we could. There were very few people at the Village, but that allowed us to listen to the docents without a lot of people around. We enjoyed ourselves a lot and even had quite a conversation about cows and sheep with the two farmers at the barn.

The last picture in the slide show (of Brian holding his hands up with one measley light lit up) is my favorite. Just before I snapped the picture, he had all the lights lit up, but the picture was just a bit too slow! I think it's funny that he is so excited, but you only see one light lit up. :)

Thanksgiving 2008

School is finally done for the semester, so I can focus on other things (like this blog!). We've done a few interesting things since the last time I posted, so I'm going to work on catching up.

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Grand Rapids so that we could spend time with our families. On Thanksgiving we had lunch with Brian's family and dinner with the Branderhorst (my mom's side) family. Friday we spent the day shopping (!!) for our camera and a few other things. Saturday I worked on homework while Brian attempted to fix the car (which didn't end up working) and had the Ponstein Christmas party in the evening. After the party, I went to visit with my girl friends since one was home from China after two years. Sunday we had lunch with my family and then came back to Belleville.

We had a great time while we were home, but were glad to come back to our apartment. When we got back, we set up our tree and Christmas decorations over the next few days. I'll have pictures of those sometime soon. For now, enjoy some pictures from our new camera of the Ponstein Christmas party.

Ashleigh, Erika, Keirah, Sarah, & Aleah (all under 3!)

Playing the piano with Josh

Grandma Ponstein checking out the present

Grandpa Ponstein opening the digital photo frame

Keirah and mom, Jenny

Sarah and Aunt Renee

Zach, Croix, and mom, MariJo

Erika and Aleah

Ashleigh, Joe, and Darle