This year Greg and I started a new Christmas tradition of the Advent Calendar!  I ordered the above pictured wooden advent calendar box, and the idea is that each day December 1-24 has a small box labeled with that day’s number.  Each day on a small slip of paper we write down what activity we will do together as a family to celebrate Christmas.  This allows us to be intentional about how we spend our time during the busy month of December, and ensures that we are focusing on the four values we want to emphasize to our children at Christmastime: 1) family, 2) giving/serving, 3) learning truth, and 4) Jesus Christ. 

We started this tradition to SIMPLIFY our lives.  There are so many wonderful things to do at Christmastime, but often in the business of life many of our special traditions get forgotten or overlooked until the week before Christmas and then we try to cram them all in.  Sometimes the amount of things we want to do feels a little overwhelming, but with this system we know exactly when we are going to fulfill all of our Christmas traditions.  Whether it's baking Christmas cookies, reviewing the story of St. Nicholas, or going ice skating, we want to make sure we are being intentional about how we spend our holiday time.

Below are our advent calendar ideas for 2012.  Feel free to adapt these ideas for your own family because every family's advent calendar will look a little different based on their values, traditions, children's ages, and location.  In our family every Sunday night is family movie night, so we keep that tradition in December but with a little Christmas twist.  Depending on where you live there are various free or inexpensive Christmas events to do, so check online for what's going on in your area. 

Be intentional about you celebrate Christmas! :)

Saturday, December 1 – Visit “Hicks Nurseries Animated Christmas Story” & take pictures with Santa Clause

Sunday, December 2 – Make and decorate Christmas sugar cookies & eat them while watching “Elf”

Monday, December 3 – Make paper snowflakes for the windows

Tuesday, December 4 – Eat candy canes and Read “J is for Jesus: The Sweetest Story Ever Told”

Wednesday, December 5 – Act out the Christmas story with our family’s nativity set

Thursday, December 6 – Read “The Story of St. Nicholas” and watch “Veggie Tales St. Nicholas” ·        

Friday, December 7 – Participate in Gotta Dance Christmas show

Saturday, December 8 – Prepare and attend church’s Angel Tree Christmas party

Sunday, December 9 – Make popcorn balls and eat them while watching “Polar Express”

Monday, December 10 – Go ice skating from 4:00 – 6:00 PM at the “Town of Oyster Bay Ice Skating Center”

Tuesday, December 11 – Make pine cone bird feeders

Wednesday, December 12 – Go to the store and purchase a Christmas gift for baby Isaac

Thursday, December 13 – Prepare Christmas gift treats for friends and neighbors

Friday, December 14 – Make and decorate gingerbread men cookies and watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

Saturday, December 15 – Attend “Fellowship of the Rings” Christmas party and cookie exchange

Sunday, December 16 – Eat Christmas cookies while watching “The Muppet Christmas Carol”

Monday, December 17 – Prepare Christmas candy canes and cards for school friends

Tuesday, December 18 – Drive through Bayport’s “Holiday Light Show - Let The Magic Begin!” from 5:00 – 9:00 PM ·        

Wednesday, December 19 – Make Rice Krispie Christmas wreaths & eat them while watching “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas”

Thursday, December 20 – Drive around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights

Friday, December 21 – Listen to Christmas songs and have a Christmas dance party

Saturday, December 22 – Have Christmas peppermint pancakes and visit the “Long Island Children’s Museum”

Sunday, December 23 – Drink hot cocoa and watch “A Nativity Story”

Monday, December 24 – Make a birthday cake for Jesus and attend our church’s Christmas Eve service

Tuesday, December 25 – Have a Merry Christmas!

Baby V #3 is now 1 lb. 3 oz. - he has the cutest little smile and chubby cheeks. :)

The pool of blood is still there between my amniotic sack and uterine wall (not good), but it's not getting bigger and not moving (good), so our next ultrasound and appointment was scheduled again for two weeks on Monday, December 3.

Dear Family & Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!  We are so thankful for God’s goodness to our family over this past year.  God has blessed our family in so many ways, and we praise Him for all the gifts He has given us!

We are thankful for our church family at Long Island Abundant Life Church (LIALC)!  In October our church joyfully took on a new Senior Pastor, Chinese Pastor, and Greg is transitioning from serving as the Youth Pastor to serving as the English Pastor.  We are so excited to have a strong pastoral team at our church, and are looking forward to serving with them.  For more details on LIALC, please visit our church website www.lialc.org

We are also thankful that Greg has been able to continue his graduate studies long distance through Columbia International Seminary!  Greg takes online courses throughout the year and intensive classes two weeks at a time in January and/or June.  He is currently working towards his Master of Divinity degree, and we are hoping he will be able to graduate in the spring of 2014. 

We are thankful that our family and home remained safe during Hurricane Sandy!  The night of the hurricane was frightening - the wind was so loud combined with the sights and sounds of huge falling branches and trees.  In the morning we woke up to discover lots of branches down, no electricity, and some wires that had been pulled off our home by a branch, but our family and home were safe.  We were without any power for two days and only had ½ power (meaning no stove/oven or washer/dryer) for sixteen days.  During our time with no/little electricity, God faithfully provided for us through the love and generosity of others. We have a renewed sense of appreciation for the blessing of a home with electricity.

We are thankful for our sweet children - Christian and Abbie!  Christian is five years old and started full day kindergarten this fall.  Christian enjoys kindergarten – he loves his teacher, friends, special classes (art, gym, music, computer, etc.), and learning.  He is very outgoing, intelligent, and loves to talk.  Christian is also thriving in Chinese school!  Last year Christian graduated at the top of his Chinese school class.  We are so proud of him and the great progress he is making in learning the Chinese language.  Most of all we are proud of the wonderful little guy Christian is becoming - he is kind, hardworking, and thoughtful.  We love our amazing little man!

Abbie will be four years old in February.  She has a feisty and independent personality.  She is still our girly girl - she loves having her nails painted, playing with her fairies and princesses, having tea parties, wearing skirts and dresses, and most recently dancing.  Last spring our church partnered with a wonderful ministry called Gotta Dance (www.gotta-dance.org).  Each week Abbie is blessed to receive two hours of ballet, tap, and gymnastic lessons.  Abbie looks forward to her dance classes more than anything else during the week.  We love our sweet little ballerina!

We are also thankful and excited to announce that Baby V #3 is due on March 23rd!  We will be having a little boy!  As you know last year we started the adoption process, but God had a different plan for growing our little family.  This pregnancy has been very difficult. At the end of the first trimester Rachel experienced a lot of bleeding and was placed on bed rest.  Thankfully after a few weeks the bleeding stopped, but Rachel still has a small pool of blood between her amniotic sack and uterine wall. Every two weeks Rachel has to have an ultrasound to make sure the blood pool is not growing or moving. Specifically we are praying the blood pool does not move behind the placenta as this could place pressure on it and cause it to detach.  Rachel is now 22 weeks along and no longer on strict bed rest, but she still has to take it easy - no exercise, stretching, bending, lifting, driving, or sitting up too long. We are so thankful for all your prayers for Rachel, our baby boy, and entire family.

We would be thrilled if you would visit the blog regularly to keep up with us!  Our family’s website is www.vrugginks.weebly.com   Rachel frequently updates the blog with pictures and shares how her pregnancy is progressing and what our family is doing.  We would also love to hear from you!  Greg’s NEW cell phone number is 516-439-2694 and Rachel’s NEW cell phone number is 516-360-4628, so give us a call when it’s convenient for you.

We are so thankful for our amazing God who has blessed us with another incredible year!  We are grateful for the gift of Jesus Christ who has forgiven our sins and gives us the grace and strength we need for each day.  We hope you have a wonderful time of Thanksgiving with your family and friends this special week as we all reflect on the many blessings He has given us and joyfully welcome the holiday season!

Love Always,
Greg, Rachel, Christian, Abbie, and Baby Vruggink #3

A little over a week after Hurricane Sandy, the Nor'easter Snow Storm arrived last night.  Some of our friends re-lost electricity as power lines broke, lots of branches bent and snapped (as a result of the fall leaves being covered in heavy snow), and school was cancelled due to several of inches of thick, heavy snow.  Thankfully we retained our 1/2 power (meaning with extension cords we have everything except stove/oven and washer/dryer capabilities).  The kids had a fabulous time playing in the winter wonderland!

After an hour of fun, Greg and Christian shoveled the driveway.  Christian wanted to help Greg, but we only have one, adult snow shovel so Christian used the dustpan to assist.  We're going to get him a little shovel of his own to help out with next time. :)

We had our 20 week appointment today!  We are officially 1/2 way to our March 23 due date - hooray!

Today we had the detailed anatomy ultrasound done, so we got to see our baby boy's brain, spine, heart, kidneys, bladder, limbs, etc. - everything looks perfect!  Our little guy weighs 12 oz. now.  I love the below ultrasound picture - he looks like he's laughing. :)

The blood pool between my amniotic sack and uterine wall is still present, but it has not changed size or moved (great news as we don't want it to move behind the placenta).  I'm still struggling with a lot of nausea, and my overall body has been loosing weight while my tummy gains weight but we'll make it through.

As usual our next appointment and ultrasound is in two weeks on Monday, November 19.

Thank you for your continued prayers for baby V #3 and our family. 

Halloween was definitely different this year in light of Hurricane Sandy.  Wednesday we were on our second day without power, but I was determined to pass out candy and take the kids trick-or-treating.  I wasn't sure if anyone would be passing out candy, but I was determined to put on their costumes and try.  The kids needed some fun and normalcy after the scary hurricane.

But before the fun began Christian and Abbie helped clean up branches in our front yard.

After some yard clean up the kids put on their Halloween costumes.  Christian was Captain American and Abbie was Tinkerbell. 

Tinkerbell - Complete with pom-poms on her shoes!

Trick-or-Treating Crew

As we went around the neighborhood about 1/2 the folks answered their doors and gave the kiddos candy!  I was so happy that our neighbors helped make trick-or-treating special for the kids even though Hurricane Sandy just finished bombarding us they day before.

We only had a handful of kids come knocking on our door (definitely a big change from normal), but they were rewarded with full size candy bars for their efforts so hopefully that made them happy.  I'm glad Halloween 2012 was a special memory for my kids despite Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy hit us in Long Island this week.  Monday night was really scary - the wind was so loud combined with the sights and sounds of huge falling branches and trees.  To make things even worse, Christian started to run a mild fever and threw up twice.  Monday night we had the kids sleep with us.  We lost power that evening, but no harm was done to our home.  In the morning we woke up to discover lots of down branches and some wires pulled off our home by a branch.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were without any power (which also meant no heat or hot water).  We were really cold and lost all the food in the refrigerator, but 1/2 our power came back on Wednesday evening so we regained heat and (with the use of extension cords borrowed from our neighbors) we were able to save all the food in our freezer.  Christian was still tired Tuesday and Wednesday, but thankfully we had no more vomiting.

The reason our home only has 1/2 power is because some of our electrical wires were pulled down by a branch but not all of them.  It will probably be a really long time (weeks maybe ?) before we have full power again because (as it should be) the priority of the electric company is to take care of the huge number of people with no power at all before they take care of our 1/2 power dilemma. 

The main issues we are facing is that I can't use my oven or washer/dryer because these devices use special electrical sockets so I can't plug them into our working outlets with extension cords.  So we'll be surviving on microwave meals and borrowing our friends' washers/dryers for a while.

Christian had no school this entire week, but we just got a call this afternoon that the school has power again and classes will resume on Monday.  Christian is feeling 100% now, so we're thankful for his good health.  The kids are getting a little stir crazy with school, the library, dance class, etc. all cancelled, but they are discovering long forgotten toys and enjoying being together all day (well...they enjoy each other most of the time).

Our church did not have major damage done to it (just some minor leaks) and it regained power on Thursday night, so we'll be able to have services on Sunday morning.

Thank you so much for your love and prayers for our family during this difficult time!  Please pray for us to have patient hearts, and that we'll find ways to serve and bless others with all the blessings we have been given.

Long Island Friends, our house has 1/2 power so come on over for a hot shower, warm microwave meal, charge your devices, use the internet, or hang out in a warm house and watch movies. The washer/dryer and oven are still not working, but everything else is yours if you need it. Just call me and come on over! :)