Christmas in Grand Rapids

We spent a blissful 5ish days in Grand Rapids over Christmas. Our time was filled with family Christmas parties, catch-up sessions with friends, and lots of food. I think we had forgotten how much we missed West Michigan. 5 days wasn’t nearly enough time, and we will hopefully be able to go back up there soon.

Now for some pictures of good ole family fun...

Witte Family Christmas Party

We're clearly not lacking for people!

Also, a Christmas celebration is never complete without singing Christmas Carols and Dutch hymns. I need some significant help on those! I have no skills in Dutch, that is for sure.

Cousins. Now that I live by none of them, I’m reminded of how special they are to me. There was a family baby boom in the early 80’s, which was resulted in my having LOTS of cousins right around my age. Built-in friends that I have an excuse to see around the holidays. What could be better?

Christmas morning at the Witte house

All three of us kids were definitely spoiled rotten! What sweet, generous parents we have!

I got a Cricut! Can’t wait to get back to the scrapbook and use this AWESOME new tool!


Josh and I received a cow and a goat (respectively) this year. My parents had them donated through Samaritan’s Purse to needy families in other parts of the world. If you’re ever looking for a unique gift, they come out with an awesome catalog of charitable giving options. You can stock a fish pond or give toward medical equipment for preemies or buy a goat in the name of a friend instead of giving them more junk they don’t need…

I think it took my mom a while to find a plastic cow and goat for us to wrap up, but she managed. I put these on a shelf at home so that I can remember to pray for the families that received these animals.

Witte cousins over for game night on Christmas – complete with leftover sweets. My arm, Mark, Annette, Rebecca, Nathaniel, my brother Ben, Josh, Natasha, my dad, and Christina. We played Oodles, Euchre, and Trivial Pursuit before finally calling it quits around midnight.

Christmas cards make me really happy. I love the variety of colors and designs, and how each one reflects the person or family that sent it. The ones with pictures are really fun - especially now that we're far away from family. One of these days ours will include a picture. Maybe next year!

When they first started rolling in, I put them in a little box on a shelf. But that is sad for me because I like to look at them! So I attached them to these ugly doors in our dining room with paper clips and voila - I can see them every time I go to the kitchen. Makes me smily every time.

Brands are Fun

I'm home with Riley-boy this week while Josh is off traveling around the midwest. By Friday he will have visited ConAgra, Unilever, Kraft, Miller, Oscar-Mayer (which I believe is owned by Kraft), 3M, General Mills (which I like to refer to as the mother-ship, due to the hundreds of bowls of Cheerios Josh consumes each year) and Target. Hopefully he'll come home with lots of samples!

So my brand manager-to-be husband is now fascinated by trips to the grocery store. It doesn't matter which aisle he is in - from shampoo to dog chow to frozen foods - but shopping for mundane household needs has become significantly more interesting to him. Our trips are peppered with questions such as "did you know Hunts (think canned tomatoes) is a ConAgra brand?" or "don't you think this Target brand body wash has unique packaging?" He often stops to read the labels on items such as deodorant, laundry detergent, and peanut butter. It is quite the adventure.

He has kind of gotten me into it, actually!

Did you know that the same company that makes Ragu also produces Lawry's Seasoning Salt and Snuggle? And like a million other things? Unilever. Kraft has Miracle Whip, A1 Steak Sauce, and Maxwell House, among other brands. Miller makes... well, just beer. And I guess they were giving out free samples today at 9:30 am. For some reason 3M products (Scotch Tape, Post-In Notes, etc) get me really jazzed. Those folks do a good job :)

So the next time you're putting creamer into your coffee or opening a bag of chips, turn the bag around and see what company really makes it. Kelloggs? Nestle? There is a good chance that the name you see on the front of the box is not actually the company that produces that product.

Little Fur-Ball Loves The Snow

Good, solid, stay-around snow arrived in Bloomington over the weekend, and the little guy enjoyed the
delights of both rolling around in it and licking up as much as possible.

Christmas Dinner with Friends

What a fun Christmas celebration.

Christmas Date

Wednesday Night.

After heading off to the salon for a much-needed haircut, I returned home to embark on my surprise Christmas date. Josh had warned me to not get my hopes up, that it wasn't all that special. But he was wrong. It was wonderful!

First I got to open my present, which was a leather-ish bench-ish thing that you can flip the top up on and store things in it. He knew I'd wanted one to put by the front door for all of the crap that inevitably ends up in that area of the house. We'd actually talked about just buying one, so it was more a present for us both. But very fun. So I opened the top of my present to find lots of little presents inside - pretty candles, a movie, chocolate truffles, an ornament, and a bottle of wine from a local place. AND a menu. He'd made dinner for me - a NICE dinner! And most of the rest of my presents were Christmas date-related. Candles to be lit while we ate. Wine for dinner. A cute Christmas movie to watch afterward. Truffles to munch on during the movie. Perfect!

By the way, if anyone is looking for an excellent tilapia recipe, try this one. It is super good and quite easy. Seriously, I've been scared of making fish for dinner after a tilapia fiasco in college. So this is the first time we've ever made it as a married couple. And we'll definitely continue to do so!

After dinner Josh got to open his presents - a new watch, and an ornament I'd made for him (and almost couldn't find).

So we snuggled up with Riley and watched a cute Christmas movie and had a wonderful, relaxing evening. Such a blessing during a busy week and crazy holiday season. Definitely the king of all Sweet Spots.


Now just a few more days of "together-ness time" (as my mom likes to put it) with Josh before he takes off for a week to visit more companies. Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and Minneapolis. The poor guy is going to be exhausted! But it will be a great opportunity to make contacts, see companies first hand, etc.

Tonight we've got a end-of-semester party to go to with the rest of the MBAs - should be fun. They're going to have an 80's cover band there and I'm super excited. Josh's last exam was today (yay!) and he'll be free until January 7th. I'm just slightly jealous. I miss Christmas break.

Then tomorrow we're getting together with Bloomington friends for "old fashioned" Christmas dinner. Turkey, mashed potatoes, and anything else you'd want. We went the turkey route because some folks (or maybe just one - my husband) don't care for ham. The girls are going to spend the afternoon cooking and crafting and movie-watching at Lora's, while the boys I believe are going to play Guitar Hero 3 and Dance Dance Revolution at our place. Then we'll get together for dinner in the early evening.

That's all for now, folks.

Hasta luego.

Sweet Spots

My week didn't start out well. Monday morning I woke up at 8:20. And I start work at 8. I've been tired, stressed, and overly busy these last couple of days. Last night I couldn't even fall asleep because I was so worried about something at work. Yuck. And it is only Tuesday.

But I must say that God has opened my eyes to so many little blessings this week. God, in his infinite sweetness, has not only showered me with wonderful moments, but also given me the ability to stop and enjoy them. For me, it is when I'm wading through the muck of worry and stress that the sweet spots shine a little brighter.

So here are some sweet spots of my week so far:

*A free chair massage at work Monday morning (yes, even though I overslept!) that a kind-hearted Chamber member provided for our entire staff
*An extra cuddly dog
*A hubby who talks to me, calms me down, and prays for me
*Holding a new baby (who happens to have amazing baby hair)
*A super constructive and encouraging meeting at work
*A dinner tonight, held by the Dean of the Business School, for all of us "partners." Our students weren't even invited! Overall I think the Dean does a great job in making us partners feel welcome and valued as members of the school community. Obviously this guy is busy, and to take time out of an evening to invite us to dinner is really extraordinary, I think.
*Snuggling in bed and catching up on Prison Break with Josh
*A phone call from a friend I haven't talked to in awhile
*Receiving a couple more Christmas cards in the mail
*Wrapping Josh's gifts in anticipation for our "Christmas Date" tomorrow (which will be a complete surprise for me! Yay!)
*Scheduling a hair appointment (that may sound mundane, but I haven't had my hair cut since we moved to Bloomington. Since Memorial Day, actually. Wow, that is embarassing.) So hopefully it isn't a disaster. But disaster or not, it will be cut in time for my special date. And it is a relief to finally have one on the calendar!

If I were having an average week, these things wouldn't shine so bright in my mind right now. I probably wouldn't be thinking about them. But here they are, in the midst of yuck. And they make me smile.

More on my special date later.