Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for extended family
Projects galore
We were lucky to have some help this weekend working on our deck project. Grandpa Scott, Grandma Judy and Brett came down to see Ben’s soccer game Saturday morning and to see Emma sing in church this morning. That left a whole bunch of time in between to get a lot of stuff done. Grandma and I decided it was time to tackle the window treatments in the dining room and front room. I have wanted to get going on them for months, but I knew I could get them done in two days with her help. It’s always easier to do these things with another set of eyes and hands and another opinion. So, while we headed to Hobby Lobby to buy fabric and supplies, Dave and Grandpa got to work on steps for the deck.
It seemed like smooth sailing out there. They got the steps put on and all of the railing up and secure. Awesome. Meanwhile, Grandma and I were making serious progress, too. We finished the front room window with very little problem on Saturday.
Today after church and lunch, the men decided it was time to take out the ugly bushes that lined the deck. Grandpa hooked up a tow strap to his truck and a bush, and viola…those things were gone in no time. Even though the weather didn’t cooperate with us, thankfully the rain held off until we got all of the bushes out.
And Grandma and I were back at it, too. Although the dining room window treatments was a bit more complicated than the front room one, we did a pretty good job with it, too.
It was a really great and productive weekend, and having help was so nice. The kids were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa and Brett here at their events and spending the night with us. I’m super excited with all the new things we’re doing around here. I can’t wait to make even more progress!!
Happy Easter
We had a lovely day at my cousin’s house in Sycamore with a whole lotta great food and family. Every Illinois Henrikson was there, which doesn’t happen often. So of course, we lined the kids up and started snapping pictures.
Then we lined them up by age (like the pictures we have of all of my cousins together), too.
After the photo shoot, it was time for the egg hunt. The grownups hid eggs all over the yard and the kids were off.
Everyone loved it, and the fact that the Johnsons have a huge backyard definitely helped. The kids were running all over the place frantically collecting eggs. After a very short time, the yard had been vacuumed clean of colorful eggs and it was time for the kids to collect their booty.
It was a really great day. The weather was gorgeous, the company was fabulous, and the food was very yummy. I just can’t believe that I didn’t even get one picture of anyone eating fritters or even a picture of some fritters themselves! That is inexcusable. Guess I’ll have to wait until next Easter since they only get made once a year. Oh well.
I think the most difficult part of the day was that we drove up and back in the same day. I never like to do that because it seems like we spend more time in the van than with the family, but it was unavoidable this time. Thank goodness the kids are getting to be better travelers and they have so much fun with their cousins that they thought it was worth it, too. It’s the toughest thing about living two hours away from family for sure. But at least it’s only two hours, and it makes days like this possible. I love that.
Back already
I can’t believe we’re back home in Illinois already! We had a wonderful week in Florida with Grandma Judy and Grandpa Scott. As always, the time went way too quickly because we were having so much fun. The pictures pretty much tell the story of our trip.
Words really can’t describe how wonderful our vacation was. We all feel so fortunately to have the ability to go on Spring Break again this year. I hope we get to again next year!!
Christmas II
Our Christmas celebration continued today with my family’s party. Everyone came to Bloomington, which was great for us. We simply had to get up, play with new toys, and wait for all of our family to get here! Loved that. Again, I’m going to let my pictures tell the story.
Ben made cards for each person at the party. They were actually very sweet…he wrote all of the names himself by sounding them out, so Ryan’s said “Rin” (rrrr+i+nnnn) and Grandma’s said “grnmu” (Grr+nn+muh). Each one had a Christmas picture on it, too. They were awesome and everyone made an appropriate fuss over them.
Then we took some family pictures. I think ours turned out pretty well, actually. I love how Emma is holding Ben’s arm.
It was finally time for presents! Our two little elves passed everything out for us.
We always take turns opening in my family, so it took some time to get everything open, but it was worth it. The Swartzies brought down their gifts to each other, too, which was fun to watch.
We look like we’re surrounded by gifts, but a lot of them were things that we opened yesterday. The really nice thing about opening one at a time is that the kids have a chance to play with each gift a little bit before they’re distracted by another one.
Grandma & Grandpa got Emma this Fur Real puppy who walks, barks, whines, and pants. I guess they know that it’s as close to real as she’ll get for awhile.
These swords were a big hit. Everyone kept telling the kids not to hit each other with them. Yeah, right.
Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of dinner or of the many games that were played that day. Guess I was too busy having fun! It was a wonderful day with my family, and I’m so glad that we could host. We even got to have some peanut butter pie in celebration of Rod’s birthday, which was also today. Even though he never wants to make much of his birthday we like to acknowledge it so it’s not just ignored. I’m sure that anyone who has a birthday near Christmas has dealt with that their entire life.
The only remotely bad part of the day…Grandma & Grandpa are spending the night here and leaving for Florida in the morning. It’s inevitable each year, but never fun to say good-bye to them. I think we’re all going to say our good-byes tonight so we don’t have to be sad all day tomorrow. Emma especially has a difficult time seeing them go. But, I guess that just means we need to start the countdown to Spring Break!
Christmas I
Christmas Day was full of fun, family, and food. And let’s not forget the presents!! I think the pictures tell the story of our day very well.
The kids slept in a little bit. At least my alarm clock started with a 7 instead of a 6…I’ll take it! I of course made them stop on the stairs for a “Christmas morning” picture. They were so patient with me.
This was the booty waiting for us when we got downstairs. Thankfully Santa was good to us again.
The kids tore into their gifts, and just like their personalities, their approach was completely different. Ben started with the small things in his stocking while Emma tore into her big packages.
They were so excited by all their new things that they asked me to take their picture together. How’s that for a role reversal?
After we got cleaned up we went to Uncle Steve & Aunt Mary’s. Dave and I opened our gifts early because Scott & Margie, who had our names, had to leave early. Dave decided that his new clamps worked pretty well. I asked if he could figure out a way to clamp her mouth shut when we need it!!
After everyone arrived we passed out all of the presents. As always, the kids had way more than they needed!
It’s always interesting there, because everyone just dives in and you never really know what anyone gets. It’s kind of like controlled chaos, but somehow it all works.
After a great turkey dinner at Steve & Mary’s, we packed up all of our new things and came home. Emma was thrilled that we had time to try out her new Easy Bake Oven that Santa brought. We decided to make cupcakes for the next day’s Christmas party. She loved every minute of it, and did really well pretty much on her own.
It was a great day. I think the best part is that we have another day of celebrating tomorrow with my family. You can’t beat two full Christmases in a row!
A whole bunch of Henriksons
My mom’s maiden name is Henrikson. She and her two sisters lost their mother when they were still very young, and I think they because even closer because of that. All three lived in Leland, my hometown, and growing up we were all very close. There were nine of us grandkids, and we were really raised like siblings. We all spent a ton of time together, and almost every Sunday night was spent having pizza and popcorn at one of the sister’s houses. Each year we had a Henrikson Christmas party, and each year they were super big fun. We had a name draw, and it didn’t matter how old you were…you were included in the draw. Sometimes my grandpa would give gag gifts, too. One year he wrapped up pictures of himself for everyone in different sized boxes. Each time someone opened, he would just cackle with laughter. Another year he saved prizes from cereal and wrapped them up for us. Again, he just laughed and laughed about his antics. Whenever we were all together, there was always a lot of laughter.
Nowadays it’s much more difficult for all of us to get together. Some of the family lives in Florida, some in Georgia, and even though a lot of us still live in Illinois we all lead busy lives and find it very tough to coordinate a get-together. Somehow, though, we found a night when everyone Illinoian could come. I was even planning a trip up to Mom and Dad’s this weekend, so I didn’t have to make a special trip up just for the evening.
It wasn’t a traditional Christmas party; we didn’t exchange any gifts or anything like that. But we did catch up with each other and kept some of our old traditions. We made homemade ice cream, which was always a big event in our family. We also pulled out the old slides from the 70s and 80s. Man, I don’t even have any words to describe some of those. Here’s a couple of examples:
Some stylin’ thirty-somethings in the 70s. Yeah, two of them are my parents. Any guesses which ones?
This must have been my cousin Debbi’s birthday, as she’s the one opening a gift. I do love my hair…no question where Emma gets it, eh?
It was a fantastic night, and it was of course full of laughter. I feel fortunate to be part of the Henrikson family, and I’m grateful for the time we have together. Hopefully we’ll get to do it again soon.
Ben’s basketball debut
This morning Ben had his first ever basketball game. He’s been having practices on Monday and Wednesday nights for about 4 weeks now, and as a culmination of the class the Mon/Wed class plays the Tuesday/Thursday class in actual games. I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was pretty fun for the kids. Ben’s team was the Wolverines and we played the Hawkeyes (in case you’re not making the connection, they’re all named after Big Ten teams). It was classic kid basketball, where each team member wears a different color wristband. The opposing team wears the same wristbands so each kid knows who to guard. Just as I expected, there was a lot of bunching around the ball, but overall they did really well. Ben’s specialty was defense, for sure. He was on his guy like glue. He never got a basket, but he did have a couple of shots and a lot of great passes. Most importantly, he had a great time.
Although I felt badly that Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Nanny and Brett drove all the way down here for such a short event, but it was fun to have them there for Ben. He was thrilled.
Hittin’ the tree farm
One of the best things about having Thanksgiving in Sycamore is that it makes stopping at the tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree much more convenient. The farm is practically right on our way home, so we can easily stop by, pick out the perfect tree, throw it on top of the van, and head for home. That’s exactly what we did this morning.
It was a pretty nice day out, so it was fun walking around looking for the perfect tree. 
We started our quest for Aunt Theresa’s tree first. Hers always needs to be pretty tall and relatively skinny to fit in her corner. We found her a Canaan, which according to Scott is a combination between a Fraser and Douglas fir. That went pretty quickly, and I was sure that our quest would be a short one, too. I was dead wrong. Our favorite kind, the Fraser firs, were pretty picked over already. I think it’s just a growing year for them or something. They’re popular, so there were lots and lots of tiny ones but not many big full ones like we look for each year. After a lengthy search during which we walked the entire length of the tree farm, we settled on a Balsam fit, which is similar to the Fraser but just a little bit more full. We were happy.
Of course the kids both took turns sawing and helping, and it was no time before we were heading back up to the shed for some hot chocolate and cookies furnished by Bethany First Step Preschool. I think this is the kids’ favorite part. Dave strapped the trees on top of the van and we were headed home.
I love going there because of many reasons. Not only do they have really nice trees, but they shake them very well and there is very little needle loss when you’re putting it up. But most importantly, I love going there because it’s so much fun for our family. The kids love being out among the trees, and I always run into people I know there. Plus it’s a chance to see Deb and Sandi, because they’re both working there. It’s an all-around fun tradition that just adds to the joy of the Thanksgiving weekend.
Thankfulness
I have so much in my life for which to be thankful, and although it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day frustrations and problems, I’m working very hard to remember to acknowledge my thankfulness. And today, on Thanksgiving, it seems appropriate to reflect even more than usual. The kids and I worked on a turkey centerpiece for our table earlier this week. The turkey has individual feathers and each person at Thanksgiving dinner was to write something for which he or she was thankful. We got such an awesome variety of topics, from things like electricity (from Ben) to sports (from Nolan) to good health (from Grandma) to a delicious meal (from Craig). It puts things into perspective, really. There are literally hundreds of things that we should appreciate daily, and it was important for me to start this kind of activity so I could get my kids thinking that way, too. While I was growing up I simply took everything we had for granted, and I don’t just mean the physical items I had. I had no idea that there were people without homes, without food, or without family members who loved them. And while I don’t necessarily want to expose my kids to many of the evils of the world, I do want them to understand that they have it pretty darn good and it’s important to be thankful for it.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope that no matter how small it may be, you can find thankfulness in your heart every day.
Moving day
It finally came…moving day! There is really only one word that describe this day to me…blessed. We were blessed with wonderful weather, we were blessed with some last-minute help, and we are continuously blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who were anxious to help in any way they could.
On the first load from the storage facility, everyone was still pretty chipper.
Brett was happy that the grown-ups were letting him help. I think that feeling left by mid afternoon.
Once again the oldest person here was showing the young pups how it was done. I bet Grandpa has helped me move about fifteen to twenty times in his life. He’s unbelievable.
Meanwhile Aunt Nanny was busy scrubbing the kitchen from top to bottom.
The men were stacking boxes in the garage, and I was quickly getting overwhelmed.
And then they kept bringing more boxes. And more boxes.
By the time I finally got pizza here, everyone was ready for a break.
During this meeting of the minds, Bob quickly learned that Grandpa Scott knows everything. I’m pretty sure that next time he’ll know just to listen and do what Grandpa suggests.
Even the kids got in on the move. Ben and AJ were so excited that there were boxes they could carry in. It also helped that these were bins of toys.
Of course it didn’t take long for them to discover that empty boxes are BIG fun.
At the end of the day, Alicia and Danielle graciously offered to empty the kitchen boxes into cabinets. I can’t believe I could relinquish control enough to let them, but I’m really glad I did…it was so nice to have that done!
It was such a long day, but we are in the house. We have so much to do tomorrow, too, but for now, I just can’t wait to get into my own bed and get some sleep. Before I do, though, I’m going to remember to give thanks for all the blessings I witnessed today.
