Nagelkirk's Zeeland Christmas (Part 1)...

About a month ago we received the unfortunate news that I would be losing my job at ICCF effective at the end of the year.  It all felt like really poor timing because I would miss out on my maternity pay, my job is really flexible which works well with being a part-time stay at home mom, looking for a job while 8 months pregnant is not ideal and our finances have now taken a dramatic dip!  But now that we have had some time to process it all, though, I think we have a different outlook...we trimmed down the budget, decided i was not going to look for another job until after my maternity leave and are looking forward to me having more time off in the next few months to celebrate Christmas together, get things done around the house and spending some time just us three before the newest addition to the family.  

My time at ICCF will be ending on December 15 which will give me one week to wrap up our Christmas preparations and then my boys and I will enjoy almost two full weeks off together!!!  We are all looking forward to all of this family time together before the baby comes.  We have already started off the festivities by getting our tree at Prince Farms this weekend and decorating the house!  Parker is really into Christmas lights on people's houses so we are contemplating putting some on our house too!  All of our neighbors are putting our house to shame...Joel feels like he has to turn the outside porch lights on at night so we look more festive!  

Also, Grandma Lambert has put together an amazing Advent Calendar for Parker to enjoy throughout the month which is getting us in the spirit.  He is really into opening the little doors and hanging his ornaments...of course Grandma snuck in a few extra presents as well!

The city of Zeeland helped us feel the Christmas Zeel at their Christmas parade which we went to with Kuipers, Keens and Hoeves.  Parker raked in the candy and enjoyed watching the floats and animals that were in the parade. 

The holiday season is off to a fabulous start and we are looking forward to what the rest of the month has to bring.  We are excited for lots of family time, relaxing and hopefully a little bit of productiveness to get us ready for our newest blessing coming in February (or sooner I hope!).