Saehae bog manh-i bad-euseyo !!! Happy New Year !

We hope the Christmas was good for everyone !

We started with our childrens church service on Christmas Eve and enjoyed the rest of the evening opening presents afterwards. It was a LEGO Christmas for Kyler this year as well as other goodies ! I got an annual mom poem and had to look for my presents around the house ! Some nice perfume and a handy dandy new coffee machine ! It was an "Elmo" Christmas for Kijin of course and his first Christmas with us. He loved his toys and stocking stuffers !

Christmas day it was off to Kitchener to see the Marshalls. A wonderful dinner and many gifts ! Thanks to everyone for a great day ! It was all so quick and over before we knew it! Grandad got a poem from us and an unusual gift request from us this year. He can choose to take the CN TOWER EDGE walk !! If not, he can just take in a Marleys hockey game with the boys...we will keep you posted on what he decides !

We had all the Wiersma's over to our place for the first time in awhile on the 27th. Ed and I cooked up a storm and put out enough food to feed everyone for the week ! The cousins enjoyed each others company and mostly played games on their DS's! Kijin loved playing with all the kids ! All of the cousins exchanged wonderful gifts with eachother too. It snowed and it snowed and it snowed ! We hoped everyone had a great Wiersma Christmas!

Our New Year plans we have yet to plan, but it will probably be nice just to stay home, eat all the leftover goodies and enjoy the bottles of wine we got as gifts!

Happy New Year everyone and a Blessed 2012 year !

Karen, Ed, Kyler, Kijin Wiersma

Moms back to work week

Well I almost survived my first week back to work! WOW those 9 months went fast eh? The week started off with no working stove ! Something went wonky with it as soon as it was finished cleaning ! So we had to think quick, call in a fixup, order in pizza one night, had left overs another night, had take out and then a crockpot dinner ! The stove got working on Wednesday ! Yippee !

Ed is now off , enjoying some time off to shop, do things around the house and take care of Kijin, and Kyler's school drop off/pick up routine ! He is the stay at home dad while I am back to work ! First day--first afternoon nap--guess what happens???? Yep ! Kijin gets out of his crib !!!!!! Ed also had the job of removing Kijin's "Soothie" during nap times, since when he starts daycare January 3rd- he will not beable to have one there......so far so good...except for the one crib escape !!!!!! ( so far.........) Otherwise, work is fine, just a few days of reading a long list of emails, putting my desk back together and a few other things and it;s back to making sure everyone in Durham Region is compliant with the Smoke-Free Ontario Act !

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Remember, Jesus is the reason for celebrating Christmas Season. Many Blessings to you and to all our family and friends !

Karen, Ed, Kyler and Kijin Wiersma

Karen's Crock Pot French Toast

Today I had my last "mom" (MOPS) day at our church and decided to make something different for us ladies. Once again, I dug out my crockpot and see what I could make.

Crock pot French Toast it is !

It takes about 4-6 hours to bake in the crockpot, so make sure your timing is right. For me, I had to get up at 3:15am to mix up the batter and turn on the crockpot for it to be ready for 9:00-9:30am ish. I am not aware of any crockpot that has an automatic timer on it. But man, I wished I had it for last night ! But I was told, that its possible to attach an automatic regular light timer to the crockpot and voila ! it will automatically come on or shut off. I have yet to look into this !!!

This is great if you have plans to have company over in the morning or for a brunch.

You will need:

---- 1 whole loaf of bread. ( i used 1/2 of Italian bread and 1/2 raison cin. bread)

-----1 dozen eggs

-----2 tsp Vanilla

-----4 cups of milk ( u can use 3 cups of soy and 1 cup of heavy cream)

----- 1/4 tsp salt ( i did not use salt --)

-----2 tsp cinnamon

---1/4 cup brown sugar

---( optional 1/4 walnuts or other nuts )

Grease down your crock pot very well with butter, shortening or cooking spray. ( if you dont- you will be scraping forever ) Slice the bread into triangles and alternate the breads in the crockpot.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla together. Pour on top of bread. ( optional - is to dunk the bread front and back and then layer it )

Cook over low for 4-6 hours. The bread is done when the break has soaked up all of the liquid and the egg is cooked. The bread will expand.

After 6 hours - i had a bit of liquid left over, so I took the top off for 15 min or longer , the liquid was gone and the french toast was perfect.

If you have a smaller crock pot, scale the back a bit and use perhaps 1/2 loaf of bread !

Yummy !

Karen

2 Boys Waiting for Snow

Last weekend we were out looking for the snowflakes so Kijin can have a chance to look , taste or smell snow ! Nope ! Not yet ! We were all dressed for snow- but we are still waiting for it :)

Christmas chores

Yikes ! Kijin and I have nasty colds this week-sneezing like crazy and just feeling blah ! We are trying to finish up our Christmas chores since my work date back is coming up soon ! Ed will be off and is counting the days down for his 3 weeks off!

This past weekend, we went to a "Korean" Christmas party hosted by the "Korean Canadian Children's Association-KCCA" in Thornhill. It is a special occation put on every year so the families can enjoy and experience the riches of Korean culture and connect with other adoptive families across Ontario. We enjoyed the Christmas service which opened up singing the Korean National Anthem and the Canadian Anthem. All the little ones tried hard to sit through the long service and some of them made it :) Kijin just went up and down the isles , smiling at everyone and picking up things off the ground ( oh joy ). Three other families were "new" to this event besides us and we were announced and introduced at the end of the service !

The Korean dinner was great ! All that hard work and made by volunteers from the church was worth it ! ( Kyler stuck to just eating his white rice --he did not want to try any Korean food ) The bulgogi was amazing !!!!

Santa came around and Ed took Kijin over to see him.......Santa got the "Kijin stare down look" , got his present then wanted out of there ! Kyler got a nice gift too from Santa and played with a few other little Korean boys with balloons around the dinner tables ! Kyler was a "big brother" for awhile playing and watching over the boys while some of the parents talked around the tables :)

Next up is the Korean New Year Celebration in January. We hope to go and check that out as well !

Kyler got his report card last week--and he did a great job ! All "A"s and "B"s. A big sigh of relief when he opened his report card first when he got home ! He is busy working on his book report and boardgame assignment due before the holidays.

My Christmas cards are out, my shopping is done, just the big Christmas tree to decorate !

If you did not get a Christmas card or email from us, let me know--I'll make sure you get one :)

Karen