Duerksen Christmas

After Christmas Day passed, we waited a few more days before celebrating with Chelan's side of the family. Treg, Candace, and the boys arrived from California on the 29th - very early in the morning (1:30 in the morning, to be exact)! Getting reacquainted did not take long:

We celebrated Christmas over a couple of evenings with lots of food, fun games, gifts, a large plastic- wrap ball, and most importantly, catching up on more than a year's time! We started off with a shrimp boil:

We even had some verenika the next night:

Grandma explains the big ball of plastic wrap. They each ended up with 3 little gifts after unwrapping all of it!

Time for the cousins' gift exchange!

a hedgehog pillow from Cale

New Legos from Chayce

a Kendama from Finn - we had never heard
of those, but it's quite fun and it does take a
certain amount of skill to master it!

Playing with Boden's new tractors from Cambry

Grandma and Grandpa gave the grandchildren these letters made from old chains off of farm equipment - quite clever!

perhaps the 3 and 5 year olds can figure this puzzle out?

instructions!

Look what Chelan found under the soup
can label!

The oldest and the youngest hard at work!

new coloring books!

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Surprise!

Well, I sure don't get surprised very often, but Saturday night was a huge surprise to me! I thought I was heading to Hesston for an AGCO Christmas Dinner with Chelan. He told me we needed to drop something off at Ben and Tina's house (my cousin), first. Okay, no big deal! While we were there, Ben said they were about ready to go out for dinner, did we want to come along? Surprisingly, Chelan thought about it and wanted to do it (clue #1 that something was up). I kept saying that we couldn't skip out on his dinner, but Chelan insisted that going to Wichita for dinner would be much more fun. I even said, "This seems like something you had planned!" However, I'm always up for dinner in Wichita, so I agreed, reluctantly!! We enjoyed a meal at Hangar 1 Steakhouse and I thought that was the end of it. But, on the way home, Chelan asked if we could go by the new arena since the inaugural concert was there that night -- Brad Paisley! I thought it would be f...

Spring Art

While Mrs. Schmidt was away on maternity leave during the spring, Mr. Novak (from Hesston) filled in for her. Since Cambry has her first 3 class periods in the art room, she got to know him very well and he mentioned several times how he appreciated Cambry's artistic style and way of thinking. He even let her paint a little bit on his own pieces! Cambry took several pieces to the WSL art festival in April. She came home with a first place finish in the graphic design category and an honorable mention in the computer design category. We are so thankful for the instruction she has received over the last 4 years in Goessel. Now, on to Hesston College with Professor Cross!

Off and Running!

A month into the school year and everyone seems to be clicking along . . . at least for now! We caught up with Cambry today, now in a room of her own for the very first time! She is enjoying her esports team, particularly making the social media posts and taking pictures for the team. She gets some Rocket League time in as well! And she has access to the art building pretty much when she wants it! Caiden is doing his thing at K-State and at athletic events again. And Delaney is trying to do every possible activity available in high school. Of course, her top priority is volleyball, and right now, her team is 2nd overall in 1A-1 and recently won their home tournament for the first time since 2017! And, Kenya is growing like a weed!

Days With the Duerksens

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