Borgdorff Christmas Part One

This weekend we had the Borgdorff Christmas hosted at our house. Graham and Rebeka came on Friday night and slept over. We enjoyed our visit with just the 2 of them. Al and Graham were up late having a bro to bro talk which they don't get to do too often. Saturday about 4:00 everyone began to arrive. The food was laid out and the eating frenzy began. We had dips and shrimp and meatballs and salad, pickles and cheese sticks and baking galore. 21 people in total. After we ate we opened presents and as the tradition has it, poems were written for each gift and read aloud to the amusement of all. In cleaning up today I came across some of the poem's. Here is a small exert of the Borgdorff Poem Collection of 2006. All rights reserved. Do not publish without the direct consent of the poem writers (who will of course require large sums of money for the consent)
First off....

This is a poem for my uncle Al
At church he is the children's pal
He gives the messages of God's love
As we celebrate his gift from above.

He is the star actor and sings in the worship team
There is no doubt that of the crop, he is cream
He puts headlights in kub cars
and watches movies under the stars

If something breaks, he keeps his cool;
He can fix it because he has the right tool.
Screwdrivers with every head and ratchets of every bit,
When something's gone wrong he just say, "opps"

Although Maui is the place he wants to go
He realy should not miss out on all of our snow
For a trip of salt water and sand of white and gold,
Just take a woalk on any slippery winter road!

When he asked me for alot of cheese,
I pumped his poem full of it, with ease
Maybe I'll get you some before I leave,
"Merry Christmas!" from your favourite nephew, Steve.
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Sung to the tune of "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"

You know Vincent and Pauline and Aaron and Nicolas,
Jessica and Evelyn and Justin and Sir Hiss (editor note their cat)
But do you recall,
The coolest Borgdorff of all-

Daniel the coolest Borgdorff,
Has a very full-filled mind
And if you ever meet him,
lot of pranks and jokes you'll find

He likes to read, speak French and play.
But watch out! Oh, Oh, Oh
Daniel with your paintball gun,
Please give me a chance to run!

Daniel the coolest Borgdorff,
I hope that your aim's not good.
I am so very happy ,
I don't live in your neightbourhood!

So on this family Christmas Eve,
I just want to say
Daniel with your paintball gun,
Have some Merry Christmas fun!

Oh how I sure do love you,
My nephew, so wise and fun.
Daniel, the coolest Borgdorff,
Now my silly song is done!
Love Aunt Rebeka

Ok one more This is not a poem that was said but a song that was song by almost all the Borgdorff grandchildren( at least the brave ones). This was song written by Paul VanLoenen and Simon Meijers for the churches youth group, just to have fun with. Katelyn taught it to the rest and well now we may just have a new family favourite Christmas song. Just for those not too up to date with the snow boarding lingo (language) rippin up the pipe and riding on the rail are snow boarding terms for tricks and stunts (just to keep it simple.)

This is our Christmas, Elijah
(song to the tune of These are the days of Elijah)

Verse one
This is our Christmas, Elijah,
Walking around wearing bells,
and look there's a three year old fruit cake,
let's just hope that it doesn't smell
Cold turkey sure makes me smile
I just put snow tires on my Ford
Chestnuts on the fire didn't work
we'll just fry em'
The snow plow just took out my Ford

Behold Gramps comes,
Rippin' up the pipe
Ridin on a rail
Clinging to his life
He's no young boy
Grandpa's 83
Caught a lot of air
And now he's caught in a tree

Here's the next Christmas, Elijah
The Ford just came back from the shop
It's loaded down with presents
Some of which still want to hop.
I sure hope Grandma likes the ferret
It's running wild in her house
Somebody told me it would make a great pet,
But now I am having my doubts.

Behold Gramps comes
Rippin' up the pipe.
Ridin on the rail
Clinging to his life.
He's no young boy,
Grampa's 83
Caught a lot of air
And now he's stuck in a tree.

Bridge
My slush ball's gonna soak ya X8
Chorus X2

Hope that gives you just a bit of an idea of what Christmas with the Griswalls (I mean Borgdorff's) is all about.
After I recooperate a little more I'll post part 2. Come back if you dare!!!!

Christmas Concert

Thursday night we had the school Christmas concert. Jacob and Melissa are both in the Sr. band which has been playing just over a year. Jacob playing the tuba and Melissa on the flute. There were 55 grade 7+8's in the band. You have to give their teacher credit for sure!!!
It was fun to listen and watch them. Kristen had a reading part and was in the choir. Melissa was Earl in the Christmas concert "From our Herd to your Herd". She had an awesome cowboy drawl and did a great job. Vaseline and coffee grinds made an interesting beard.
Today is the Borgdorff Christmas, everyone should be here later this afternoon. I'll post some pictures tomorrow of all the fun. Hope you have an awesome weekend and are enjoying this Christmas season. Shopping is done and cookies are baked. I'm ready, so bring it on!!!!

Looking back...

As I get ready for spending time with family I came across a story Melissa wrote in September. Kind of like the "what did you do this summer story" that you always have to do in September. I thought I would share it. As you think over the last year remember all the great times you spent with friends and family, all the memories that made 2006 a memorable year. (Her spelling not mine.)
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The Tail of the Travelling Cottagers

By Melissa Borgdorff

Sept 19, 2006

Like most summers I go cottaging with the Wagensvelds, my mom's family and the Borgdorff's my dad's family but my mom's cottaging trip was a whole different story.

Well the drive was just horrible. It was so long, we had to turn around so many times and we had no idea where we were going. All we knew whas that it was somewhere near Perth and it was called Tay Hawk. We were also carrying a boat so we went even slower. Let me first introduce the family who went. There were my Grandparents. The Jonkers, Aunt Krista, Uncle Dave, Madelyn, Lauren and Rachel. The Wagendsvelds Uncle Jay, Aunt Jenn and Annika who is 7 months. There was the Mecleans, Uncle Doug, and Aunt Jennifer. Than there was my family. Mom, Dad, Jake Kristen and me. Nick also came from the Borgdorff side because Jacob in the only boy. After getting there we finally got to settle in.

We got everyone sleeping somewhere adn we noticed that the place was infested with animals. There was a mouse in one of the bunkies. Two mice were in the kitche, ants were everywhere, and we watched a snake eat a toad. Owwwwwww, but most of all the mosquitoes were the worst. Our little cousin Annika, yes who is only 7 months got eaten alive her first night. We did end up getting the mice out of the cottage, we did fix the ant problem and the mosqitoes we just had to live with. The rest of the week was just AWESOME!!!!

We had lots of fun in the water, like swimming, fishing and doing water sports. The lake was really warm and we swam to the island. We had lots of fun with water sports, we got to try knee boarding, wakeboarding, water skiing, and tubing. We had a fishing tournament and my dad won. There was a scavenger hunt and many campfires where we sang lots of silly songs, took lots of pictures and most of all we got it all on tape. It was definitely the best vacation ever. I would do it again any day.

So if you are looking for an adventure, cottaging with the family is the way to go and if you are not looking for an adventure don't go cottaging. Thank-you

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Hope it brought back some memories of this trip or trips that you have spent with your crazy family. As Christmas nears and you think back to years gone by what you remember most is the time spent together and traditions you shared with family and friends, not what was under the tree.

Kim

Trees are decorated

The lights are on and the trees are decorated. We had some issues with the real tree, it seems to have grown with bend in the trunk which made it challenging to get it to stand up straight without falling over but it lasted the first night and it's still up. The magazines that are being used to prop it in the right direction seem to be working. Al scared me at first and said he used my stampin'up catalogues to do the trick. Jacob is busy playing Nintendo and wouldn't get out of the way so here you can see him sporting his new hat.

New Blog added

I have added a new Stamping with friends blog to the index. Pop in and check out some stamping ideas.
Kim

Share your favourites Christmas memories...
Here are Al's answers.. very different from my sisters answers on their blogs.
1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? Egg Nog
2. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes.
3 . Coloured lights on tree/house or white? Coloured lights much to his wifes chagrin.
4 . Do you hang mistletoe? No
5. When do you put your decorations up? First clear Saturday in November (outside lights).
6. What is your favourite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Ham
7. Favourite holiday memory as a child: Getting together with Elzinga cousins in Hamilton
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Santa was created after I was born. Don't recall always knew but took the candy canes at the mall from the Santa anyway.
9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Opened them the night of the Timothy Christian school program which was the last day of school before Christmas holdiays. (as a kid) NOW- when ever my wife tells me.
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Stupid lights, I'm changing to LED someday soon. Kim is typing while I am replying to these questions and fixing stupid lights. To answer the question- I put my decorations on the tree one at a time.!
11. Snow…love it or dread it? Live with it, days I love and days not so much depends on my mood.
12. Can you ice skate? Yeah we even built an ice rink in our back yard last year
13. Do you remember your favourite gift as a child? Train set (still have it in the garage somewhere)
14. What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Aside from celebrating the real meaning, it would also be getting together with family. I love that part.
15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Shortbread and Kim's pecan crescent rolls. Never had them before I joined the Wagensveld.
16. What tops your tree? Which one? Angels on both, there is a pot light over the head of one gives a angelic glow.
17. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving especially to my wife.
18. Gift bags or wrapping paper? Gift bags all the way.
19. Do you send out Christmas cards? NO Kim does
20. Real or artificial tree? Yes
21. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Both. We head down to Waterloo every year for Christmas day.
22. What is the most annoying thing about this time of year? Stupid lights (still working on them)
23. When do you take down your Christmas tree? Dec 31 before New Years - before Jacob's birthday.
24. What is your favourite Christmas Album? Sting and Bing Crosby sang at a TV Christmas special, still one of my favourites. If anyone remembers the Police.
25. What is your favourite Christmas Song? Drummer Boy - like comfort food!!

Lights are fixed and Al is upstairs putting them on the tree.
Enjoy the beginning of the Christmas season with all it's memories and traditions.

Volleyball Champs

Volleyball tournament this past Monday went great. Jacob's team came in 1st place out of 7 teams and the girls team that Melissa is on came in 2nd. Great job! Melissa is now in the process of trying out for the basketball team at school. It looks like we have another great basketball player in the house. Jacob thinks she will make the team, we will keep you posted.

Shop till you Drop

My sister Krista planned a shopping trip to Grove City Pennsylvania ennsalvania for Sunday- Tuesday for the sisters, unfortunately by sister-in-law Jen couldn't make it since her one yo Annika was very ill just a couple of days before we left. She is doing much better now which we are all very thankful for. So it was Krista and my sister Jennifer and myself that set out with Jennifers one month old baby Brayden. We met in Burlington so that we could drive from there together. This is our old house in Burlington. I had some extra time waiting to meet Krista and Jen at the Go station so I thought I would drive by the old house on Centennial drive. (lucky nobody was home so I could take a picture without appearing to be some stalker) Strangely the house seemed way smaller than I remember it and I remember the front yard being huge. Not so. The large boulder that I used to stand on at the bus stop across the street is a small rock not a boulder at all. Funny how your memories as a kid are so much different than reality. Any way back to the shopping trip...We had no problem crossing the border and our first stop was a Target store in Erie. Krista warned us that we would love to shop

at Target and of course she was right. It's fun picking up different foods and other neat things that we haven't seen here. We ate dinner at a Cracker Barrel and continued to Grove City after dinner. We had fun just kicking back and relaxing at the hotel, saving our energy for the next days shopping and it was good thing because we shopped from 10:00 am- 9:00 pm. We especially liked the Gap and the kids clothing stores. We were all able to get most of our Christmas shopping done in the 2 days we were there at prices that saved us big time. Tuesday we headed home after hitting Gap once more and finding PRICE ADJUSTMENTS on some of thing we bought the day before. They owed us money!! It's like be paid to shop well OK not quite but we were able to get some great deals. Brayden (Jennifer's one month old) was awesome he slept and ate and was VERY content. He loves to shop!! And here is a picture of him kicking back with his remote at the end of the day and watching some tv. He is a man after all!! After a small detour to the Customs desk(YIKES) at the border we were on our way home loaded up with Christmas goodies and great memories. Thanks Krista and Jennifer for a great time. Now we have to plan our next trip, Jen how does March Break sound?

Bronze!!!

Jacob in his team uniform. They played their first tournament last weekend. They won their first game against Bracebridge. Lost their 2nd game against Borden and then won their last game by just 3 points against Orillia. There were 8 teams at the tournament and they came in 3rd and each received a bronze medal. The last game was real nail biter!! Jacob had 5 baskets and played a great game. Congrats!!

Guest book

If you are here for a look or a visit please take a minute and sign the guest book by writing your name in comments. You don't have to sign in you can just post as anonymous and then just post your name so we know it's you!!
Thanks for looking
The Borgdorff's

Thanksgiving 2006

http://www.clickphotography.ca/

Thanks Christine for taking family photo's for us!!

Check out more of the Wagensveld family pictures on the links to other blogs.

Christmas Stamping and Scrapbooking

This is one of the projects I am doing tonight at a stamp a stack. Great teachers gifts. I guess I need to make 3!
Don't delay start your Christmas cards today!!

Quote of the day

There's something wrong with a mother who washes out a measuring cup with soap and water after she's only measured water in it. Erma Bombeck
Leave the dishes and find some stamping time or fun time today!!

Happy Birthday Steven and Evelyn

Hope you both had a great day celebrating your birthday. God bless you for many years to come.
Aunt Kim and Uncle Al

Brian Littrell Concert

So last night was the Brian Littrell concert and we had lots of fun. Before the concert we were able to meet Brian at a private backstage meet and greet with about 10 other people. He spoke to everyone individually and we were able to get this picture and a couple of CD's signed. His wife was there and we asked her to join us in the picture. They have a 4yo son at home and we brought him a Canada t-shirt and a 2010 Vancouver Olympic pin. They were both down to earth and very chatty and funny and very short (LOL) we both felt like giants beside them. Time for the concent and it was Al and me and 300 screaming 20-30 yo women and maybe 20 other men. It was very interesting to see the women go nuts. It was a great concert and we had great seats. Al said he sang a little flat but I didnt' notice. Brian shared his love of God and talked about how God is his strength in his life. It was a great night and very interesting one that we won't soon forget.

Quote of the Day

Words of wisdom by Kristen.
"Mom it's weird it's pregnant then baby, pregnant then baby, pregnant then baby!"
I chuckled and replied "Yes Kristen, that's usually how it works!!"

Babies Babies Babies!!!

As you may know our family has had a baby boom.
Jay and Jen- Annika almost 1yo
Jen and Doug- Brayden 1 week old
NOW
we have another baby to anticipate
Yes that's right!!
Graham and Rebeka are expecting in July.
Congratulations!!

1st Game

My 1st exhibition game was good. We expected to loose badly, but only lost by 5. I had 4 fouls against me and 2 fouls on me. I was the biggest guy out there and did well (if i do say so myself.) We played th Borden Jets "A" team and i am on the "B" team so this was our 1st game and we played our best.
Jacob
5:52 PM

Brian Littrell- (BackStreet Boys)

Interesting day yesterday!!
I was listening to Life 100.3 yesterday morning and I called in for Breakfast Club Trivia. The question was how did Brian Littrell meet his wife. Well I was caller #1 and I guessed high school sweethearts. ( like Al and I) well I was WRONG!! so they took caller #2 who was WRONG, caller #3 had a 50/50 chance and was still wrong so I called again and was caller #4 and won by default. Yeah!! I won a $25 gift cert for Crock and Block. (Enough for appetizer and dessert). At least it was something. BUT then they took all the winners of the week and did a grand prize draw for Back Stage Passes to Brian Littrell Concert in November to meet Brian Littrell.
http://www.brianlittrellmusic.com/ - check out his website to listen to his music and learn more about Brian Littrell!!
Well guess what I WON AGAIN!! and Al and I are going to the concert in Novemeber and meeting Brian Littrell who just put out his first solo album of Christian music. He is a member of the Back Street Boys a main stream pop group. So today I went out and bought his CD so I can become more familiar with his music.
All this by 9:00 in the morning.

The rest of the day I spent chaperoning the grade 11's to Stratford to see
Much Ado about Nothing. It was great!! If you get a chance to go GO it was so funny and of course like all Stratford plays very well done.
I drove through Kitchener with the kids and wanted to stop off and see my new nephew but of course we were on a tight time frame so I will have to wait ....

Brayden Thomas

Congratulations to Jennifer (my sister) and Doug on the safe arrival of their new baby boy. Brayden Thomas. Mom and baby are doing great. You can see pictures of Brayden on Jen and Doug McLellan link from this web page. Please feel free to post a congratulations. Jen loves getting blog mail. This will be our first nephew on the Wagensveld side and the first boy cousin for my kids on this side. Yeah!! Welcome Brayden to our family.
Kim and Al

CROSS COUNTRY RUNNING

Cross country meet was yesterday and both Jake and Melissa are on the team. Melissa was a sub so she didn't run in the meet but she ran each practise which is about 3 km three times a week. I wish I could say I'm doing that .
Jacob ran in the meet and came in 8 out of 18. His team came in first in his division so they got to take home the big trophy again this year. Good job Jacob. Funny enough the shortest kid in that age group came in first. Boy he can run like the wind. Melissa team came in 2nd. Melissa and Jake are both trying out for Volleyball now and Melissa just found out yesterday she made the team and Jake finds out today. Still 2 after school practises a week. Lots of driving back and forth. Maybe we should have bought a house closer to the school. I'll keep you posted about whether Jacob makes the team.
Kim

Kristen's Project on the dodo bird

So the grade 4 project is on birds and Kristen picked the dodo bird. We started out not knowing much at all about the dodo bird but now we all know more than we ever wanted to know about the dodo bird. Part of the project was to write a poem or song so Kristen decided on a song and with the help of her dad this is what they came up with. Enjoy.
PS the picture above has no copyright on it since it is so old a drawing. We are allowed to use it.
To the tune of
“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”

Dodo dodo dodo bird
You’re extinct haven’t you heard
You ate berries and some fish
Then you ended on a dish.
You weren’t used to seeing men
So you thought they were your friends.

When you got so very close
they turned you into a roast
And because you couldn’t fly
There’s no refuge in the sky
So they caught you left and right
Then began your final fight

When the humans left the land
They left behind some dogs and ham
But the ham it had some legs
And it trampled all your eggs
And soon there were no more of you
That’s your story sad but true…..

Dodo dodo dodo bird
You’re extinct haven’t you heard.

By Kristen Borgdorff

Hearty Potato Soup

Well with this cold weather we have had this past week and the morning being so dark. I'm thinking about cooking some of my old favourites. Here's one I thought I would share.
1- medium onion- chopped
1/3 cup of green pepper -chopped
1 clove (at least) of garlic- minced
1 tbl spoon of margarine (you can use olive oil too)
Saute above ingredients for 3-4 minutes you can do this in a soup pan then...
Add
1/2 cup of chicken broth ( I use the packets and make my own from that)
2 carrots slice and diced
1/4 cup of celery
4 small potatoes
pinch of nutmeg - (I have used currie powder instead for a different taste)
2 1/2 cup of milk
pinch of salt and pepper
Simmer 35-45 minutes
Puree when it's still warm and serve.
I sometimes grate cheese on the top of my cream soups it looks nice and it taste great.
I generally double this recipe for my family if we are eating it for a main course and I will usually have enough for lunch for 2 people the next day.
Let me know if you try it sometime this winter.
Kim

Today

Yeah it's the weekend. It was a short week but for some reason it still took a long time for the weekend to come. We plan to kick back and relax and wait for a phone call from my sister who's is due any day. Please feel free to post a note and say hi!

Basketball

Jacob made the Royals Basketball team and is practicing 2 nights a week and his first weekend tournament is in November. So far he is loving it!

Graham and Rebecca

Al's brother Graham and his wife Rebecca enjoying an evening with family and friends.

Melissa and Katelyn Entertaining

Melissa and Katelyn played their flutes for the dinner guests at Al's parents 45th wedding anniversary. Summer 2006

In Mexico- March 2005

Enjoying sun and surf in Mexico!

Going to Mexico

Al and Kim on the life boat going to Mexico 2005- Mexican Riveria Stampin'Up! cruise.