Happy Thanksgiving!

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

John F. Kennedy

Easter 2011

I am a little ashamed to admit it, but for us Easter is one of those last-minute holidays.

Back in the Netherlands we don’t have an Easter Bunny bringing goodies, and in the Catholic church it pretty much rivals Christmas in importance. I used to work at the bakery in a grocery store on Saturdays and the Saturday before Easter was busier than the day before Christmas.

This year we colored eggs the night before and the Easter Bunny had some last minute shopping to do. He opted for Easter cookies in stead of chocolate bunnies, which Will thought was a little weird. And the chocolate eggs weren’t his favorite brand (he prefers Hershey’s over Dove, we need to work on that!).

But other than that we had a great day. We had a great breakfast. Kris had invited us over for a yummy dinner and the kids got to go egg hunting in her yard. Luckily Granny and Grampy made sure the Easter Bunny had stuffed his eggs with Hershey kisses, Cadbury eggs and Rolo’s. (Mom and Dad are very grateful!)

New Year’s Eve In Eden

A quick post about the days around New Year’s Eve.

Dean and Kris invited us to Eden for a few days, where Dean has a timeshare condo. We had dinner at Happy Sumo for Kris’ birthday and after that we drove north.

It was bitter cold, but that didn’t stop Will from going to the hot tub as often as possible.

We rang in the New Year with Keelie, Josh and Natalie. (Keelie made the most amazing Jalapeno Poppers!)

And New Year’s Day we had to walk off all that good food (and some their hangovers). We went snowshoe-ing, for the first time with Tessa. She was wearing so many layers that she could barely move, but she seemed to like it. Will had a blast, although he was happy to be back at the condo with a hot chocolate, and made another trip to the hot tub.

 

Christmas 2010

Finally, more than a month overdue, some pictures of our Christmas celebrations.

We had a great Christmas Eve; deep-frying turkey in the snow (courtesy of Dean), eating way too much other food before the turkey was done (7-layer bean dip (Kris), chips and artichoke dip (Keelie)), unwrapping a Christmas book (Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus), and watching movies.

The next morning both kids were extremely patient. Honestly, I don’t know how Will could wait until 10.30 to unwrap presents. We had breakfast and then it was finally time. Tessa wasn’t too interested in it all. I guess she didn’t really understand all that paper yet. Will got some surprises, so all in all it was a good morning. Later in the day Kristi came, as did Jim. We had dinner with the Wood’s and Stephanie dropped by for a little while.

One of Will’s gifts was very appropriate…

“Watchoo talkin bout Willis!”

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

Since they have already celebrated it in the Netherlands and we are really close here:

We hope you had a great “Roetsj”!

More pics about our Christmas Break soon.

Getting Ready For Christmas

We’ve been busy with Christmas-related activities these last few days.

We saw a glimpse of Santa at the Kids with Cancer Christmas party, tried to go see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, but ended up having a dessert date with the Aaron’s and Savage’s, had a fun time unwrapping gifts and making graham crackers houses at Grandma’s, saw Santa again and talked to him at Cheri’s party, hung out with family at Aunt Denise’s house, and finally put up our Christmas tree.

Pretty busy, right!

We even have some pictures for proof:

Tessa at the Kids with Cancer-Party

Grandma’s Party

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa at Cheri’s Party

 

The decorated tree

And finally…

Sinterklaas Kapoentje

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje

Gooi wat in mijn laarsje

Dank u Sinterklaasje

 

We celebrated Sinterklaas a few days late (it’s a long way from Spain on a horse, and some of the Dutch goodies still didn’t make it in time), but we celebrated no less. Luckily both Will and Tessa have a pair of wooden shoes. We sang some songs, made sure there were carrots and water for the horse, and milk for Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet, and then it was off to bed.

And this morning they found this…

Will couldn’t wait unwrapping the gifts and Tessa only really cared for the clementines and stroopwafel letter. (Sinterklaas normally brings chocolate letters, but those are still on their way. Stroopwafel letters work just as well.)

While singing the Sinterklaas songs in Dutch, Will was wondering if there were any English songs. So we just used some Santa songs and replaced him with Sinterklaas. Obviously the Good Man didn’t mind.

 

Want to know more about “de Goed Heilig Man”?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas

Grandma (Kristi) wrote a blog post for her work about Sinterklaas.

You can read it here: http://lib.byu.edu/sites/worldhistory/2010/12/08/sinterklaas/

Christmas Spirit

This video will definitely help you getting into the Christmas spirit (if you need any help, that is).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4BWhvIlFVE&feature=player_embedded#

Just so you know, Paka (Jim) was involved in this, and even did some of the camera work.

We get to go to their Christmas Program in a few weeks!

 

Some background information for my Dutch readers:

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir is a choir sponsored by the LDS Church. It consist of 360 member, all volunteers, and was founded in 1847.  They have won Emmys and Grammys, and are world famous.