Christmas 2009

First christmas day was spent with Lisette's parents and Lisette's brother with his wife and kids. There were small presents under our tree and Nils and Wende were a bit disappointed after what they went through with Sinterklaas. But nevertheless they happily opened up their presents. Nils had a nice calender with pictures of steam engines on it and Wende had a playmobil puppet and stickers. The stickers were used within 10 minutes and Nils loved the steam engine pictures. At the grandparents in De Lier we had a nice gourmet dinner and the next day we went to see the grandparents in Hulst. There we met with Maaike and Jaap and Guusje and Maartje. Wende played with Guusje and Nils had a ball with Maartje.. I went shopping with my dad and we bought things for the evening dinner although eating is still difficult for my mom. Nevertheless we had a great evening together and the kids also received presents from Henny our aunt.. as usual, we were sorry she could not be with us that day but hope to see her again soon. Third christmas day we went back tp De lier againg to celebrate Lisette's mother's birthday. So we had a busy weekend again...

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Even more snow!

Last wednesday we had a christmas celebration at Nils's school. He was all excited about it and he was allowed to lite up a candle during it. Cramped in the small classroom we watched and listened. Lots of biblical things like church songs but we don't mind, better to have them growing up in a small town then in the big city..

Yesterday we saw a coach and horses in the street. Lisette remembered that they were going to perform a opening ceremony for our renewed street. remember the extension we had build one year ago? And at the same time the council decided to renew our street, so we ended up in one big building pit. Today the council officially opened our renewed street, something that wasn't done since the street was layed out in 1949. Nils and Wende were allowed (together with other kids in the street) to ride the coach and they loved. Whe they came back they were all given presents by the Santa Claus that was there as well.

Today (sunday) we were woken up bu the kids (as usual) but then we looked out of the window and saw itwas snowing again and by the looks if it, it had been snowing for quite a while too! It didn't stop until about 1 o'clock in the afrternoon but that was just a short break for after an hour it started to snow again.. I guess we did not have so much snow in 10 years or so. (maybe even longer) So we went out in our snowgear after we brushed the dust off it colected after all this snowless time and took the led and went for it. We went to the park were we slid down a hill onto the ice. Wende loves the thrill of sliding down the slope. A real daredevil (until she falls and ends up with a face full of snow..)

Wintertime in Andel, the snow arrived!

The great tree and one first tooth

Ingmar was a bit off lately, a cold and ... the first tooth! You can see he's not looking very happy but that's just now and then. He knows that there is something odd going on in hos mouth as he is constantly feeling with his tongue. We are preparing ourself now for the inevitable "acid" dipers.



We finally are not limited when having to choose a christmas tree, well the height is the only limiting factor.. So we bought a big one and Nils and Wende, under supervision of Lisette, decorated it with all the decoration we could find in the attick. And the tree is not the only thing green as we lit the tree up with LED christmas lights..

We survived Sinterklaas 2009!

It seems that every year the Sinterklaas celebration gets more and more sort of survival weekend. But hey, we made it through! The kids were bouncing from excitement the last week and they received lots of presents. Too bad Grandma did not feel well enough to be part of the Sinterklaas celebration this year but we understand especially after what she has been through the last couple of weeks. So first we went to De Lier to celebrate Sinterklaas with Lisette's parents and brother. Sinterklaas left 3 bags filled with presents and a tradional bang on the door. Grandma had made a nice lunch for us and we stayed for dinner as well. Sunday was spent at our own place with Maaike and jaap and their kids joining us in the afternoon for a Sinterklaas celebration. Neighbour Joost assisted with the door banging and he even threw a hadfull of pepernoten throught he room. Grandma watched the whole thing through the webcam we have set up with sound. Grandma was therefor able to hear the inflatable fart pillows the kids received from the Sint. She can even steer the camera and logs in any time she wants (as long as it's switched on that is..) Although she could not see the actual presents, she was able to be part of it interactively.

Sinterklaas in Andel

Unfortunately the weather was too bad for the Sint to arrive by boat at the pier in Andel, as the note on the "welcome to Andel" sign said.. Instead the Sint would go straight to the "Buitenhof" where the gathering took place. A lot of Nils's friends were there as well so dad was left quickly with Wende (who was really tired because she did not want to go to bed for her nap..) There was music from the local band and it all felt (as we say in dutch) kneuterig. The kids were picking up the pepernoten the pieten threw in the air from the floor. Dad's pants pockets were filled up until no pepernoot fitted anymore. At home the loot was counted and stored in a safe place. Sunday we went swimming. We were a bit late but that meant that is was not so crowded. Ingmar loved it and Nils jumped in the deep end without his floating tubes. Wende was a bit convervative and stayed in the little pool playing with the toys. In the afternoon we watched a Sinterklaas movie and half way Liselotte, one of Nils's friends from school came over to ask if he wanted to play with her as she and her parents were visiting our neighbours Cor and Sandra. Before bedtime we danced and sang a popular Sinterklaas song called Pepernotenlied, really funny song!

Wende and Lisette's (delayed) birthday party

Finally we celebrated Wende and Lisette's birthday party after it had to be postponed last week due to Nils's fever.. Peter and Mellanie with Duncan and Jason arrived first and soon after Maaike and Jaap and the kids arrived followed shortly by Lisette's parents. Our good neighbours Sandra and Cor also joined with daughter Roos and it was a great party. One big explosion of kids and toys. It was great to see all these friends and family again, unfortunately my parents could not be here too but we will see them soon again to celebrate Sinterklaas. Wende had a lot of nice presents, colouring and painting toys and a horse head on a stick making horse like sounds when you pinch its ears.. a treasure chest filled with princess clothes complete with ear rings and necklace. Peter and Mellanie gave Lisette a very nice statue of a man and a woman with 3 children, a spitting image of our family..