Happy New Year

Whishing you and your families a Happy, Healthy and Safe 2011!

Christmas day

Yesterday we had christmas diner with my side of the family and today we are with my in-laws, who live near the sea, so we went for a quick walk in the dunes and did some sleding.
So did grandpa...
And now we are ready for christmas diner #2.

Wishing you all...

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Is this how it starts?

It has been snowing all day and it is still snowing, so when it stopped for a moment, the boys went outside with their skies.
And when I see them experimenting, I wonder, is this how the guys from Jackass started?

I hope not...

Handmade ornaments

These are some handmade ornaments I have on display in my home. The wreaths are made by my mum this year and are haning on our doors as I type this. The other ornaments are handmade gifts from friends and I cherish them, they get special splaces in our trees or home every year.
I love these handmade gifts, they are some much more precious than store bought, but that is maybe because I know how much hard work goes in one of these little items.
As you can see ladies, all your gifts are still decorating my house every year. thanks.

Ginger bread house

Son #2 wanted to make a ginger bread house, so we started baking. I was please with the result until we started the icing, for some reason, the icing always runs. Any ideas?
But son #2 is veryproud of his ginger bread house, so he is taking it to school. I hope it will arrive in one piece...
And we will practise some more to make the perfect little ginger bread house.

How big should a christmas tree be?

OK, we are a bit spoiled, I admit that. Since our living room has a high ceiling we are used to big christmasn trees.
Our biggest christmas tree was 6 meters and we had to remove 1 meter, before we could get it in, but it was hugh and we loved it. It was so big that we could hardly enter the room, but that was OK. We also had to buy all the red christmas decorations the local store had to fill it, but hey... that is a small price for the fun we had with that tree.
So last friday, they boys and I went in seach for a perfect tree. The first store had ridiculous prices. The second and third store didn´t have trees and the forth had trees bu they were already packed in a net, so you could not see what was inside... They boys and I choose a tree and went home.
When we freed it from its net, a small beautiful tree emerged. See the tree on the left in the picture. It was a nice wonderful tree, but it is small (1.80 m). And we have a lot, and I mean a lot of christmas decorations left from the big tree year.
So we asked my parents to look for another tree so that it wasn´t loney :-). This afternoon they brought us the tree on the left. It is skinny, but large. So now we have two trees. The long skinny one, that reminds me of a dr. Seuss drawing, in the living room and the small one in the dining room.
Bring on Christmas!

Weekend well spent

OK, let´s start with what I got from Sinterklaas: A DVD from La Linea, who does remember this angry little man drawn out off one line? I loved him as a kids and now you can buy all his adventures on DVD. I also got a quilt needle protector and a book to make jewellery out of candy. And all these goodies were packed in this wonderful mushroom.

Yesterday Sinterklaas visited the house of my PIL´s, so all the gandchilden gathered and also a cousin of DH with his family, she is the little girls, as our fa,mily only produced boys until now.

The kids loved his visit and were very impressed with SInterklaas´knowledge about things that happened recently. So last night they spent playing with all their toys.

That is why this morning we went out for a walk on the beach in Katwijk. Where there was still a bit of snow on the beach.

But as you can see, warm is something different, it was very cold, so after half an hour everybody was ready to go back inside.

So with Sinterklaas going back to Spain after tonight we can start preparing for Christmas. Time flies when you are having fun...

More snow

This is what we saw last night... son #3 fallen asleep at the top of the staircase...

I can´t believe that anyone can sleep in this position, but this is the proof...

This morning when we woke up, there was more snow, so I brought the boys to school on sled as you can see. Luckily they are already wearing their winter uniform, so it should be OK for them.

And this was the condition driving to work. The roads were so so, but since the car has wintertyres, driving is OK, but still, I was later at work than normal.