Winter has been beautiful and therefore, tolerable. The frozen ground and white frosting beats the soggy wet continuous drizzle of winters past.

Yum Cha/Dim Sum in the Hague. Joy of joys, the boys sit down for a lunch and eat their fair share of the spoils. No left-overs to take home... Giant prawns in the siew mai, fluffy steamed char siew pau mmmm classic goodies!

A chinatown goodie: the memories- Darlie AND astroboy in ONE gift box. Darlie used to be Darkie with the negro face as the symbol, and Astro boy is the coolest with a laser beam hidden in his bottom.

Kaemon's new preschool

Nelson, we are in love with him! He's cheeky and lovable, loves people and extremely kissable. He regards blowing raspberries as his solemn task, responding to the request with a grunt in accordance 'mmp'. When douwe gets home from work, he is often greeted by an insistent Nelson who is clear in his wordless demands to lie down, pull shirt up and let the belly out...

Kaemon's started at a new (his first preschool is closing down, hence the switch) preschool- and loves it! Sometimes he falls asleep unexpectedly...

*Brr Cold*

 
We had a good family weekend (tidying up, eating together, sleeping in till a luxurious 8:30am, having visitors). Erik, Simone & Julia (10 months) visited from ol'Nijmegen. We had a lovely time and was first time I've seen snow on the beach. Odd combination lik chocolate and fish. but nicer!

1 year in photos

More than 2000 photos in one year, no time for making albums! Click on the photo to see an enlargement.

New Year 2010

The new years brings already the winds of change... or more likely, things never stop changing. An Aussie friend, Leigh & lovely fam are leaving for Switzerland. Finally I had met someone who causes socially awkward situations (irrespective of the the cultural setting) with as much (or perhaps more) ease as I do (*to mock someone is the Australian way of showing affection- store that for future reference). And then they leave.

ALso in December, my 7th year in the NL passed (without much ado). One nice thing about a 'foreign' husband is having the opportunity to get to know another culture up close, and getting to know so many interesting, intrepid and adventurous people (perhaps it's the natural selection for expats). (Not to mention my sister-in-laws [spanish and fillipino] adding to the mix. We have so much, and the riches far outweigh the losses.

One good thing that came of Leigh leaving was that her leaving party (I'm an optimist) was at a thai restaurant that I've been wanting to try for a long time...Sisaket Thai. OMG, fly your pants off-yumm.
 

2009 Round-up

December flew by with a whizz of parties, playing in the snow, colds and vomit (non alcohol related) and....food!

I finally found some people who wanted to warble christmas carols around the piano with me, and sing we did...the poor neighbours. But like most parties these days, it crashed and burned around 8:30pm.

Clockwise: Douwe bringing the kids to the babysitter; Nelson playing Gulliver in the farmhouse Opa built for Christmas; Coralling Nelson and locking him up, Nelson starting potty training.

I boned and rolled my first loin of lamb. It was delish, and looked great cooked. However, it was a crime of passion tearing into the roasted loin, a frenzy in which photos were forgotten...

December culminated in NYE: a few false alarms (snow, ice, illness) from other participants nearly cancelled the party, in the end Nelson decided to put an end to any doubt by throwing up and running a fever on the eve. So we stayed home and ate our share of the dinner. By 8pm, douwe had also come down with a fever and chills, and I was up alone with Edward the vampire. Wasn't too bad...

The new year brought more snow and snow-related fun :)

Groovy!

The best snow I've ever seen! And the first time I've seen yellow snow for real! Three pairs of socks and wellies, and my feet were warm. Thankfully I seemed to have grabbed the last two pairs of snow boots for the boys in the entire country.

Snow Angels!

K-monster doing his thing

Family Craft Time

Nelly Belly, just edible in his snow pants!

Nice :)

Winter's not so bad if it's snowing!

Sinterklaas Season

This year we celebrated Sinterklaas for the first time, for real. A true sign of my 'it's happening, there's-no-denying-it' integration into Dutch culture, I didn't evening bat an eye-lid and lacked the incredulity of previous years of seeing the back-faced Zwarte Piets prancing about everywhere in the lead-up to 5 December.

Kaemon and Paula baking pepernoten

What to do on a rainy day ideas #101 Make a paper skirt and dance and #102 Wear underwear on your head and go gooliegooliegoo. I recommend both!

Our International Playgroup had a Sinterklaas party and the kids performed a selection of their greatest hits.

Baby Elise

The Vellingas paid a visit to the Brands: Mama Fleur & Papa Koen, with their brand new baby Elise. The proud parents were very deft with their baby. Looking back, I was such a klutz with my baby for the first time...

She is a little angel, crying only when absolutely necessary! Like being poked by pudgy boy fingers...

The boys were very intruiged and charmed by this girl...

Head, Toes, Nose nose nose

Nelson's nasally orientated version....

Halloween

Halloween was celebrated with Irish, German & Australians, and dutch games (and, oh, two Dutch husbands): koekjehap (bite the cake:). Nelson found it amusing that he's been working so hard with hand-eye coordination, and now he's not allowed to use his hands to eat!

A really good meal at a fish restaurant in Leiden: 't Crabbetje. Great service AND food, sometimes a rarity in these parts...entree was a tartar of crayfish and cold lobster bisque, mains was red snapper, devil fish and mash. Mmmmm.

Babe, pig in my kitchen

All of a sudden, my local supermarket has started selling REAL meat. None of this chicken filet, schnitzel, slavinken, pre-sliced stir-fry beef nonsense. Meat where you actually can see where it came from! This was one cut I was delighted to see- the lower leg: not much meat but all skin and bone, and you know what this means...crrrRACKling!

I opened up the shank and rubbed him in with sea salt and popped him in a hot oven sitting atop halved onions. Onions went into the gravy, and I would say that crackling is the perfect accompaniment to any meal, but it really did go well with the Boerenkool & worst (Traditional Dutch Bangers & Mash).

Also happy that I worked out how to photograph steam!

Huys te Warmond

My lovely kaemon.
 
 

The Autumn

Second week of the holidays just passed...Instead of lamenting the onset of winter, we do Autumny things.


Kaemon's good friend Paula. They just giggle a lot together!

Picking apples @ an organic farm

Wassenaar, in the forest property where Prince Wil & Princess Maxi live- they have three daughters, we'll probably end up with three sons- why not?

I ♥ NY

Douwe and I jetted across the Atlantic to discover NY city.

We walked and walked and walked and when my feet felt broken, we took a cab. I ♥ NY. The typical NY scenes:

Then the NY that we discovered:

We only had 6 meals and planned snacking times (not including breakfasts) to spend in NY, so we had to make wise decisions. With some good advice in hand and some shrewd thinking, we did well. We had classic elegant American cuisine: O.m.g. how some chefs can produce a dish with meat and veggies so amazingly tasty it seems magical. We stayed in little Korea and discovered the wonderland that is Korean food. From left to right:

• Battered oysters & cold cucumber soup, Fig pudding with pear sorbet, D&K on top of the empire;
• Kim chee hot pot, barley risotto with mushroom and autumn vegetables (so out of the ordinary), gorgeous platters for serving sausages;
• The numerous dishes of various pickles and other suprises that magically appear before each (korean restaurant) meal, udon soup, doggy dresses, steak and beans with style

I ♥ NY!