Christmas 2008

Hannah has discovered her Little Mermaid Christmas Snow Globe (Courtesy of Grandma Norma) and she just LOVES dancing to it. She is just too cute! She turns 18 months January 30, 2009 - so lots of time before dance classes, but I am looking forward to it!

I have also posted some photos from the past few days, after Christmas. Hannah, sadly, was sick Christmas day and didnt get too into it (although Matthijs and I enjoyed it). So, she is just now really discovering her toys. One photo is Hannah playing with her new pink pony (courtesy of Grandpa and Grandma Bench) and her Fisher price shape toy (courtesy of our new friends the De Nuccis), but she is enjoying all her gifts! Thanks everyone! I have also included a photo of me at 25 weeks pregnant with Christian - just to show my mom how cute the maternity sweater is which she gave me for Christmas. I wore it to Church today :-) Thanks mom!

Chhristmas Eve we hahd the DeNuccis (with their twin 3 year olds) over for an American dinner and it was so much fun! Afterwards we watched Its a Wonderful Life - Matthijs had never seen it before! Christmas morning was opening gifts and watching Bing Crosby's White Christmas and then headed off to Matthijs' sister's house for a more formal (Dutch) Christmas dinner - but we provided some American pies for dessert. It was lots of fun as well. Here they celebrate two days of Chhristmas (25 + 26 Dec). So, Friday we just enjoyed being in pjs, re-watching Christmas movies and taking care of poor sick Hannah. We plan to have a quiet evening at home for New Year's Eve - fire crackers are out of control here and most streets will be completely covered in remnants by New Year's morning - so we enjoy staying close to home. But oma and opa (Matthijs' parents) were kind enough to agree to keep Hannah for the night and so Friday, New Years day we have a date with eachother :-)

Happy Holidays!

Sinterklaas

Sinterklaas is certainly an interesting story which could cause a lot of riots in the US....Every 5 December, Sinterklaas rides his beautiful white horse and leaves coals for the bad kids and gifts for the good ones, with the help of the Zwarte Piets (black Petes). Always white guys with black painted faces they hop around in colorful clothes entertaining kids. I had to post the mini-film and photos from our office holiday party just for the curiousity of reactions that may come. But I should say that it is a long-standing tradition in a country NOT torn with the racial history of the US, and, therefore, seen differently. The story goes that Sinterklaas sails from Morocco via Spain and the Zwarte Piets represent Moorish people (i.e. black skinned). Of course, I dont know why actual black people cant then play the role...

Its all about kids and gifts, etc. Its like having a Santa Claus tradition that is on a different day than Christmas. The nice part about that is then Christmas can focus on its real meaning - the birth of Christ.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas PJs

Isnt Hannah adorable in the Christmas pjs I found for her? Thhey say, "Let it snow" on the front with a snowman. Too cute!

Hannah

Hannah is so adorable in her new favorite outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Bench :-)

Trick-or-Treat!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! We had a fun halloween day - despite poor Hannah having a miserable cold.... I stayed home with her and we made our first jack-o-latern! She loved playing with the guts and getting it all in her hair ;-) She cried, though, when i would take it away to carve the face - lol. That night we met up with a family from church who lived in Wassennar (a predominately ex-pat, English speaking town, nearby the international American school) and joined in the trick-or-treating fun! The houses were decorated sooo cute and there were tons of kids!!! Hannah was just fascinated with all the kids running around. We let her (or rather helped her) trick-or-treat at just a few houses so I could get some photos :-) Hope everyone else enjoyed the day as well!

Olmenhorst Apple Farm!

This was such a fun day!!! I kept reading my best friend's blog, the

Fishers, and they do all these fun fall things - like go to apple farms and pick fresh apples to make fresh apple pie - yummy!!! So, of course, when I saw on a local ex-pat blog the mention of this cool apple farm where we could do the same thing - the family was packed and there by that same afternoon (yesterday). Sadly, my camera died before i could take pictures of the cool old store, horse-drawn cart, bonfires and playgrounds. It was a real "family" place and when Hannah gets older I bet she'll love it even more. We were having a new family over from church for dinner last night. So, we picked just enough fresh, juicey apples to make homemade American apple pie for dessert - YUMMY! We bought some of their 100% natural, nothing added (literally just the apples) juice (to follow my best friend's Candice's great example - locally grown food) - it is some of the best apple juice i have ever had!!! They grow pears as well and we still have to try the pear juice, but I am drooling just thinking about it. If we are still around here next year - we are definitely going back! (BTW - the apple pie turned out perfect!).

Hannah picked the first apple herself and wouldn't let it go for the rest of the afternoon. The guy weighing the apples (so we could pay) was so sweet and simply let her have it - such a nice place :-)

Random photos

These are just a few cute photos. We love Hannah's new hot pink overalls - so warm and cute! First she sits on her stool and then - oops! - on the floor - lol. It was funny. Then there is Samuel, our little cancer patient. We are just enjoying however much time we have left with him...

Hannah's first haircut :-)

Fianlly, oma and I took Hannah in for her first haircut. She was such a good girl - quiet and patient. I think she was sleepy and maybe thats why she was so sleepy! lol. We saved a piece of her cut hair in her album. Such a cutie!

Hannah walks in Halloween costume

We decided to go ahead and make sure the adorable cat-halloween costume fit because, after 4 years, i found a group with the private American school who does trick-or-treating!!!!!!!!! i've actually really missed this holiday and Hannah was soooo cute in her costume. It comes with a little bag and cool cape too - but we'll save that for actual Halloween day and take pictures then!

Above is a video of the first time i had the courage to just let Hannah completely try to feed herself. She actually did a great job! We are working on plastic cups too and turns out she can do that too (of course, the concept of not spilling everywhere is still lacking, but she is only 14 months - lol).

Hannah walks :-)

Family Vacation

Of course, Matthijs was on a business conference call while we visited Versailles - lol

Palace of Versailles

This summer we enjoyed a two week vacation in both Paris and Normandy. The first week was Paris where we visited the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre museum, Notre-Dame and then generally walked around. Afterwards, we rented a cute home in a small town in Normandy. In the surrounding area we visited a still-lived in, privately own mansion and receiuved a tour from one of the owners (which was interesting and in French - lol). We also visited the island of Saint Martin which is basically one large medievil abbey on this large rock island. It was really cool to see with great views! (also quite crowded). In the cute home we rented, Hannah started really trying to walk more and progess to three steps without falling. Now she is upt to 8. Then she just falls to her knees and walks around on her knees - very cute. Below is a little video of her taking three steps from the coffee table to the sofa - such a cutie!

For those of you who do not already know, we are pregnant with baby number 2 (the last baby). I am only 10 weeks and am due 13 April. So, Hannah will have a brother or sister one day :-)