Christmas backlog :-)

Well, I did promise to post some picture of our Christmas Holiday exploits. Even though we're halfway January, here they are.

First of all, there was Emma's birthday. We had her kids party before the Christmas Holiday, but the family party was held later. That was when oma, tante Elly and oom Kees came to celebrate Emma's birthday. Of course she received lots of presents, but her most favorite item was her Mega Mindy costume. Mega Mindy is kind of the female-and-Belgian version of Superman for little kids. No violence, just (always two) very dumb crooks (similar to the Home Alone guys), who are always stopped just in time by ... Mega Mindy. Both Emma and Janne are big admirers of this policewoman turned superwoman.
Mega Mindy on a mission

On Boxing day, we invited oma over for dinner (her third trip to Veldhoven in 10 days ...). As the main family Christmas dinner was planned for Dec 28, we kept it relatively low key. Still, we had a nice dinner and a great time, enjoying a table cooked dinner of 'gourmet'; cooking your own food in little frying pans, right there on the table. It's quite popular in the Netherlands, as it allows people to choose the food they like and prepare it the way they like it. Oma, Janne and Emma, ready for dinner

As my sister's kids live on their own and have full agenda's as well, the family Christmas dinner was on Dec 28, a bit after the fact. Still, we had a great time. Everybody prepared some food and it was all quite well coordinated. All our three ovens were used, as well as a deep frying pan and all burners on the gas stove. For me, it was surprising to see that my sister's girls could actually cook. I still remember holding them as babies, not so very long ago it seems, and here they were, independent woman (23 and 25 years old), running their own household and even able to prepare a meal :-) We really enjoyed having them all over and would love to do it again next year. As we were quite busy most of the time either preparing food or eating it, there are no pics of the dinner itself. I did take a photograph of the table though, because I was quite proud of it :-) I also took a pic of Janne in her (self selected) Christmas outfit, as this might very well be the only occasion where we'll ever see our little tomcat dressed like that.
Christmas in purple; surprisingly pretty

Janne, dressed up as a real little girl, also very pretty :-)

On Dec 30, we celebrated Emma's birthday for the third time. This time with Pieter's (grand)children. Another fun and busy day, with six adults and seven kids, ages 1 to 9. Emma and Janne loved having their nephews and niece over and they loved it even more that Pippa (their seven year old niece) was spending the night.
Emma and Janne with their nephews and niece (really, they're not cousins, but aunts, nephews and nieces ... )

The next day was the last day of the year. So, Pieter baked about 50 oliebollen (Dutch donuts) and went out with the girls to buy a few pieces of fireworks. Emma and Janne were ever so excited that they were going to be allowed to watch the fireworks at midnight, as we promised them to wake them up quarter to twelve. It took a little while until they were really awake, but we managed to get them downstairs by ten to twelve. Together with them, we counted down to midnight and had a sip of champagne / apple juice. Warmly wrapped up, we took them outside to watch the fireworks in the streets and to light our own. Looking at the fireworks that went up, you wouldn't say there was a financial crisis at all; it must have been thousands of Euros worth of fireworks going up in smoke (and lots of bangs)! But, I've never seen such beautiful fireworks (in Holland) in my life. The girls loved it and were not even really intimidated by the bangs and the smoke. Warmly wrapped up, enjoying the fireworks

On Jan 1st, we brought Emma and Janne to tante Elly and oma for a stay over; Pieter and I had two days off! And what did we do with our freedom? Of course, we went out for dinner (twice). But our big outing was to take the train to Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, to the only Starbucks in the Netherlands! Despite the near freezing temperature, we thoroughly enjoyed our Caramel Frappuccino and carrot cake!
Starbucks in Holland; it's not the same, but close enough

After that, we went to down town Amsterdam, red light district. Not because of the red lights, but because that's also where the Chinese quarters are. We walked into all the Chinese shops in the area, but managed to control ourselves and only bought a few small items. I will go back to buy an authentic Chinese wok and bamboo utensils though :-) We even ran into a genuine dragon dance!
Dragon bringing good fortune to Chinese shops in Amsterdam