Who's afraid of the big bad washing machine?
Not satisfied with just crawling, she is now trying to stand!
Welcome to our family blog. We are a Dutch-American family living in the Netherlands. After a year-long hiatus I will be updating it at least 2 times a month. Enjoy reading about our ongoing adventures...
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Happy Holidays all! Happy first night of Hanukkah!
Happy Holidays all! Happy first night of Hanukkah!

Click here to see many pictures from 2008
Its now December, time for cold weather and end-of-year parties and celebrations.
As well as celebrating the Jewish holidays at home, we join Rob's family in traditional Dutch celebrations at their homes.

On December 5th, we went to Jan and Nettie's house to celebrate "Sinter Klaus". In the Dutch tradition, Sinterklaus lives most of the year in warm Spain. In December, he comes to Holland via steam boat. He has Moorish helpers calles Zwarte Petes (Black Petes). People write poems as well as exchanging gifts. I even wrote mine in Dutch! Presents are sometimes given in a Surprise, where the packaging is more elaborate then the gift. This year, Rob made Quinten a cardboard airplane. In years past, Rob made a castle and a 3-foot tall windmill as Surprises.

We also had a family holiday party at my office. Rob and Leah joined me there. Afterwords, we went to the Steam Train museum for a fun visit. No, there is no Dutch tradition of visiting steam trains during Sinter Klaus. We just did it for the fun.

Click here to see many pictures from 2008
Its now December, time for cold weather and end-of-year parties and celebrations.
As well as celebrating the Jewish holidays at home, we join Rob's family in traditional Dutch celebrations at their homes.

On December 5th, we went to Jan and Nettie's house to celebrate "Sinter Klaus". In the Dutch tradition, Sinterklaus lives most of the year in warm Spain. In December, he comes to Holland via steam boat. He has Moorish helpers calles Zwarte Petes (Black Petes). People write poems as well as exchanging gifts. I even wrote mine in Dutch! Presents are sometimes given in a Surprise, where the packaging is more elaborate then the gift. This year, Rob made Quinten a cardboard airplane. In years past, Rob made a castle and a 3-foot tall windmill as Surprises.

We also had a family holiday party at my office. Rob and Leah joined me there. Afterwords, we went to the Steam Train museum for a fun visit. No, there is no Dutch tradition of visiting steam trains during Sinter Klaus. We just did it for the fun.