Creative Kids...

The girls were thrilled to have two whole days to hang out with Zoe and Patrick. After a lot of random imagination games and some board games, Sophie focused their attention on learning lines for her version of Cinderella. All the kids did a great job, but Patrick was especially funny as the Godmother. It was hard to say good-bye as we have no idea when we’ll see each other again. With dreams of visiting them in Australia and hiking together in New Zealand, we’re confident that our paths will cross again someday.

Back to Brussels...

As our Aussie friends were soon to move back Down Under, we went back down to Brussels to spend a final weekend with them there. We stopped for dinner before heading to their house and came across some snow, which was an unusual sight since it was a clear fall night. Turned out that a fast food commercial was being filmed and the snow was actually soap bubbles. It was funny watching the main actor take a bite of a burger, then spit it out over and over.
The next morning, Jane took us to an open house at the Cantillon Brewery, founded in 1900. It specializes in brewing organic lambics utilizing methods from days long gone by. We took a morning tour, so we missed seeing the beer piped into this copper tray in the attic where the yeasts in the air will naturally ferment the brew. Although I normally like Kriek, a fruity lambic, I wasn’t fond of this one, but did enjoy learning about the process.

Another Halloween in Wassenaar...

The girls really wanted to get back from Cologne in time to go trick or treating in Wassenaar with friends, so we caught a morning train back. Veronica actually sewed both her Roman and Ashlynn’s medieval costumes. Jimmy’s was just a simple conversion of a toga from his 40th b’day party. Unfortunately, I had a fever, so I was stuck home alone. Veronica went to a sleepover at Ma’ayan’s and went out begging for candy with some classmates. Jimmy and Ashlynn went to a party at Jim and Nina’s. Ashlynn enjoyed helping pass out candy to the sugar-hungry masses after gathering a lot of treats herself.

Happy Holidays!

You probably already know that I gave up sending out Christmas cards a few years back, partly to help the environment, partly to save money and partly because I’m too lazy to hand write notes to everyone anymore. Besides, you’re already reading the longest holiday letter anyone could possibly write. So, this year, I asked the girls to design a card I could post here and on Facebook and here’s what they came up with.

Wishing You Peace, Love and Happiness in 2010!

A Busy Day in Cologne...

While we didn’t manage to actually smell any cologne in Cologne (where in fact eau de Cologne originated), we did visit the famous Chocolate Museum. We loved seeing chocolate being made in the factory section and couldn’t resist buying some freshly-made truffles before settling down for lunch complete with fantastic hot chocolate. We also enjoyed visiting the Olympic Museum and the cathedral, which was one of the only buildings left standing in the city center after World War II. We ended the evening at the Claudius Therme, a spa with a huge pool fed from a thermal mineral spring.

Puts REI to Shame...

When I saw that the Cologne tourist guide mentioned an outdoor adventure store in the Attractions section, we figured it was worth checking out. Boy was it right! Globetrotter was totally amazing! Four stories packed with adventure wear and gear. In addition, there was an aquarium with jellyfish, a pool for testing kayaks and taking scuba classes, a climbing wall within a bridge to an adjacent store, and a full-service restaurant (where we ate dinner). When Jimmy said he was going to test out the Goretex testing machine, Ashlynn quickly volunteered to join him. Unlike her daddy, she was smart enough to put on rainproof trousers and boots in addition to the coat. She managed to stay dry underneath the waterproofs in the storm cabinet, but silly Jimmy’s jeans and hiking boots got soaked.

Our Little Daredevils...

We were all really impressed with Phantasialand. The park was beautiful and the rides were of a high quality. We loved the ice skating show so much that we went to see it twice; hard to go wrong with this family when the music’s from West Side Story. The girls were thrilled to have an entire day with Jimmy so they could go on the daredevil rides that I was too chicken to ride. Ashlynn was greatly disappointed when she found out she was too short to go on the Tabocan shown above, which you couldn’t have paid me to ride. I did go on three of the rollercoasters, but skipped the Mambo, which did multiple twists; even Jimmy said he was dizzy after he got off. It’s interesting to see everyone’s tolerance; Ashlynn was too scared to go in the haunted house, but didn’t hesitate to go on the freefalling elevator, which Veronica and I skipped.

Off to Another Amusement Park...

As our October break approached, we still hadn’t figured out where to go. Since Jimmy couldn’t get away for the entire week, we knew we couldn’t venture too far. Since we’d visited amusement parks in the last two Octobers without him, we decided this was the year to finally visit one with him. I chose Phantasialand just outside of Cologne, Germany, which we could reach by train in under four hours. Us girls went down in the early morning to spend a half day in the park after checking into the hotel. The girls were surprised that we were staying in the fancy Asian-themed hotel adjacent to the park; Ashlynn was thrilled that it was an even date so she could chose the top bunk. Jimmy arrived that evening in time to join us for a nice Asian buffet dinner.

The Art of Fashion?

The exhibition that we visited was called The Art of Fashion. Similar to the last fashion exhibition we saw, this one was full of completely insane designs that no one would or could actually wear. For instance, where would you put your head if you wore this concoction of sequined purses stitched together? All-in-all, we had a great laugh and a lot of fun. Our favorite item wasn’t actually part of the exhibition, but rather the coat rack in the entranceway of the Museum van Boijmans Beuningen. We were fascinated by the series of strings, pulleys and locks so that lifted coats up near the ceiling. If we had space, I’m sure Jimmy would love building something similar.

Sights in Rotterdam...

I’m always on the lookout for places to visit in Holland and often try dragging friends along with me. I was successful in getting Sally, Darlene and Terri to come along to Rotterdam to see an exhibition at a museum. Terri then dragged along her friend Habe, who was visiting from London. We started out the day at the Rotterdam Central Market, where we bought a variety of cheap veggies and snacks. As we were heading to lunch, we came across this unusual statue of a gnome. You can use your imagination to figure out what he’s carrying.

Dutch 101 - It’s All Mixed Up

Since we’ve moved here, we’ve had to adjust to using the metric system and military time for train and school schedules. In addition, there’s also some fundamental differences to learn how the Dutch communicate:

* Telling time: 1:15 is quarter after 1:00, but everything after 1:15 is told in relation to the next hour, so 1:16 is 14 till half before 2:00 and 1:34 is 4 after half before 2:00 (confused yet?)
* Counting: 1-20 is the same concept, but for all numbers above 21 the order is switched. So 95 would be said: 5 and 90.
* Negatives: There’s no equivalent of “Don’t.” So instead of saying “I don’t speak Dutch,” it’s “I speak none Dutch.”
* Letter sounds: Their “E” = our “A”, “I” = “E”, “V” = “F”, and “W” = “V.” It is a very guttural language with “G” sounding like gargling.

Lucky for me, the majority of Dutch speak great English. Of course, this has also hindered my efforts to learn the language and after four years, my Dutch still stinks.

A Happy Third Wheel...

Jimmy and I hoped we could sneak away with Darlene and Mike before they moved back to the US. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a good weekend for someone to look after the girls, so I ended up leaving Jimmy behind for a weekend in Lille, France. We left on Saturday morning and headed to some outlet stores, which were nothing special, then into this city near the Belgium border. We had a fantastic seafood dinner (I had ray, which was delicious), then crawled into bed to watch a movie. On Sunday we did a lot of walking around. Unfortunately, the shops and fort were all closed, but we still managed to have an enjoyable day.

Our New “Pets”

Early in October, we dogsat for Darlene’s dog Lance. When out for a final walk one night at 10pm, Lance started barking like a madman. Turns out there was a hedgehog on the lawn. Jimmy and the girls sprung quickly into action planning a hedgehog feeding station. They scrounged some scrap lumber from a neighbor’s construction project and built a large box. Here’s our first visitor playing dead. The girls named him Hedgy.
Hedgehogs are spiky, but basically harmless. A few weeks later, the girls realized that a 2nd hedgehog had paid us a visit for a free peanut butter sandwich. They then marked their backs with some fabric paint, so they could tell them apart. The mad scientist in Jimmy then took over and soon our feeding station had its very own motion sensor and webcam with infrared lights (probably the only one of its kind in Holland). By the end of November, we were up to five hedgehogs paying us visits. Check them out on the girls’ blog.

Our Frisbee Girls...

As a 4th grader, Ashlynn wouldn’t have normally been invited to play in the Dutch Jr. National Ultimate Frisbee Championships, but her coach made an exception for her since he knows how dedicated she is and her big sister was playing. We were very proud of her as the youngest player that she stuck through an entire day of her team getting creamed in on-and-off rain. Here you can see that she had the thrill of scoring!
Veronica normally plays with the Gray Lions, who came in 2nd, but was bumped down at the last minute to the blue team, who came in 4th. When the two teams met in the semi-finals, the Gray Lions stomped on them, but at least Veronica scored. As the team captain for the day, she learned a lot about strategy. Despite what a long day it was, I was surprised how much fun it was to watch (although I am relieved that there’s only a few tournaments a year).

An American Dream in Leiden...

Every year Leiden celebrates its liberation from Spain on October 3, 1574. This year October 3rd happened to be on a Saturday, so Jimmy was available to come along to their big parade. The weather was questionable, so the girls wimped out and we cycled there without them. We managed to find a great place to stand on a narrow street near the end of the parade route. One local family was thrilled to have Americans to buy beer for and explain things to, although many of the groups were easy for us to figure out since the theme happened to be America.

Let’s Go Fly a Kite...

After missing this for the last three years, I made sure that we wouldn’t miss the International Kite Festival in Scheveningen by arranging a Dutch Family Hash at the beach. It was a beautiful day, which was perfect for a hash and for kite flying. We didn’t actually fly any kites ourselves, but we enjoyed seeing the colorful variety of kites from 20 countries.

Going Dutch...

Soon after the newcomer’s guide came out in February, Terri and I were recruited to be co-editors for the magazine of the American Women’s Club for the club year from September through June. By some miracle, we were able to recruit Meg, a philosophy professor for the State of Tennessee who teaches via video from The Hague, to be our layout manager. Somehow we managed to pull together our first issue while Terri was in France and I was in America. It was exciting when the three of us were finally in the same place at the same time and could celebrate our first issue. By now, we’re finishing up the January issue. Five down, five to go!

Queen Spotting...

On Prinsjesdag, the third Tuesday of September, the Queen opens parliament. She arrives by Golden Coach, which is quite a sight to see. This year Darlene and I went with to an American Women’s Club Luncheon to have rijstafel at a traditional Indonesian restaurant overlooking the parade route. May not have been the close up view as the last time I went, but it sure was a lot more comfortable and tasty.

German Bunkers in Holland...

Every year on the 2nd weekend of September, government buildings and monuments throughout the Netherlands open their doors to the public. We visited the parliament building in The Hague on Saturday and were impressed with the art on the ceiling. We ventured back out on Sunday in the rain to see a German bunker on a main street in Scheveningen, which was really fascinating. The area used to be covered in bunkers as part of the Atlantic Wall (the photos of what the beach looked like were shocking), but the Allies filled most of them in. This particular bunker was uncovered last year and converted into a museum. Artifacts have been put back in to recreate what it would have looked like in the 1940s when it was used as a German command center.

Reflections on Our 4th Year - Part 2...

We’re happy that our list of highs for our 4th year in Holland is considerably longer than our lows:

• Travel: France - caves of Dordogne, hunting for buried treasure over Easter with friends at the Chateau, Lille with Darlene and Mike, Grimaud with Terri and Lauren; Germany - roller coasters at Phantasialand, chocolate factory museum in Cologne; Spain - exploring sophisticated Barcelona, hiking in nearby mountains; Turkey - exploring ancient Istanbul, resort living in Antalya for Eurohash; US - the list of friends we saw is long, but we especially appreciated the extended time we had with Marc in DC, Malinda in Maryland, Erika and Michael in Raleigh, Jimmy’s family in Jacksonville, Vivynne in Gainesville, Sharon in Orlando and my parents in Silicon Valley
• Jimmy returning safe and sound from three short visits to Sandland
• Visitors: We had a lack of guests this year, but glad that Zoe and family made it up from Brussels
• Swimming with dolphins at Discovery Cove
• Hedgehogs in our yard
• Jimmy: completing Harvard 1-week Leadership Class in London, building a hedgehog monitoring station
• Melissa: cycling 289 miles in 7 days across Southern Sweden, newcomer’s guide being published and being MC at book launch, becoming co-editor of AWC magazine, scrapping with Darlene, seeing old friends in California
• Veronica: 5-day school biking trip on island of Ameland, being team captain at Jr National Ultimate Frisbee Championships and coming in 4th, Young Americans workshops and getting a solo in the performance, sewing costumes for Halloween, Activities Week
• Ashlynn: 1940’s Day, Tudor Day, International Day, youngest player on team at Jr National Ultimate Frisbee Championships, swimming in our own pool with friends

Reflections on Our 4th Year - Part 1...

Yesterday, November 22, marked our 4th anniversary of living in Holland. It’s hard to believe how fast this year flew by. Once again we trekked out to Scheveningen to go to the Italian restaurant where we dined our first night in Holland, but first we stopped to see Disney’s A Christmas Carol (the 3D effects were by far the best we’ve ever seen). As part of our tradition, we reflected on the highs and lows of our 4th year. We’re very thankful that our list of lows was short:

• Missing Camilla and Tristram, who moved in July. Bidding farewells to the McGlynns in Brussels and the Flemings who move next month.
• Loss of access to the Chateau. We’re thankful to have had so many fantastic visits over the years, but sad to know we can’t return.
• Jimmy’s travel schedule increasing, but failing to take him places where we can tag along.
• We’re happy the landlord picked up the tab, but it was a drag when the heater in our house broke in January.
• Bummed that the city chopped down the best climbing tree in the neighborhood.
• Was really looking forward to an interesting hash run at Eurohash in Turkey, so was very let down by the poor quality of the actual trail.

Back to School...

The weather was great for the girls’ first day of school. Hard to believe that Ashlynn’s in 4th grade and Veronica’s in 7th. This year, Ashlynn will start learning Spanish in addition to Dutch; Veronica will continue to study five languages: Dutch, French, Spanish, German and Mandarin. The storks put on a good show for us when we were cycling to school.

A Canal Bike Hash...

We were intrigued with the idea of doing a hash on the canals of Amsterdam. Luckily the rain stopped just in time for the run start. Of course, we wouldn’t be running, but rather pedaling a boat through the canals along with 20 other hashers. To make the journey more interesting, there was a beer boat (as you can see, the girls smiled as they handed out beers) and a game involving cameras and signs along the way. Previously, I hadn’t thought that pedal boats were especially fun, but we all had a great time on the water and then out for Indian food afterwards.

Cool Kid’s Museum...

We were able to squeeze in some fun during the week between our return to Holland and the start of school. We loved seeing a great touring British troupe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as part of Shakespeare in the Park. We also spent a Saturday in Amsterdam, starting at the Children’s Museum within the Jewish Historical Museum. The museum had lots of hands-on activities, including making Challah, Jewish egg bread. The mascot, a dancing matzo, cracked me up.

Interesting Sights in Moraga...

After Jimmy left to head back to Holland, us girls hung out for another week at my dad’s. Luckily we were able to work out an afternoon to spend with Stacie and her family, who we met in November 2005 when we’d all just arrived in Holland. We had a delicious Chinese lunch, went to the pool with her kids, then had dinner at their house. We saw some interesting sights in the short time we were together. Sadly, above you'll see an ever changing hillside across from the Moraga train station that shows the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq.
This was a happier sight, solar panels on a hill in Stacie and Lon’s backyard. While it was a big investment, they’re thrilled that their electrical bills are now only $30/month. Now they just need to figure out how to start selling electricity back to the grid.

This Year's Family Play...

While we were in San Francisco, the girls were busy practicing a play that they’d written together. They were very tricky pretending that they were performing Little Red Riding Hood, but they really were doing a story about a girl from 1859 and another from 2009 going through a time warp to 3009 in Travel to the Future. Grandma was thrilled that she didn’t have to play multiple roles this year. And Grandpa had a very simple role as Ashlynn’s mother, which was quite hilarious. What fun it is watching them all acting in such a creative story.

Interesting Sights in San Francisco...

After our happy hour at Boudin’s, we started making our way back to the hotel to change for a romantic dinner. We made a detour to see Lombard Street and were surprised to find not just the crookedest street, but also the craziest running group. Of course, we were disappointed to discover that we’d missed the San Francisco Hash’s Red Dress Run (never dawned on us that they’d run on Mondays). Being the good hashers that we are, we gave up on the idea of a gourmet dinner after being invited to tag along for the end of the run, and had M&M’s, Red Vines and chips instead at the On-On at a park.
We once again crammed a lot in the next day with a walk up to Coit Tower, a self-guided tour of Boudin’s giant bakery, more clam chowder in a sourdough bowl and a crab cocktail from Fisherman’s Wharf. Finally had to catch a cab to swing by the hotel for our stuff or we would have missed our train.

A Jam-Packed Day Away...

Jimmy and I were exciting about sneaking away for an overnight in San Francisco. We only had a little more than 24 hours, but we sure did cram in a lot. We started with a walk to Chinatown, where we had a snack at a roto-sushi restaurant and Jimmy got a $5 haircut. Then we walked down to the Ferry Building for lunch along the SF Bay. After a wander through Pier 39, we decided to rent bikes so we could cycle across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a beautiful day, but rather windy on the bridge and I was a bit freaked out.
Silly me thought we’d cycle back as well, but after doing some major downhills into Sausalito, taking the ferry back was looking better and better. As you can see, we weren’t the only ones with that idea. Unfortunately, we didn’t time things very well, so there wasn’t time to enjoy a drink in this cute town before having to line up to catch the last ferry back before the rental place closed. Martinis and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls at Boudin’s (the best sourdough bread in the world!) helped make up for our poor planning.