Learning to Dive...

Things have definitely changed since Jimmy and I took our classes. The Open Water Diver textbook was now supplemented with an online course and rather than sitting in a classroom watching videos, we watched a DVD at home. The girls also had several theory sessions with Peter, who covered some of the more intense sections such as pressure and scuba-related injuries. While I never doubted either girl’s ability to master the pool skills, I was nervous about 10-year-old Ashlynn understanding the book enough to pass the exam. How exciting when they both passed on their first attempt!

Our Holiday “Staycation”...

After much debate about what to do over the Christmas break, Jimmy came up with the idea to have the girls take scuba lessons. He and I got our scuba certifications in 1999 and have waited many years for the girls to be old enough to learn. We contacted Peter, the owner of Dutch Scuba Diver at The Globe (a mall for adventure sports) and he had availability to give them private lessons in the pool at his shop. Here they are about to breathe compressed air for the first time. That very first session, they learned to clear their masks and find a dropped regulator. Jimmy and I went in as well to refresh our skills; I only lasted that first session (I like diving around fish not pool toys), but Jimmy continued to go in throughout their course. Peter did a great job balancing the teaching of skills with free swim time. It didn’t take long before the girls were doing somersaults and acting like they’d been breathing underwater for years.

More Snow...

Ashlynn loved the last day of term as we got 5 inches of snow and the kids were finally allowed to have snowball fights on the playground. Things got interesting as I went to pick her up and we were supposed to meet a new dogsitting customer. The tram to the school wasn’t running, so we walked to the train station to meet Amanda and her sweet Labrador Max. Ashlynn, Max and I then walked another mile or so before we were able to catch a tram. Luckily Max was really mellow and wasn’t bothered by the snow. It continued to snow much of the weekend for a total of 9.5 inches. Public transport was chaotic, but we managed to make it downtown each day for the girls’ scuba diving lessons.

Holiday Celebrations...

As a family, we don’t have a lot of holiday traditions, but we do like to celebrate. Here we are hosting John, Sally, David and Andrew for a belated Thanksgiving feast; although they are British, they enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving twice while living in Connecticut. Rather than a whole turkey, Jimmy cooked a turkey breast and some turkey legs. I made homemade cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes. We even pulled out the china and the silver forks we found together while treasure hunting in France.
We lit the Hanukkah candles, but as in previous years we missed several of the nights. We had one special Hanukkah dinner with Jimmy’s delicious potato latkes and my noodle kugel. One evening a friend took me to the Stadhuis in The Hague for a menorah lighting (the menorah was made out of cans of food to be later donated to the Food Bank); unfortunately, she made so many wrong turns that we missed the actually lighting.

Holiday Performances...

December is a month full of holiday performances at the girl’s schools. After much persuasion by me, Ashlynn had agreed to be in the 6-week long Performing Arts Club after school; no surprise that she thoroughly enjoyed it. The club performed a 12-minute scene from Treasure Island at the Junior School Holiday Soiree. Ashlynn did a terrific job as one of the leads as the young lad Jim, who you see the pirates attempting to kidnap.
Veronica was in two performances. She played a piano duet and sang in the choir at the recital for the Center for Young Musicians, where she goes every Saturday for 3 hours of choir, piano and theory lessons. The quality at this recital was top notch, but at 3.5 hours it was painful. She also sang with the Senior Choir at the Senior School Holiday Concert, which was a more reasonable 2 hours long.

Gift Handlers...

In addition to throwing pepernoten and providing comedy relief, the Zwarte Piets have the very important job of matching the gifts to the correct kids. In past years this has been quite chaotic, but this year Jimmy numbered all the gifts in advance to match the order of the family names shown on screens throughout the room so folks would know when it was their turn. It took a few days to wash the paint out of her ears, but Ashlynn had a great time.

Their Grand Entrance....

It’s part of the party tradition to stand by the windows to try to spot Sinterklaas as he arrives. The mode of transport changes year-to-year. This year was a Tuk-Tuk; due to its small size, just Jimmy and Ashlynn got to make a grand entrance through the snow. They then came up the staircase to the party in the cafeteria throwing pepernoten (small ginger cookies) along the way. They were eventually joined by another Zwarte Piet and Sinterklaas.

Transforming into Zwarte Piets...

Once again, Jimmy was recruited to be a Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) at his company’s Sinterklaas party. Veronica wasn’t available to help since she was at the Center for Young Musicians. Ashlynn quickly volunteered and here she is being transformed with black face paint as part of this very unique Dutch tradition (something clearly not considered politically correct in the US).

Snow in Early December?

For the first time in our 5 years in Holland, it snowed in November. Granted, it was the 30th and it was very light snow, but by December 4th there was enough snow to venture to the only hill in our neighborhood to go tubing. Veronica was at a sleepover, so she missed out on the perfect conditions in the morning. We went back that evening with two schoolmates that live nearby then had a snowball fight back at our house.

Redesigning the World...

In late October, Veronica submitted a story as an entry in the Redesigning the World Anybook Award through the American Book Center in Amsterdam. It was a very creative piece of science fiction, which obviously caught the judges’ attention because she received an email saying she’d been shortlisted for the Top 10. Her story was then put into a public vote and I contacted many of you to vote online for her story. She was invited to the ABC on Thanksgiving evening to pick up a copy of the book with her first published story and the rest of the top 20 entries.
Imagine our surprise and thrill when she was called up to claim the 2nd prize in the contest (rather than from the public vote, the judges chose her story out of about 100 entries). Here she is holding open the book that was just printed on the Espresso Book Machine, the first on-demand book machine on continental Europe (it prints, cuts and binds the pages into a finished book); can you see the prize ribbon printed on the right corner? She won an addition four copies of the book and a €50 gift certificate at the bookstore. Afterwards, we went for all-you-can-eat sushi to celebrate. We’re so proud of her!

Victorian Day...

Gotta admit, Ashlynn didn’t have the best attitude about Victorian Day. She wasn’t looking forward to her teacher having to be mean and to doing a sewing project. I was relieved when I showed up to take some photos in the afternoon that her attitude had greatly improved and that she was really enjoying herself. The teacher did a great job of transforming their modern classroom into one from the late 1890s; the sign behind the class is actually an interactive white board.
The kids had to rearrange their desks and the girls weren’t allowed to play with the boys during recess. Ashlynn was disappointed at the end of the day that she was never made to wear the dunce cap.

Our Little Musketeer...

Ashlynn was so excited when it was announced that Mr. Lowe would be teaching fencing to Year 6 (5th grade) on Wednesdays after school. Space was limited, so we made sure to sign up immediately. She’s really enjoying it. After just a few weeks you can see that she’s had enough instruction to know how to lunge. Hopefully there will be a competition later in the year.

Holding Back the Sea...

After a breakfast of croissants, Jimmy and I headed out for a walk on the beach. We were surprised to find the beach was completely closed due to major construction. In order to build a new dike to protect the surrounding area from future flooding, the beach needs to be widened. Crews have been working around the clock for weeks to dredge sand from 9 miles offshore, pipe it onto the beach and then spread it with bulldozers in an effort to make the beach 130-230 feet wider.
If you’ve ever visited us, then you’ve likely been on the pier at Scheveningen and walked to the end with us. It is quite shocking to see that much of the pier is no longer over water, but is now over sand. After watching the action for a while, we finally meandered down the boardwalk in search of some lunch. We saw some renderings of what the new boulevard will look like in 2013 once the dike is incorporated as part of the road.

235th Marine Corps Birthday Celebration...

Happy New Year! We’re not decked out to celebrate the new year, but rather for the Marine Corps Ball in November at the Kurhaus in Scheveningen. Like last year, I spent the day helping process payments at the American Women’s Club Holiday Bazaar. Veronica was going to a birthday slumber party, so we arranged for a friend to look after Ashlynn so we could make a complete night of it. We checked into the Kurhaus, got ready, then met Terri and Chris downstairs for a drink at the bar. A lot more AWC couples attended this year, so Jimmy took some fun photos of the ladies. We enjoyed dancing to the swing band (I even managed to wear low heals without needing an ankle brace), but felt bad for the young Marines who would have preferred a hipper band. We were also shocked by the plastic cake! It is a tradition to have a giant cake and have the youngest Marine cut a piece for the oldest Marine, but apparently this year the whole ceremony was faked as the cake wasn’t real (presumably to cut costs).