Breda Winter Wonderland...

Breda was quite a lovely city with lots of pretty Christmas lights.

The market was rather small, but we didn’t mind as that allowed us to wander the town more and find a good vegetarian restaurant on our own and a bar selling very affordable gluhwein. 

The best part, however, was when we came across this group making Christmas videos for charity. Since I couldn’t photograph us while we were up on the small platform, I took this photo of strangers to show the contraption used for filming our 360° video.

Now that Jimmy and I have free train travel on weekends, I can definitely see going back to Breda to explore it further.

Breda Dollhouse Museum...

That Saturday we headed to Breda for their Winter Wonderland. We’d never been to Breda before, so I did some quick research of what there is to see and was thrilled when I came across this museum. The €3.50 entrance fee even included a coffee, tea or shot of a local liqueur served while watching the introductory video.  

We were pleasantly surprised when we learned that the majority of the collection was donated by one family, and much of it was handmade by the mother. Here is King Willem Alexander and Queen Maxima on the day of his coronation.

The attention to detail was incredible!

While most of the collection was individual rooms, here’s one of the complete houses.

I especially loved this hat store.

Downstairs was an entire village built by an artist that included sweet features such as this special bike for selling milk and eggs.  

The museum was part of the complex making up the Begijnhof Breda, which was built in 1535 to house pious Catholic women. 

While it’s been sometime since Jimmy worked on or the girls played with our dollhouse, it is prominently displayed in our new house.

Our 12th Anniversary Dinner...

Once again we were exactly one month late to celebrate our anniversary in Holland at La Laterna, the restaurant that we ate on our first night in November 2005. It was hard to believe that this time we were celebrating our 12th anniversary. And as part of our tradition, we stopped by the passageway next to the interior design shop on Keizerstraat to see the Christmas animatronics and Jimmy put a coin in to make it snow soap bubbles.

 It was a beautiful night in The Hague.

We finished the evening with a drink at Mingle Mush, where the girls posed for this classy photo.

Our Mixed Up Holidays...

Veronica looked lovely at the ball for all the industrial placement kids at GSK in early December. 

We were thrilled that not only did she come home for the holidays, but she arranged to work from home so she could stay from December 19 until January 7. Ashlynn was still in school when she arrived, so Veronica and I ventured into Leiden on our own to go to the floating Christmas market.

We ran past this cute historic house at the Sinterklaas Hash earlier in the month and I took this photo on my phone.

Two and a half weeks later, I brought Veronica there so she could take some shots and was surprised to see how many more lights and inflatables had been added. 

It undoubtedly had the most Christmas decorations of any house we’d ever encountered in Holland.

That same night was the final night of Hanukkah; Jimmy made vegan latkes and I made vegan kugel.

Southampton Christmas Market...

Downtown Southampton had changed since I had been there three years before with Veronica. Next to the remaining bit of the medieval city wall, a new giant entertainment center opened with a big movie theater and cuisine from around the world—we chose Caribbean.

There was a small Christmas market...

...that featured Santa’s flying sled.

It was quite a sight to see Santa waving to the crowds below.

For some more holiday merriment, we went to an adult panto: Sleeping with Beauty. We werent’t quite sure what to expect as we’d only ever been to family pantos. The website’s warning that the show wasn’t for those easily offended was definitely an understatement as it was extremely raunchy, but also very funny with excellent singing and acting. Ashlynn was by far the youngest there.

She was thrilled when we happened upon Stackss, a pancake house that had a separate vegan menu. We liked it so much that one dinner just wasn’t enough, so we went back for breakfast the next morning. 

UK National Oceanographic Centre...

We don’t fly enough to warrant joining an airline lounge, but turns out we don’t need to because our bank offers free use of a lounge when we fly outside of continental Europe. It’s great because they have free food and drinks plus lots of plugs. Even Ashlynn likes it despite the lack of vegan options.

After we booked our non-refundable plane tickets and hotel for two nights in Southampton, England for an applicant day at the University of Southampton, Ashlynn received an email that the event had been postponed. She wrote to the professor in charge and asked if there was any way to see the facilities anyways. He was kind enough to pick us up at our hotel and bring us to the UK National Oceanographic Centre where the university teaches its marine biology classes.

It was very cool getting a private tour through this impressive facility.

He also took us on board the school’s research vessel.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t show us anything on the main campus, which is where Ashlynn would have her biology classes, because it was all locked up for the holidays. Frankly, we were deeply confused why the marine biology department ever even considered that weekend to invite kids with offers to visit. A private tour was nice, but didn’t help Ashlynn to gauge the vibe of the school. 

Cycling in the Snow...

The Dutch don’t let a little thing like snow stop them from getting on their bikes.

Jimmy suggested that I take a shot of our next door neighbor’s tree and bikes, which we then used as the cover for the January issue of Going Dutch (although I am no longer the Editor, Jimmy still makes the cover using my images). 

Downtown Voorschoten...

I’ve always thought Voorstraat was a very pretty street, but it looked especially pretty under a light layer of snow.

 I walked down the street at two different times that day.

 It got even prettier as the snow continued to fall.

A Girl and Her Dog in the Snow...

While Kati isn’t a big fan of snow, she still needs to walk. 

So Ashlynn and I took her to the nearby park.

Of course, I brought my camera along as well.

Later that afternoon, Jimmy and I went for a walk so I could take more photos.