Moving Day...

The main reason we had come to The Hague was that January 5 was moving day! After Jimmy secured a permanent three-year contract starting on November 1, I started a serious search for a rental in London. A few weeks later, we found our dream flat, but it wouldn’t be available until January 26. So after some negotiating with the moving company, we settled on the 5th as the day they would pick up our belongings from storage to deliver sometime the week of January 29. We were fortunate to be able to borrow Terri’s car so that we could do one last run to the Kringloop to drop off some things we realized we wouldn’t need in our new place. 

The three movers were very efficient with minimal repacking of our belongings. I must confess that I was nervous that they’d end up delivering a bunch of broken stuff since I used clothing as packing material for much of our kitchenware, but amazingly we had only one broken shot glass and one chipped plate. 

Less than five hours after they arrived, the movers were ready to pull out with all of our belongings, which would be stored in the Netherlands until later in the month. 

We had one loss at the storage when a box of wine fell (luckily not the good stuff, which we then located and repacked) and shattered on one of our single mattresses. Jimmy thought we might be able to still use it, but the movers agreed with me that it was a total write-off so they wrapped it up for disposal. By good fortune, they had started chatting with an American woman at her storage unit and she loaned us a card to be able to use the local dump to drop off the stinky mattress. 

Like we did so many times that we dropped stuff off at storage, Jimmy and I stopped by our favorite Dutch microbrewery, Kompaan, for a drink and snack before returning to Terri’s to take her out for an amazing seafood dinner. 
 

The Reception...

The BBQ buffet was quite good and the cake, made by a pastry chef who is one of their friends, was yummy. 

It had sprinkled for just a brief moment right after the ceremony, but the weather was perfect for the rest of the evening. 

Celine’s nephew Pierre was very entertaining on the dance floor.

No big surprise that he couldn’t swing Jimmy around like his little cousin. 

Had a great time dancing and singing along with some of the songs.

Everyone had a great time!
 

Group Portraits...

After the ceremony, Jimmy worked his way through the list of groups of friends and family to photograph. 

Richard’s family was a bit more challenging since his mother was in a hospital bed (helped throughout the day by two lovely volunteers), but Jimmy managed to pull it off...

…and Dylan cooperated, making the photos even more special.

Hashers were very happy to climb around the playground for our group shot...

…and someone took control of the camera so Jimmy could jump in. 

It was nice spending time with some hashers that we don’t see often: Suzanne and Rob from Heiloo and Melanie and her sweet dog Lemon from Hannover.

This photo reminds me that Jimmy is a clown and that there were very few masks worn that day. Despite knowing that not all 60 guests were vaccinated, this was our first big event since March 2020 and we let our guard down and let loose. Thankfully it didn’t turn into a superspreader event and no one caught coronavirus.

Dylan was happy and full of smiles. 

I was skeptical about there being a photo booth, but it was surprisingly fun. 

 

Celine + Richard Get Married...

On July 24, we headed to Hillegom so I could take photos of Celine getting ready for her wedding, which had been postponed twice due to the pandemic. I took over 800 photos that day, but will spare you and only share a few.

Celine and Richard hadn’t planned on seeing each other before the ceremony, but I convinced them that they could still have some special moments together and that it would allow Jimmy plenty of unrushed time to take their wedding portraits. 

The venue was actually an apple orchard with lots of fun spots for photos. I especially loved this one! 

Jimmy had met most of Richard’s friends at the stag party, so they didn’t hesitate to clown around with each other. 

Celine’s niece and nephew got ready at the hotel with her, so were there early with us. 

When we realized that this golf cart would be visible in the photos, Richard and Jimmy moved it themselves after not being able to find an employee to help them. 

The one-hour service was held primarily in Dutch with summaries given in French for Celine’s family. Either way, I couldn’t understand much, so took lots more photos.

One day shy of his first birthday, little Dylan was helped down the aisle by two of his Dutch cousins. 

It was astonishing to learn that in order for their dear friend Mariska to conduct the service, under the watchful eyes of a government official in attendance, she had to complete a two-day course to allow her to perform just that single wedding. 
 

Celebrating Inauguration...

After all of the insanity that surrounded the domestic terrorist attacks at the US Capitol on Janary 6, we were worried that there could be further attacks during the inauguration on the 20th. What a huge relief that all of the events went off without a hitch and how cool that we could share the special day with the girls and Grandpa. The speeches were inspirational and gave us much hope for a brighter future. 

Despite the rudeness of the former occupants of the White House not to greet the Bidens, I’m sure that Joe and Jill could feel the collective positive energy from around the globe flowing towards them. 

Much like the night in November that the US Presidential Election was finally called. we celebrated with our next door neighbors after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President on January 20. Martijn supplied the laser light show and sparklers... 

...and we supplied the bubbly.

Clearly we didn’t always stay distanced, but we were pretty good when the camera wasn’t pointed at us. 

We once again proudly wore our Biden Harris shirts and I wore pearls in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Miracously, after four years of fitful sleeping, I started sleeping better that night.

 

2020 Presidential Election...

Carlin and Kent hosted us for dinner on November 3, the evening of the US Presidential election. I wore my pearls in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the incredible Supreme Court Associate Justice that fought for human rights throughout her long and empowering legal career. 

This year’s Election Breakfast was cancelled, so here’s a throwback to the one in 2012 when the girls joined us. Like previous elections, we slept a few hours and then stayed glued to the news for hours on the morning of the 4th. 

Continuing with the theme that nothing in 2020 was normal, there was no winner declared on the 4th. Instead the world had to wait until the 7th for Biden to be declared the winner. It just happened that we had invited Bob to spend the night since he was feeling lonely while Lisa was in the US for two months. I was so impressed to learn that she was working as a lawyer tracking all of the lawsuits filed across the country related to the election. Jimmy yelled down for us to join him in his office as the news spread that Biden had enough electoral college votes to be declared the winner. 

Later that night we brought over some bubbly to have a toast with our next door neighbors, who were completely fascinated with the American election process. 

Notice anything unusual about this flag? Bob noticed right away that it only has 48 stars (Alaska and Hawaii didn’t become states until 1959). 

Turns out that this fantastic large cotton flag was from 1945 and was apparently given to Martijn’s grandparents by American soldiers that had come to liberate the Netherlands.