Our National Theatre Adventure...

In addition to meeting the hotel manager when taking the leadership course in London over the summer, Jimmy met Nicolas Chagrin, a British actor and former dancer (he was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). He recruited Nicolas to put together a two-day drama course for the girls and then changed his mind and decided he and I would participate as well. Much to our delight, Nicolas arranged for our sessions to be held in a rehearsal room at the Royal National Theatre right along the Thames River. He couldn’t actually give us a tour of the three theaters themselves, so we took an official backstage tour, which was very interesting.

Happy to be Back in London...

On Boxing Day (otherwise known as December 26th), we took the train to Hoek van Holland to catch the overnight ferry to England. The girls were very excited about sleeping on a boat for the first time. Luckily we had calm seas so we all slept well. We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and hit the streets of London. We stopped by the Christmas market at Hyde Park and Hamleys, London’s fanciest toy store where Jimmy couldn’t resist buying a remote control helicopter. The hotel manager, whom Jimmy had taken a leadership course with, invited us for high tea with his family. I might not drink tea, but I can still appreciate all those crustless sandwiches and yummy desserts. Afterwards we met some friends from The Hague in Chinatown for dinner; we all enjoyed the “flattened duck.”

Cool Interactive Art...

We happened upon the coolest art installation in the courtyard of the London Royal Academy of Arts by Mumbai-born artist Anish Kapoor, who specializes in public art. We didn’t visit the museum itself, but spent a long time staring into 76 beautiful steel silver balls that made up the 50-foot sculpture Tall Tree and the Eye, which infinitely repeated and reflected the surrounding architecture and visitors.

Our Big Snow Storm...

The snow arrived early this year in mid-December and while there was only an inch or two, the cycle paths became quite slippery. For the first time, we all managed to fall off our bikes on the same day, but luckily the only thing hurt was our pride. On December 22nd we had our biggest snow storm in our four years in Holland, which brought the total snowfall to 5 inches. Public transport came to a complete halt and the roads were a mess, but three crazy hashers still showed up since we were haring for the Hague H3. The girls built an ice bar in the yard to serve mulled wine after the trail.
The sky was beautiful that evening when the girls posed in the yard before making snow angels. On Christmas Eve we went to a friend’s in the village of Voorburg, which was beautifully lit by candles. We had a very mellow Christmas playing games in our PJs.

A Farewell Celebration...

One of the benefits of expat life is getting to meet a lot of great people. One of the downsides is that good friends move at the whims of their companies. Darlene has been a very special friend over the last three years as we’ve spent hours baring our souls while scrapbooking and travelling together. As she and Mike prepared to move back to California, I spent every spare moment with her. We were thrilled they could join us for the first night of Hanukkah for kugel (noodle casserole) and latkes (potato pancakes). Our final celebration was the following evening for a gourmet meal at their hotel. I’m really going to miss her, but am happy that she lives near my dad so I know our paths will cross frequently.
No, we weren’t doing something we didn’t want the girls to see. Darlene and Mike gave them airline business class packs and a cool candle holder for Hanukkah. They were happy to get to spend two last evenings with Lance, who they’ll miss dogsitting.

Nanny McPhee No More!

The bad mom that I am, for the last few years I’ve been calling Ashlynn “Nanny McPhee,” after the buck toothed main character in a kiddie movie. The good news is that she’s grown so tired of this nickname that she actually looked forward to getting braces in mid-December. Because there’s only one tooth to move, she only needs braces on the four front teeth. She was shocked how fast and easy the whole process was. The worst part was the big pieces of cotton forcing her mouth open. The orthodontist said that we should see a big change by the end of the year and that she should have them off in six months.

Not Your Average Family Portrait...

It was funny seeing Veronica with her blonde hair poking out from under her black wig. She had so much fun hamming it up with her daddy and passing out gifts to dozens of little kids. And I had a great time following them around and taking dozens of photos of this crazy day.