First Race of 2013...

The first race of the New Year was on January 6th in Leiden through the woods on the border of Oostgest. It was unseasonably warm and Ashlynn ran in shorts without any problems. (Three weeks later, the next circuit race was cancelled due to ice.)

Andrew was speedy, missing breaking 20:00 by just 2 seconds.

Ashlynn was exactly one minute behind him with a time of 21:02 (6:46/mile). We stuck around after the race to wait for Jimmy, who was running the 10K, then went out for a late all-you-can-eat sushi lunch as a celebration of Veronica’s hard work on her upcoming mock GCSEs (practice of year-end exams) and to wish Ashlynn luck for her upcoming racing season.

Breaking in our Bathtub...

We are spoiled by having a large master bathroom (although it is a bit weird that it doesn’t have a toilet). After Hannah got muddy on a walk, the girls decided that she should be the first to use our bathtub. We all enjoyed having her spend the entire holiday break with us.

Love this shot of Hannah shaking herself dry.

Happy New Year!

Despite some rain showers, James and Jon helped the four kids shoot off a lot of fireworks at midnight, while Helen and I enjoyed the view from inside. Only Ashlynn and Lucy managed to get in any of the photos.

 Veronica enjoyed taking sparkler photos.

New Year’s Eve...

We started the evening by having Lucy’s family over for dinner. Then we walked over to their house for bubbly and dessert.

Lucy made apple tart and Ashlynn made ice cream.

The girls enjoyed the late night sugar rush.

Fancy Cupcakes...

Ashlynn and Lucy were classmates several years ago. They were happy to discover that they now live just around the corner from each other. They were also happy to discover that they both like to bake. We all enjoyed getting to eat their rainbow cupcakes.

The rainbow wasn’t just on the outside.

Our Holidays...

As usual, we tried to light the Hanukkah lights every night, but we missed a few. We had one big Hanukkah meal, complete with Jimmy’s latkes and my kugel.

We were happy to be in our new warm house on Christmas morning. Veronica photographed us with our stockings.

We couldn’t spend the entire day in our pajamas because we were dogsitting Hannah and had to take her for a walk. Luckily the oven that we bought for our old place fit in our new kitchen perfectly. We haven’t hooked up the gas, but the electric rotisserie works great and our chicken dinner was delicious.

High Tea on Christmas Eve...

We continued with our new tradition of going out for high tea over the holidays. We again went to Hotel Des Indes and enjoyed a three-course meal with appetizers, mains and desserts.

The portions might be small, but we left stuffed. 

I don’t drink tea, but did enjoy a glass of Prosecco. Afterwards, we went to see the movie Life of Pi, which we all really enjoyed.