Murder Mystery New Year’s Eve...

We were very excited to get invited to celebrate with a group of hashers at Reinhardt and Inga’s Murder Mystery Party for New Year’s Eve. They did an incredible job decorating and feeding us. No big surprise that Jimmy was in charge of a festive cocktail.

To be honest, how to drink cocktails and stay clear-headed enough to solve a mystery was a mystery to me. However, I still enjoyed dressing up and seeing everyone else’s costumes. Here we are as an adventurer and a doctor.

While Inga and the other guests took their costumes to the next level...

...we just looked goofy.

This was Kati’s first big slumber party away from home. I finally asked the vet if there were drugs to help keep her calm during the insanity of Dutch fireworks (I felt guilty for never thinking to ask before). The drugs helped a lot, but not enough for us to leave her when the other guests went outside to explore the neighborhood. After a hearty breakfast, Jimmy laid an impromptu FILTH New Year’s Hangover Hash during which Kati was named Mama’s Bitch.

AH3 Lights Festival Hash...

We had another great turnout, including some visiting hashers from Germany, for the Lights Festival Hash in late December, hosted again by Derek and Abbie. 

Once again got lost and ended up arriving quite late at the beer break, held at this charming genever bar.

We had another lively circle before settling down for some of Derek’s incredible split pea soup and spiked gluhwijn.

Trailer Park Holiday...

 We were sad to leave our little holiday cottage on the 27th.

On the way back from our final long walk in the woods, I grabbed some shots of other properties in our trailer park. Ironically, when I booked our cottage, I had no idea that it was actually a double-wide trailer. It was very nice, so we had no complaints.

 Some of the properties could definitely use a facelift.

The owners of our trailer, who live in Rotterdam, had bought the smaller trailer next door and were also fixing it up as a rental.

 They volunteered to take this family photo...

...and then Veronica volunteered to shoot some drone footage for them.

More Woods in Putten...

We enjoyed several more walks in the local woods with Kati.

 Jimmy was very excited that Veronica let him fly her drone.

Couldn’t help but giggle every time we walked past the farm that housed these funny sheep.

Flying in the Forest...

 Veronica was very excited to get her drone up in the air.

 After another presto-chango...

 ...she looked like a woodland nymph.

 After this point, Jimmy and I were banned from the shoot...

 ...which was not surprising once we saw this image captured by the drone.

She put together this one-minute video from her footage.

Christmas and Hanukkah in Putten...

We were all sad that Ashlynn wasn’t with us, but made the most of our time together. For breakfast on Christmas morning, we had scrambled tofu, which is surprisingly reminiscent of scrambled eggs. If you look closely, you’ll see that we brought our menorah along with us since 2019 was one of those rare years when Christmas and Hanukkah overlapped. 

Not only did Veronica make us a nice dinner, but she brought us vegan mince pies from England.

We went pretty simplistic with gifts, but thought it was very sweet that Veronica bought us all similar bicycle socks.

Reflections at Hoge Veluwe...

Beyond taking some cool shots of Veronica, my favorite photos from the park were reflections I caught in puddles...

...and small ponds.

I also couldn’t resist capturing our reflection in a Christmas ornament in the gift shop.