Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas from Art, Shayna, Zachary, und Dexter


This year was a very different Christmas for us. Last year was different because we were in Taos, yet with my side of the family. This year was different because we were in Holland with Art's extended family - Oma Holland and Tante Mieke. We first celebrated Christmas in Dusseldorf by opening the stockings Mom sent to us. Zachary promptly stole something out of my stocking and claimed it as his own.

On Dec. 23rd, Oom Hans and Tante Jop came to pick us up. We left Dexter here in the apartment with a large portion of food and water as well as extra litter and kept our fingers crossed (he did just fine by the way). We arrived in Utrecht about an hour and a half after leaving Dusseldorf, just in time to get settled in before a borrel (pre-dinner snack and drink ~ 5pm - Dad, you would HATE it!). Tante Mieke had set up her very old wooden playpen for Zach (these days everyone has a pack-n-play). We loved it, as did Zach. We called it the box. As in "Do you want him at the table with us, or playing in the box?"

Oma and Tante Mieke have a new (to us) dog: Rex. We generally are not fans of little dogs, but this one is a cutie. We say that he has the face/head of a big dog on a little dog body. We enjoyed him quite a bit. Even Zachary. A few times, Zach would be crying in the box and Rex would come over and bark at him, which would make Zach laugh. Rex seemed to enjoy it as well.

Christmas Eve we met up with several cousins for snacks and drinks around 2pm. We saw (I know I will butcher the spellings) Marika, Ruurt & thier daughter Eva; Maartin, and Annemieke (Karl was there too). It was a real nice time seeing them all and catching up. Back to Oma's for an early dinner and a viewing of the Cambridge Boy's Choir Christmas program (~1hr), which was excellent!

Christmas Day was a special treat for Zachary. He woke up earlier than I wanted to get up, so I went and got him and put him in our bed and he went back to sleep until about 8am. Merry Christmas to us all!

Speaking of sleep, Zachary LOVES Holland. He slept the best there that he ever has. Super long naps, sleeping through the night without needing a late night/early morning cuddle to get back to sleep. It was great! With no Dexter, Art and I got some serious sleep as well. We are considering moving there!

Christmas Day was very nice. We spent it at Oma's and just mostly sat around and visited. We opened a present for Zach (wooden blocks) from Tante Mary, and a present for us from Tante Mieke.

Each night we played some games after dinner and after Zach went to bed. Mostly Zwarte Piet and 31.

On Dec. 27, Oom Hans and Tante Jop picked us up from Oma's and took us to their house in Arnhem to spend the night. We had a great time there as well. Art loved it because they provided such an excellent borrel that he could hardly eat his dinner (Dad, you would be vindicated). Zach loved it because they let him have some apple juice in a sippy cup. That boy loves his juice. We watched a favorite show of Oom Hans' - Judge John Deed. It is a mystery, and pretty enjoyable. All in all we had a great time. Oom Hans drove us back the next day, and one of the best things about being back in Dusseldorf (the first being that Dexter survived) was that it finally felt like 'home'. It was good to get back 'home' and back to 'normal'.