Post Holiday Wrap-Up

The run up to Christmas this year was much like any other. Busy at work, busy in life, and not quite feeling that holiday spirit. With everything else going on in our lives, Christmas snuck up on is a bit more stealthily than in years past.

I haven't been completely slacking on my blog, though. I spent some time setting up a .mac account so I can post photo galleries. If you're so inclined, check out some photos of The Hague.

The week leading up to Christmas included another dash down to Rotterdam to file still more immigration paperwork. On the way back, I stopped through Delft for some Christmas prezzies. While there, I took a quick tour of the Royal Delft porcelain factory. I was happy to discover that not all Delftware is cheezy, and in fact some of it is quite nice - though extremely expensive.



Happily, the Dutch embrace Christmas, or Kerst, a bit more enthusiastically than they do Sinterklaas. Christmas tree vendors cropped up once Sinterklaas set sale for his home in Spain. Dutch homes everywhere were soon decorated with the usual holiday decorations you see back in the States. Carolers, violinists and even a horse-drawn organ (above) were common sights.

After an unsuccessful search for a kennel with a vacancy, B- and I realized that we'd spend our first European Christmas just the four of us (Me, B-, dog and cat) in The Hague. So we enthusiastically bought and decorated a tree and set about planning our Christmas dinner. Despite a ruined hollandaise sauce, our meal was quite yummy.



Though our spread was modest, our 1st and 2nd Kerstdagen (the Dutch officially celebrate two days for Christmas) were filled with love, cheer and phone calls to family all over the world.

Vrolijke Kerstmis en Gelukkige Nieuwjaar!