NYE was a relaxed evening spent with my parents and Frederik, Marlies & kids. We didn't take too many pictures but just wanted to share this one of the 'oliebollen' Marlies made. Yum!
Okay then, and some pictures of our dinner : )
Every year the big food companies come out with special products and packaging that are only available for the holiday season. 'Limited Editons' they will call it. This can be anything from specially scented Yankee candles, limited edition coke cans to special chocolates.
M&M's, for example, have different candies for every season. Especially the colors change. Pink ones for Valentine's day, pastel for Easter and green, red and white for Christmas. There are also some special flavors like cherry cordial and white mint. Nice idea and good marketing!
However, I think Pringles are taking this idea a bit too far..... Don't think we will be trying these :)
Had to share this email from Floortje's teacher as well. Received it this morning just after Floortje had arrived at school.
Subject line read: We are twins down to our shoes :)
Sweet!
Every weekend we get an email from the girls' teachers to let us know what is on the agenda that week.
This is the email I received from Floortje's teacher this evening.
I'm so excited to start this week. I've read so many sweet posts about the things that my friends and family are thankful for and each one reminds me to slow down and notice the little things. I want each one of you to know that I'm thankful to be able to teach and reach each one of your children. They are each special little gifts and I can't wait to see the wonderful marks they will make on the world. I'm thankful for each one of their sweet smiles and their excitement when they tell me stories that they hold dear to their hearts. Being a teacher is a gift I've been given and the rewards are so plentiful. My rewards are their smiles! Thank you for letting me be a part of their lives.
I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend with the things that you are thankful for!
My down-to-earth Dutch side feels that this is a bit much (or 'typisch amerikaans' as we would say in Dutch) but on the other hand I really appreciate the fact that the teachers are so involved and it makes me stop for a minute and appreciate the things that I am thankful for!
When we bought the house last year, we also became the lucky owners of a media room (aka 'man cave').
Outfitting this room was at the top of the 'want' list, but at the bottom of the 'need' list. For this reason the room sat empty for over a year. However, last August, football season was starting again and Thijs decided the time had come....
After intensive online research the purchases were made and for about a week we had daily DHL, FedEx and UPS deliveries. Better than Christmas ( for Thijs anyway!).
My dad was here at that time and a good few hours were spent planning, measuring and measuring again.
When all was clear and decided my dad helped out amazingly! Speakers, screen, projector, console, shelves and fridge were all installed in a perfect way.
Thijs is very happy with his cave. It almost makes you wish for bad weather so we can sit in here and watch movies all day (please note the 'almost'!)
Here the result (pretty hard to take an overall picture but hope you get the idea).
Some technical facts for the 'liefhebbers'
ONKYO 5 speaker Dolby Surround sound system
Epson PowerLite 1080 HD projector
Sony Blue-Ray wifi enabled DVD player
Two love seat sofas and ottomans :)
Matching black fridge (thanks Karen & Michiel and thanks mom for cleaning it)
Tuesday night we were glued to the tv. As this election business had been going on since we arrived in the States about 16 months ago, we were determined to see it through till the end!!!
Everyone thought it was going to be a long night. But als the polls were closing in all the States from the east to the west coast it was becoming more and more clear that another win was on the cards for Obama.
Then the race begins among the networks (CNN, ABC, Fox, NBC, etc) who will be to call the winner. At 10.12 PM (Texas time) NBC made the call.
As I said before, we were going to see this through to the end so we stayed up and watched the speech as well. Late night, but happy that Obama won.
At least one of us got to vote today! Famke voted at school. Yesterday they had talked about the positions both candidates take on the main issues. Famke decided to vote for Obama as he was more concerned about health care and he brought the troops home so no more people needed to die (that's my girl!!!)
She told me it was very 'official'. They had to show their ID, do the voting on the computer and then received the 'I voted' sticker. Very nice to get the kids involved this way.
As the baseball season is over and the Texans are a bit expensive for frequent visits we decided to check out the local ice hockey team, the Houston Aeros.
Peter, Jeanine, Pluk and Mees joined us at the Toyota Center. It is actually pretty amazing how they change this arena pretty much every day for a different occasion. The Rockets play their basketball games here, the Aeros need an ice rink for their games and in between Madonna and Justin Bieber perform!
We had good seats behind the goal and were right in the middle of things when the guys got body checked up against the boarding!
Unfortunately the Aeros lost after a 1-1 game, over-time and penalties.
Today is the 50th day of school and therefore everyone had to dress up in 50's clothes. As we are kind of low on petticoats at the moment, these outfits had to do :)
During this election period you see people displaying their candidate of choice through yard signs and bumper stickers everywhere.
As Texas is very much a republican state I have not seen too many in support of Obama yet. Some examples of what we have come across:
As we can't vote there is no sign in our yard, however I couldn't resist having my say here :)
