New Years eve (or old years eve, as we actually call it in Holland) is really not the same without the traditional 'oliebollen' (literal translation = oil balls). I had never made them myself but as we now are the proud owners of a deep fryer (that had been sitting in the garage since the Queen's day 'bitterballen'), my dad and I decided we would give it a try!
We ate them warm out of the fryer and they turned out very nice! Definitely feels like a tradition coming on....
Over the years it has become a tradition that my dad and I prepare Christmas dinner. The preparations start with the 'Allerhande' and 'Delicious' magazines from Holland. Paging through them tot together a nice menu that will please everyone. This results in a long shopping list and a trip to the shops to find all the ingredients and to try and beat the crowds.
We invariably choose something that we have never prepared before and that might pose somewhat of a challenge. This year it was the 'kerststol' (Christmas bread filled with a type of marzepan), our lobster tails and the world famous (in Holland anyway) tiramisu cake!
We are very critical cooks but all of us agreed that everything turned out very nice!
The menu:
Grilled lobster tails
Thijs' famous yellow pepper soup
Italian style stuffed pork loin with potato gratin and green beans
Terrific tiramisu cake
Last week we were invited to a christmas party by one of Thijs' colleagues. The theme was 'ugly christmas sweater and tie white elephant party'. What the.....?
After some inquiries we found out we needed to find an ugly christmas sweater and some useless, funny gift that would be traded during the party. After abandoning some DIY sweater ideas we found a shop that sold the sweaters - by the hundreds - for the extraordinary price of $12.95!!!
Very difficult decision but we finally decided on these beautiful, one of a kind, irreplaceable sweaters.
Good night! Thijs had his first Martini, we ate great Louisiana gumbo and got a dirty old stuffed Santa and a gingerbread man robe as white elephant gifts!
An advent calendar has become a tradition in our house around Christmas. Every day the girls can open a little bag which contains a joke or a note and a small surprise. I hope they will remember this fondly when they grow up.
This year, however, we wanted to add something extra. Over the past year I have been reading a lot about acts of kindness on the internet and I think it is just such a nice thing to do. So together we agreed to try and do something nice for someone every day until Christmas (we won't stop then though, don't worry). At first, we wanted to make a list with a specific activity for every day but with school, homework and activities we were afraid we wouldn't be able to keep up. So we decided to take it one day at a time. Every day we will try to do a kind deed (or more than one). It doesn't have to be anything big or expensive but it has to be without expecting anything in return. Today Famke donated money to the Ronald McDonald house in her fifth grade 'buy a privilege week' (she got to wear a hat to school in return for a donation). Floortje waited a little longer to hold the door open for someone and was kind to her classmates. I left a candy cane on the ATM and my shopping cart and returned a lost cart from parking lot to the store. Thijs tipped someone a little extra.
On the wall we made a calendar on which we can write our acts of kindness and we have a list of ideas in case we need some inspiration.
I just wanted to share this with you, not to pat ourselves on the back, but with the hope that you will help us spread the joy a little bit more :)
Happy Holidays! We wish you only good things this season.
Last week Floortje joined our neighbors on a trip to the local shopping center. Little did they know that Santa was there with lots of fun activities. Such a nice surprise. She came home with crafts, little gifts and lots of stories. But for me the best part was the picture that Lori took of Floortje's letter to Santa.
(In case you need decoding: 'I am Dutch so you don't come to me. But I still believe in you don't worry. Your best friend, Floortje) Sweet!
A little while ago I took up running. I hate gyms and I like exercising outside and since we have a very nice area in our neighborhood with trails and a lake it seemed like the right thing to do. I started 'Running with Evy' which is a Belgian training program and in 30 lessons Evy gets you ready to run 5k with nice music and encouragements.
My friend Monique started doing this as well around the same time so we talked about working towards the 5k run on Thanksgiving Day. However,due to a fall on my knee I wasn't able to run as much as I would have liked.
Register or not? Yes, no, yes, no......, ok then!
And we did it! Nearly 6000 people took part in the 1 mile, 5k and 10k runs. Almost 3000 ran the 5k! It was quite an experience. Lots of people on the side of the road cheering us on, including my most loyal supporters :)
Felt very good afterwards!
Just came across the back of this truck on the way home and had to share it with you!
Just in case you can't read the bumper sticker, it says 'Texas women shoot their own snakes'.
You are probably laughing now, but I have actually had a conversation with a guy at a party where he told me in great detail how he shoots snakes when he come across them.....
Last year we celebrated our 12.5 year anniversary and as a present from Peter, Jeanine, Karen and Michiel we got a 'Staycation in Houston'.
Well, this weekend, slightly overdue, we 'cashed' our voucher.
Karen and Jeanine came to our house to look after the girls and we got instructions to check in at the Icon Hotel in downtown Houston and be present for dinner at 7.30. For the rest we were free to enjoy ourselves :)
We first checked out some of the bars and pubs. Nice because we never come in this area. Then headed to Reef restaurant for a really nice seafood dinner.
Didn't really take any pictures, just some of the food (of course!). Picture two and three were my deep fried mac and cheese!!!
Thanks so much J, P, K & M! So nice to have this time together.
A few weekends again, a colleague of Thijs was so very nice to let us use her beach house in Galveston for the weekend. Thijs' mum came with us and we had a wonderful time. On Saturday the weather was just gorgeous and we made the most of it!
This was the view towards the Gulf Of Mexico.
On Sunday the weather was not as nice but we still got a good walk on the beach.
Such a great weekend, seems like we were away for ages!
Yesterday while enjoying the beautiful weather and inspecting the (finally) weed-free state of our garden, I noticed a wasp nest in one of our trees.
With a little help from Google we found out these were 'Texas red wasps' and as you probably know by now, anything 'Texas' is big (and in this case also aggressive)! Needless to say, the wasps had to go.
Thijs got a bottle of spray and waited till dusk as the can stated the wasps would be more 'peaceful'.....
As Thijs reacts quite severely to insects bites he was not going to take any chances!
When I checked the status of the nest this morning, it seems that it is Thijs 1, wasps 0!
With Poezeoma in town for Halloween, something had to be baked. Mummy cupcakes it was. Fun!
The famous detective tv shows and best-seller thriller books teach you that DNA can be obtained from toothbrushes and other personal items.
In this 'family case' however there is no need to 'test' the brushes. A visual inspection will tell you without a doubt that the dad and youngest daughter are related!
Could do a post similar to this one about sleeping positions and duvet location....
(Yes, Floortje now has a new toothbrush)
Another post that has been lying around too long... :)
Last year Famke was 'star of the week' at school and the teacher asked us to write a letter to Famke or a story about her. At the end of the special week the teacher would read this out to her and the rest of the class. Famke's Fabulous Fairytale it was...
Famke's Fabulous Fairytale
There was once a little princess named Famke. She was born 10 years ago in a land called Scotland. Scotland is a rough country with beautiful countryside, nice people and lots of rain. She had a bit of a difficult start but soon showed everyone that she was a little fighter.
The princess and her parents didn't stay in Scotland very long though. When the baby princess was only 6 weeks old they took a ferry ride across the North Sea and settled themselves in a beautiful white wooden castle house in Stavanger, Norway.
Norway is also a beautiful country with probably even more rain than Scotland. However, the little princess didn't care. She learned from her little Norwegian friends that there is 'no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing'. So out they went in wind and rain to grill 'pølser' in the forest. Pølser, also known as hot dogs, were the princess' favorite food. In the morning she would say 'hei' to her friends and before going home it would be 'ha det bra'!
Kings, queens and princesses like adventures so after three years the three of them decided it was time to move on. After all these years they had enough of all the rain so they agreed to move to Dubai. As Dubai lies in the desert you can imagine that the weather is very different there, hot and dry! The princess, who was by now growing up to be quite a little lady, had now also become a big sister as little princess Floortje was born.
Life in Dubai was quite different for the princesses. As it was always sunny Famke quickly learned how to swim and spent many hours in the pool. As even princesses have to go to school, Famke started at the Dubai British School with children from lots of different countries, nationalities and religions. They would celebrate Christmas, Eid, Diwali and all the other holidays from around the world. The most special day at school was probably international day when everyone would bring food from their country and share it. The favorite food of the princess became pasta!
Days off were either spent in the pool or racing down sand dunes on your bottom! The little princess even learned to speak some Arabic. 'Marhaba' to say hello and 'ma'assalama' to say goodbye.
Even though Famke loved being a 1001 night Arabian princess, the time had come to move on again. The little lady had by now turned into a beautiful, tall, strong willed girl.
Texas was the next stop. The king, queen and two princesses settled down in the town of Katy. Here they ride their iron horses to school every day and corn dogs have become the princess' favorite food. Playing soccer and watching the Astros and Texans play have become her new favorite pastime. 'Howdy' and 'bye' are her new words for greeting folks!
Famke was born in Scotland, is growing up in Norway, Dubai and Texas and calls herself a Dutch girl, pretty neat! You can take the girl out of Holland but you can take Holland out of the girl! Therefore every year, the king and queen take their two princesses for a trip to their roots. The princesses love going to The Netherlands, or Holland as most people call it, to visit their grandparents and the rest of their family and friends. Holland is know for a lot of things, like windmills, tulips, bikes, canals and cheese. But when the princess goes to Holland she likes to play outside and eat her favorite dutch foods: colored sprinkles, sweet buns and americain filet (and the funny thing about this is that you cannot buy this in America)!
The king and queen would like their princess to know that they are very proud of her. It is not always easy to pick up your things and move to a new country, settle in a new place, go to a new school and make new friends. But Princess Famke has done amazing at that! The princess is a sweet, determined, energetic, sports-loving, happy girl and we hope that she will live happily ever after!
Last weekend we thought it was time to get out of Katy and visit some sites that we had not been to in Houston yet.
Somewhere in an industrial part of Houston, behind the Target and between some warehouses is the workshop of David Adickes. He is an artist that has made the heads of all the presidents for an educational center in South Dakota. However more of these heads are still here in Houston. They are not displayed in any nice way. They kind of sit around the edge of an empty plot of land across from the studio but still it is well worth visiting. The heads are very big, somewhere between 5-6m!
It is very strange to drive down a small street and see this at the end of it.
It was a pretty impressive sight. Need to get up to speed on our president knowledge though.
Yes, Obama was there too!
Not sure who this was. Might have been Reagan as we didn't see him around :) (although the bow tie probably indicates someone who served a bit longer ago)
And yes, the Beatles are here too. Even bigger than the presidents at about 11m tall.
American football that is!
The remotes for the media room have been dusted off, fridge is stocked, Thijs is ready!
The Houston Texans had the honor of playing the San Diego chargers on the first Monday Night Football of the season.
As the game was on Monday, school encouraged everyone to wear their Texans jerseys to school. As Famke is a big fan, we went out to buy her one yesterday. It had to be JJ Watt's no 99 as that is her favorite.
Of course, games are not complete without the accompaniments.
This is what I saw in the supermarket today, right as I walked into the store. People like things easy here!
Beginning of the second quarter as I am posting this, score 7-7....
Go Texans!!!
