Santas and Snow

We packed in a lot this past weekend. Colin and Chloe's Christmas concert at school was on Friday. Colin's class sang Silent Night. They also helped sing Rudolf with Chloe's class since they really weren't able to carry the whole song by themselves. Chloe completely choked and watched Colin sing the whole time she was on stage. That is Chloe all of the way to the right with her head turned.

That night, we went out with friends who are also from Jersey. Saturday, 2 of Colin and Chloe's friends came over to play and that night, we participated in a 5K Santa Run. All of the runners wear a complete Santa costume and are given a shot of jenever at the midway point. There were so many crazy things happening while we are there, I don't think I would even be able to describe it.  The running conditions were pretty bad. There was already snow on the ground and by the time we finished, it was snowing heavily. Alot of the route was cobblestone and it lead us right through the heart of the Christmas Market. It was pretty crazy.

It has been snowing a lot recently but has only accumulated to about 4 inches over the past week. I don't think there are plows in the city and many people own shovels. I have seen people clearing their sidewalks with brooms, squeegees, and planks of wood, if they bother to do it at all. We even have a friend who attempted to clean the snow from his car with a wooden spoon. Pushing a stoller through slushy snow is almost impossible. It is expected to snow again today and tomorrow.

We initally had plans to travel to Italy over the holiday but they fell though. We will be in Antwerp for Christmas.

Antwerp Christmas Market

Our plans to travel over the weekend were cancelled again due to the weather. It is been very cold here, at freezing or below. It has also snowed often but it has not been sticking too much. They are definitely not used to get snow here so even a little causes a bit of chaos.
The Antwerp Christmas market opened on Saturday. One of the events the city put on was a light parade that night. We were able to bring the kids to see the parade and Santa Claus in his sleigh before the sitter came. Even though it it far from the best market, it is so nice to see the center squares filled with decorated stalls and lots of people hanging out drinking their gluwine and jenevers. The next day, we brought the kids back to the market to ride the carousel and ice skate.

We woke up that Sunday morning only to realize that Craig's bike had been stolen. He will describe is as a gem, but the reality is that it needed new tires in a size that is not manufactured anymore. I wasn't too worried since he has 2 more back up bikes in the garage.  I almost couldn't believe it when I spotted the missing bike just down the street from us today. The fender was badly bent making it impossible to ride. I can't believe it spent the past 4 days leaning against a wall a half a block from us.

We have a busy weekend coming up starting with Colin and Chloe's school Christmas Concert on Friday. Saturday, we will be taking part in a 5K Santa Run. We are given a full Santa costume to complete the race in. Should be interesting. We will take lots of pictures!

Weekend of Sinterklaas and Craig's birthday

Although we had big dreams of going to Germany to see some Christmas Markets, we ended up staying in Antwerp because of the weather. The past week has been very snowy (for Belgium) and bitterly cold. We didn't think it was right to bring the kids out when the high tempurature was only going to be in the teens.

We ended up going out to a casual dinner on Friday with a group of friends then went over to a bar that had been advertising that Sinterklaas was going to make an appearance at 11pm. Sinterklaas turned out to be a she and did a striptease. She really liked Craig and I will just leave it at that. It was really funny!!

Saturday, we spotted Sinterklaas and 2 of his Piet's across the street at the bike shop. The kids were so excited!Chloe loves the Zwarte Piets. Or as she calls them, Cart Piet. Most kids are afraid of the Piets, not just because they are scary to look at, but because they used to beat kids with a stick and put them in their sack if you were bad. I guess she is too young to have heard that version of the story yet. 

We went out again to dinner that night and guess who showed up again at the bar later. Sinterklaas and 4 Piets. Everyone starting singing Dutch Sinterklaas songs and they were greeting everyone while drinking beers. It is a lot of fun. I was surprised that he was out drinking considering I knew he had a busy couple of days ahead of him. And just as we had suspected, he paid a visit to our house late that night and dropped of several presents for Colin and Chloe. It was nice of him to come a day early so the kids were able to spend the day playing with their toys instead of having to run off the school.

Monday, we celebrated Craig's birthday. It is expected that you bring in your own cake to celebrate your birthday with your coworkers, so I broke out the Betty Crocker mix and made him a batch of cupcakes to bring in. After work, Chloe went to visit her friends while we brought Colin out to a nice restaurant. Happy Birthday Craig!