Seana's Visit

This is way overdue, but a few weeks ago, Seana came to visit. It is always so nice to have guests and even better when they stay with us. We did not make any set plans and decided what we would do the following day the night before.

I brought Seana to Brussels to see the Grand Place and Atomium. We took the bikes out in Antwerp to see the Steen castle and try some Jenever. We also explored the city a bit and ate several waffles along the way.

We weren't able to get a sitter over the weekend, so we made the decision to go overnight to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. It's a little bit of a long drive - 5 1/2 hours without traffic - but it is the perfect German town. It is the third time we have been there since we have been in Europe. The town is filled with Japanese tourists. They loved Chloe (I think because of her blonde hair) and many asked if they could have their picture taken with her. It was funny and weird at the same time, but I knew it was innocent in nature. Saturday was Seana's birthday, so we eat spatzle and drank champagne and pils to celebrate. Earlier that day, Craig had met a man from PA who had been living in Rothenburg for the past 20 years. He spotted us a dinner and proceded to hang out with us. He was a little creepy and we thought it was funny how he seemed to forget English and struggled to find the right word. We nicknamed him The German Small Wonder. We always seem to attract the weirdos. While driving through Frankfurt on the way back to Belgium, the winds picked up and we had many detours because of trees that had fallen across the road. We later found out that is was a crazy storm with heavy winds that blew across Europe.

Seana was lucky enough to be headed to Paris for a week after she left Antwerp. We are so glad that she came to visit.

Chloe's Big Girl Beddie

For a while now, Chloe has been getting in Colin's bed and pretending to sleep so we decided it was time to move her into a big bed. We picked up a big little girl bed at Ikea. It only took a couple of nights before we were able to convince her to sleep in it. The first night she woke up at 4:30am, got out of bed and went into the living room. Luckily, she went back to sleep easily. She looked so cute I had to take a picture!

Fun with Blocks

Colin's version of the Brandenburg Gate -

Happy New Year - Antwerp Style

Antwerp rung in the New Year this past weekend with a free event in Grote Markt.

We met up with a bunch of our friends and walked up to check out the activites. We ended up hanging out under an awning during a brief period of blizzard like conditions. Lucky for us, the awning was right next to the tents where they were giving away soup, friets and beer. We thought it was funny that you had to wait in line for 10-15 minutes to get a cone of fries but there was no wait at the beer stall. We were all saying that would not be the case in the towns that we came from, besides the fact that they wouldn't be serving any type of alcoholic beverage at all.

The kids had a lot fun on the swing ride and eating cotton candy. We managed to get some of the large balloons they used to decorate the square. Craig said that we looked weird and that people were looking at us carrying the huge balloons. Our friend, Amelia, insisted that they were just jealous. When we got home, the balloon would not fit in the elevator. We live on the third floor, so we tied a long string to it and brought it in through the sliding glass door.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

With Colin and Craig both starting their 2 week Christmas vacations, we decided to go to Bavaria. We left on Friday to drive to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for the night and to see the Christmas Market. The five and a half hour drive ended up taking over nine hours! During our drive, it started snowing and the tempurature dropped to 13 degrees. Our windsheild wiper froze and it made it very difficult to drive. Overnight the tempurature dropped even more and was 5 degrees when we head out to see the Christmas market. It was so cold and we had to keep going into stores just to warm up. That afternoon, we drove into Bavaria to an apartment on a farm that we had rented for the next five nights.
We spent the next day on the farm because our car wouldn't start because it was too cold. The following day we drove down to Oberstdorf, the town Craig stayed during his exchange 20 years ago. A day later, friends of ours from Antwerp arrived and they watched the kids so we couple go see Neuschwanstein and Honenschwangau castles. We all met up later at the Kemptem Christmas Market then for dinner.

On our way home, we drove through Dettingen, the town where my grandmother grew up.We arrived back in Antwerp on Christmas Eve and with just enough time to prepare for Santa and everyone was very happy when we saw that he had left lots of gifts under the tree the next morning. Colin got the Playmobile Castle he asked for and Chloe got a stroller for her dollies along with lots of other goodies. We spent the day inside because it rained the entire day.

On the 29th, we were visited by the Hickeys on their way to London from Paris. It is always nice to have visitors and wished they had stayed more than one night.

On New Years, we were invited over to our friends Amelia and Rajat's to celebrate. They live around the corner along the river and have the perfect view for the fireworks.
Happy New Year!!

We have done quite a bit the past several weeks.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we were lucky to have a surprise guest for the weekend. Jules, a puppet that is passed around from classmate to classmate, came home with Colin. We are asked to bring Jules with us during our weekend activities and document them in a scrapbook for the kids to see in school. Lucky for Jules, we were able to share our leftovers from Thanksgiving dinner, see Sinterklaas, and make a day trip to the Aachen, Germany Christmas Market. Aachen is only about an hour and 15 minute drive from Antwerp. It was a very nice market and was very crowded. This is where we took the picture for our Christmas card.


The following weekend we drove to Bruges to see their Christmas Market. It was not as nice as what we had seen in Germany, but they had an ice skating rink set up in the center of the town square. Craig brought Colin skating and he did not do too well. It wasn't the nicest day and once it started to rain, they packed it in. Colin also went on the bumper cars for the first time. we were laughing so hard because Colin was wild. A few times he hit other cars so hard, I thought he was going to fly over the handlebars.





The following day was very busy. Sinterklaas had stopped by our apartment overnight and left treats and some presents in the shoes Colin and Chloe had left out for him. It was also Craig's birthday and a Christmas party for a kids group I am a member of. Colin was very exited excited to see Santa, but we were more excited because we had arranged for a sitter that night and went out to dinner. After dinner, we stopped at the bar on the corner of our apartment complex and found out the Belgian Beer Pouring Champion works there. Who knew there was such a person??







Last weekend, we went to Antwerp's Christmas Market. About every other booth sells hot wine (gluhwein) and Jenever. Antwerp also has an ice skating rink set up. Their rink was much more kid friendly and offered double bladed skates and penguins to help the kids keep there balance. This made all of the difference in the world and Colin was great! We had a sitter again that night and went back to the market. We couldn't believe that it was even more crowded, especially since the weather had just gotten very cold.

We will be going to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (again) for their Christmas Market. It is supposed to be one of the best in Germany. We will then be going into Bavaria and staying on a farm while we make day trips to several places. We plan on getting back home on Christmas Eve, just in time for Santa to come visit.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday with a traditional dinner. I can't find full turkeys here, so we had turkey breast and I spent a small fortune on a box of Stove Top stuffing and a can of cranberry sauce from the American store. We were also lucky enough to have 2 cans of Libby's pumpkin that were given to us by some friends who were moving back to the US.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!