Christmas and Tuscany

We are all back to our normal schedules now after a long holiday break. We ended up having a white Christmas in Antwerp. It continued to snow off and on until about Christmas Eve. The kids were so excited for Santa. The bike shop across the street hung a decoration of a Santa hanging from a Christmas tree above their door. It was in perfect sight from the kids bedroom windows and Chloe keep saying, "Santa is watching me!". She still doesn't understand that it means she should behave. At least Colin was trying. There were so many presents left under our tree. We received great packages from Grammy, Aunt Chris, Mom Mom and Bobby and Al and Joan. We spent most of Christmas day playing with all of the new toys.

We had planned a trip to Tuscany that we ended up canceling because of our friends schedule. After talking with then on Christmas night, we decided to continue on with our plans. We managed to pack up and get on the road by 9 am the next morning. After getting caught in ski traffic in Switzerland, we made it to Milan for the night 12 hours later. The next morning, we continued on to Tuscany to the same villa, Le Torri, we stayed at in May. As before, our accommodations did not disappoint. There were just a few towns that we had not covered before. One of the towns we went to see was Cortona, where they filmed Under the Tuscan Sun. The woman still lives there a few months of the year, I never realized it was a true story. We also went to Montepulciano, which is a big wine town. New Years Eve, we went to Siena. They had a big concert going on the the main square. We were back at the villa for the New Year.Tuscany is so beautiful and Craig is looking forward to going back already. Chloe and I are not big fans of the winding roads that make us car sick. We managed to make the drive home in one day - 12 hours!

The following weekend was the New Years Toast that the city hosts in Grote Markt. Just like last year, they had rides, free beer and frites and giveaways with the city's logo. It was a beautiful day and relatively mild. We meet up for several of our friends and their kids. After the toast was over, we continued the party back at our place until that night. I was considering it a 'vacations over party' and I was happy to send the kids back to school the next day!

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!

Thanksgiving, Belgian Style and Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet

What started out as a simple Thanksgiving dinner with another American family, turned into a somewhat large celebration including some of our Dutch friends. My friends Amelia and I had been working all week planning the right menu and dividing up who would make what. Our biggest obstacle turned out to be the turkey. We knew that we would be able to order a turkey from a butcher but could not stomach the idea of having to pay the equivilent of about $8.50 a pound. I even tried to see if the food store could get one in for me but was told they would not have have them until Christmas. We were told that a German food store chain carried frozen turkeys, so Amelia and I set out to the closest store in the bordertown, Aachen to get some. We were able to buy 2 - 6.5 pound frozen turkeys for about $2.50 a pound. The next day, I almost lost it when I went to the food store down the street and saw huge fresh turkeys in the case. 

Getting dinner on the table was a little hectic but convincing 9 little pilgrims to sit down and eat was easier than I expected. Our meal turned out great and it was so nice to be able to share some of our Thanksgiving traditions with friends who had never experienced it before.

The next day, we sent the kids off to school and went to Brugge. We didn't have much time there, but were able to squeeze in a brewery tour, which we would never have been able to do with the kids.

Saturday, Campbell's hosted Sinterklaas and his 2 of his Zwarte Piets. The event was really nice with pancakes (crepes), ice cream and candy. Campbell's gave us a choice of gifts for the kids. All of the options were very nice. Sinterklaas called each child up indiviually and gave them their gift. Seeing Sinterklaas is always nice but I still find the Zwarte Piets very odd.

The Prince of Swimming and Prince Himself

Colin has been taking private and group swimming lessons since the spring. He has been working very hard everytime he is in the pool and is now starting to swim by himself. I think his teachers voice is really funny. You can hear her cheering Colin on in the background.

Monday night we went to see Prince. He just confirmed the date last week and was able to fill the 14,000 seat area in Antwerp in a matter of days. We found out that a few of our friends also got tickets, so we met up with them to take the tram over to the arena. He must have played for about 3 hours and it was amazing. I think there must have been about 7 or 8 encores. Twice, we left our seats thinking it was over and ended up going back in. It is hard to believe Prince is 52! The concert was fantastic and I hope that I will be able to see him again sometime.





On the way out, we were a little disappointed that the cops were wearing their standard hats and wished they had been issued raspberry berets just for the night. Also, a friend introduced me to Stan who she described as the rock star of Antwerp. I will have to ask around about him because Stan doesn't sound like a rock star name to me.

We were out a lot this past weekend and are looking forward to a few uneventful days.

Happy Halloween!

The kids have been so excited to dress up for Halloween ever since Craig brought the costumes back from the US at the end of September. Colin was a skeleton and Chloe was a garden gnome. The kids were allowed to dress up for school on Friday and they had a parade of costumes for the other students at the end of the day. On Saturday, we went to a Halloween party given by the parent and child group I am a member of. Colin is on a roll because he won best costume again for the second year in a row! I think that Colin forgets that kids in the US trick or treat. I am not so upset about that.

The school is closed this week and half of next week for Fall break.