MERRY CHRISTMAS!

we love and miss you all.. have a very Merry Christmas!

who's dumb???

i OBVIOUSLY didn't proofread my first post from today.. or i would have realized that erroll's birthday is not the THIRTEENTH... its the TWENTY THIRD... TODAY.


Duh.

Happy Birthday Erroll!

hello all!

Today (12/13)is Erroll's birthday, and tomorrow (12/24) is his mom and aunts birthday, so tonight.. is an epic triple birthday party here at Erroll's parents house.

Look for pics soon!

we miss and love you all!

December is a crazy month..

Hey everyone.. so here we are.. we have been here almost 7 weeks, and we will be home in almost 4. wow.

December here, is full of some crazy things! First,the very first Sunday in December is traditionally the day the farmers blow the Christmas Horns in the park. Its a very old practice that farmers used to communicate in the dead of winter when it was impossible to travel. If there was an emergency, that was also the way the farmers contacted each other for help. Now they just do it to keep up the tradition.

Secondly, its Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas), which is the Dutch more than equivalent of Santa Claus. He comes from Spain, dresses kinda like the Pope, and gives presents to kids on his birthday, which is December 5th.. hence.. St. Nicholas Day.. which, the Dutch just call 'Sinterklaas'. There are some similarities to Santa, but Sinterklaas wears different clothes, comes from Spain instead of the North Pole, rides a horse instead of a sleigh with 8 tiny reindeer, and his helpers are all named Piet... no elves. and, the piets have other names that say what they do.. like.. Chef Piet, and Elvis Piet, and Magician Piet, etc. the Piets are all called Zwarte Piet if you aren't sure which Piet they are. Which is 'black piet' on account of how they are Spaniards, and all covered in soot from going down the chimney to deliver the presents.. which go into your shoes.. not stockings, and you have to leave hay or carrots for Sinterklaas' horse.. Amerigo. And if you are bad.. you get salt. or.. if you are really bad.. you go into Sinterklaas' sack and he takes you back to Spain. I know.. horrors :) The kids here are very very into it, and so are the parents. Most households get a visit from Sinterklaas and one or two Piets, and they have a list of the good things.. and bad things that concern each child, and the child has to talk to Sinterklaas and tell him whats going on, and then they get a gift. but, after the gift, they have to sing a song (a specific Sinterklaas song) to Sinterklaas or give him a picture they drew. Its very serious. They also have silly Sinterklaas parties for adults.. when you treat it just as seriously, and sing your song.. but mostly its just an excuse for people to make fun of everyone via Sinterklaas. I didn't know any Sinterklaas songs, so I made Erroll sing ours. Heeheee!

After Sinterklaas, comes the beginning of Carnaval. Its an old old tradition.. that is incredibly hard to explain. especially since I don't totally even understand it. It has its roots somehow in the same thing as Mardis Gra..but it lasts three months here. And its.. wild. There are different clubs in each city, with different names, and there are costumes and secrets and rules and suprises and parties upon parties upon parties. I have a few pics from the Heutinkkrekkels (the club Erroll's parents belong to.. Erroll used to be involved a lot as well) (oh yeah.. that word means.. grasshoppers.. hahaha) party where they annouced this years prince. Every club nominates a Prince every year. Erroll was this clubs prince in 2000--2001.

Make special notice of the ridiculous amounts of velour and feathers...

Then, last Sunday the 14th, we went to have lunch with Erroll's cousin on his dad's side, Jessica. Erroll hadn't seen her for serveral years, and I had never met her. She lives about an hour away from Enschede, and she is married with a little baby. These pics are here as well.

WHEW. and coming up... a Christmas market in Germany.. possibly a soccer game.. and Erroll's birthday and his mom's birthday too. not to mention.. Christmas and New Years!

More to come soon!

how longs it been since i posted? well neighbor.. thats too long.

crazy week!
pictures forthcoming...! it was Sinterklaas.. the Carnaval, and thats two of the biggest parties i have ever seen.

i will post pics.. soon!

our little trip...see you next fall...

How 'bout some pictures?

thats what i thought~

I'll refrain from a lot of chitty chatness.. and get right to it. hope you enjoy!
mouse over the pics if the caption looks too short.. some of them might not fit!!

Paris

we made it to Paris! Erroll very skillfully navigated us through the wretched traffic to our hotel... (DON'T LAUGH.. the Hilton, Paris. ...wait for iiiiit..) which we got on priceline.. for a STEAL.. and then we went for a nighttime walk to Notre Dame. lovely! tomorrow.. we are having more fun and more good times.

we miss you all.. look for pictures!

sneaux.

FIRSTLY... there will be scads and piles and veritable mounds of pics.. but not on this post. but soon, so check back!!


We left Enschede at 4:30am last wednesday, and after a scenic drive through a section of Germany, we went to Strasbourg, France, the town that popularized the modern idea of the decorated Christmas tree! And is the seat for the Parliament of the European Union. It was a very old and picturesque town. The Cathedral du Notre Dame there has the oldest stained glass windows in Christianity. It was beautiful. There were inscriptions from and areas of the church from 400 A.D. i was really overwhelmed that people spent so much money, labor, and time to build a monument to God. ( i know, i'm ignoring all the corruption and taxing the poor to starve them to build a church history.. and choosing to see the cathedral in its purest form.)

Then, onwards to Chamonix. Chamonix held the first ever Winter Olympics, and is in the valley of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain peak in Europe. the town is cute, the people are very French, and so are the fries. :) Its cloudy today.. but you feel so small when the sun is shining on the pointy tips of these huge mountains. the pictures can't possibly do them justice. but.. being the photo fiend that i am.. i attempted it anyways. keep your eyes peeled..

Saturday, we went to Aosta, Italy through a 6 mile tunnel that cuts through a skinny part of the Alps to join France and Italy. Aosta has been called "The Rome of the Alps" and its because it was a hotly contested border town that had a large Roman garrison back in the day. and i do mean back in the day. like.. 23 A.D. and such. There were ruins of an amphitheater, several castles, lots of beautiful churches, an old watch wall, watchtowers, a footbridge (one of the oldest in the world), and they were currently excavating what they just found, and believe to be a learning center/library/debating hall. wow! it was awesome to see all that history. Another claim to fame for Aosta, is that it was home to St. Anselme, the first Apologetic (a person who puts theology and doctrine into practical practice and words to explain and argue for the existence of God) of the early church. There were lots of 'via de la st. anselme' and statues of him. It was a gorgeous town and it was also maybe the coldest wind i have ever felt!

Sunday, we went to the Mer Du Glace, the glacier in the Alps. and that was amazing as well... to see all that frozen ice and see how it has been carving up the mountains. and.. I need to revise and earlier statement i made.. the wind was colder on the glacier than in Aosta. pardon me. it was ridiculously cold! and stupidly expensive as well. $4 for a styrofoam cup of coffee. yikes. but you are so cold, you would pay even more than that.

Today, we are snowed in a bit, so its soup and fire in the fire place.

Tomorrow, we head to Paris! let me know if you need anything :)

miss you all!!

Dag!
Aurevoir!
Arrivederci!
Bye!


it sneauxed (har har har) 10 inches last night, and there should be more tonight. wow.

Rijs Tafel

ok.. thats RICE TABLE... and wow. we jsut had that for dinner. its Chinese, and its supposedly for 2 people.. and it fed all 4 of us and there was.. about almost HALF left over. its, fried rice (nasi), lo mein (bami), some pork on a stick (sate -pr:sa-tay) 2 chicken and vegetable dishes, some fried egg dish, a steak dish, a vegetable dish, some pork meatballs, and a vegetable salad dish. wow. amazing taste, my mom would flip out, she loves Chinese food. I think they call it a rice table, becuase its.. a table-full of rice, and that ain't no joke.

Tomorrow, we go again to the market, and to the grocery store, then to Den Haag to get Josh and Cara, then, wednesday..... to FRANCE (frankrijk) ! I'll post some pics tomorrow, then hopefully.. some more from our road trip to france.

miss you all!
groetjes! (greetings to you)

as promised.. a picture post.

partly poker, partly people, partly party-ing, and partly perspectives...but a picture post nonetheless. there.. lovely alliteration if i do say so myself. i think i'm going to have to figure a way to slip the word 'alliteration' into every post. because i'm a nerd.

ok.. enjoy these pics.. they should have captions.. if not and you wanna know something, just ask! roll your mouse over the pic to see the caption.

These pics cover.. a couple days around the house, some of the neice and nephew (Linda and Tygo), some of the town weekly market, some poker, and some of a birthday/graduation party that we went to.

tot ziens~
(see you soon)

i know i promised pictures

i will post pics i will!! i have some party pics and some kid pics and some.. well i forgot. anyways.. keep checkin back!

today we stayed home and didn't really do much.. it was pretty cold. tonight we are playing RIVETING with erroll's parents. they invented the game after all!

tommorow is 'Markt Dag' (Market Day) and we are going to browse and see what we can see. i'll try to add that to my giant pic posting that i keep promising. (hmm a promised pic post... nice alliteration! i think i like doing that)

tot schrifs~
(write soon!)

earaches.

so today my ear was really hurting. like my neck and head too.. it was weirdly sensitive.. like i had been slapped really hard and my skin was all tender.how annoying!! i'm never sick at home.. we're on a european vacation for 10 weeks, and i'm all ill. arrrrrgh. i'll be better soon.

tomorrow is our anniversary.. wow three years.. seems like longer.. and shorter.. all at the same time. i'm so happy to be married to erroll. he is exactly what i needed/wanted. God is so smart :)

I have some pics of the last couple days to post.. get ready :)

love, us

garden centers...rain ...and us

So we went to a couple of stores.. they call them 'garden centers'... but its not at all the home depot image i'm sure your american-ish brain has conjured up. its more like.. Michaels times a fancy Garden Ridge times Urban Outfitters home.

and wait for the celebrity sighting.. of indiana jones.

Its a quiet saturday in holland...but tomorrow.. we are going to a graduation from police school/birthday party for a friend of erroll's that i have gotten to be friends with too. so... look for pics of that :)

quesadillas and rooftops

so.. i thought i would post the view from our room at the top of erroll's parents house. beautiful huh?

last night we made quesadillas for the parents, and .... althought we had no mexican cheese to use in the filling, semi-normal tortillas, baseball concession stand nacho cheese, and .. questionable nacho chips... we triumphed and served some very very respectable mexican fare. I even cobbled together some pico de gallo. all in all.. victory!

Today erroll is helping his dad with a heating/AC repair job somwhere in the city. Tonight we are headed into town to look at a couple of cool shops, and to have coffee in cute little cups at some cosy cafe. hmm.. not a bad alliteration job.. if i do say so myself.

tot ziens~ (see you soon)

These are some pics from our weekend! the weather was totally dutch.. rainy and chilly. but there were still some fun times to be had... indooooors. :) We stayed at a park thing that had little houses, it was fun.. but very very windy narrow hilly roads. and all the houses look the same. so.. needless to say, erroll and i were lost.. pretty frequently. not my fault. ok ok.. my fault. !

Holland for two and a half months!

Ok, so we were kind of anti-blog for a while... but at the vigorous behest of my family and some friends... we caved. i know i know.

We are in Holland visiting Errolls family until January 12th.. so we will be posting photos, and updating everyone on our.. super awesome times.
I know you all can't wait. :)