A bit of January

When it's cold and snowy outside, you can usually find us inside with our favorite kitties.

Boys in blue and white

Ice skating in Deventer

I experienced ice skating on a real pond for the very first time during this trip! The weather had been freezing for days and during our the drive back from Texel we saw people gathered in small groups over different canals and ponds beginning to skate. It was just like a Brueghel painting. We borrowed Rein and Christa's very old skates and walked to a pond minutes from their house. Since most of my experience ice skating so far had been indoors at rinks with blasting 80s music, it was incredibly romantic to walk to the pond, sit on the grass, tie up our skates, and go. And since the last ten or so years had been too warm to skate outside, you could really see the excitement on everyone's faces. Erik said that when it gets really cold, the soup and hot chocolate stands set up shop on some of the bigger ponds.

Aside from our little trip around the pond, there's huge excitement in Holland over an event called the Elfstedentocht (11 cities tour) that can only happen when the ice is thick enough. I believe the last race was in 1996. Hope it stays cold enough for it to happen in 09!

Family photos

Spent a lot of quality time with Erik's family over the vacation. Met our nephew Julian for the first time. It was adorable to see Julian and Cedric together.

Texel

Spent two days on the island of Texel in the north of Holland. Amke and Niels were staying a week, so we joined them to celebrate Amke's birthday on the 30th. It was a beautiful place with lots of sheep, small villages and wide beaches. The most surreal thing was to visit the beach in freezing temperatures and to see how the ice interacts with the sand. Quite a sight!

Sights and such