Day to Day Life

It’s so hard to stick to sensible eating this time of year and it’s just as bad here in the Netherlands as back in Canada! During the holiday season these stands can be found all over the Netherlands.   On shopping streets, train stations, tram stops… absolutely everywhere.  They are filled with freshly baked Dutch treats… and it smells sooooo good!  …

This has been such a strange weekend.  It all started on Friday morning… After my Foading of him last week (which I feel quite guilty about now) my husband broke down and confessed to me what is really going on with him and why he’s been acting so strangely lately. Over the last few months he’s been growing increasingly stressed at …

Today is Sinterklaas in the Netherlands.  Which is sort of like the Dutch Christmas, only different… The Dutch tradition of “Sinterklaas” is an interesting Dutch tradition, although American commercialism is eroding on this cultural event. Halfway through November there is a big spectacle when the Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands. Television crews await his arrival from Spain at a port where …

Argh, I just went and saw that the theme for this week’s photo hunt is LIGHTS!  I wish I’d saved this post for Saturday rather than on Friday, so I’m just going to make this my entry for the photo hunt this week! Grab the Scavenger Hunt code. Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants. As promised, it’s a new …

It’s that time of year again when I start gushing over how much I love the fall.  I did it last year… and the year before, twice even!  So why should this year be any different? This weekend we went to a big Thanksgiving dinner for an expat group I belong to for expat women in Holland.  One of the …

There’s only a week left until December, seven days until I get to turn my flat into a christmasy wonderland! Which is how long I have left to finish my tree skirt, YIKES!   I get the feeling I might be putting the tree up and adding the skirt later as I don’t know if I can cram that much quilting into the …

Did you know the Dutch are not only famous for their weed, but for their dominos too? Every year we have Domino Day here in the Netherlands, where a group of Dutch domino enthusiasts try to break the world record for the most amount of dominos toppled.  Usually their own record because they seem to be the best at it. This …

Ok, road trip is probably exaggerating but considering how long we went without a car, our day yesterday felt more like a road trip than anything we’ve done in years! We went to visit our friend Erwin who has just returned to the Netherlands after living in Germany for the past nine years.  He has moved to a place called Egmond …

Last night Xander and I were in the car on the way home from the pet shop.  We had just turned a corner when I saw a car coming towards us and I instantly screamed out… PADIDDLE!!! … then quickly smacked the roof of the car. To me, this was an instant reaction, a reflex, something I do without thought… …

When I moved to the Netherlands in 1999, one of the first things I did was visit the Anne Frank House.   Years before, when I was in high school, I went through a period where I read a lot of books about the holocaust.   I had just learned about it in history class and I couldn’t read enough about it.   …

Only 41 days left until Christmas and I’m giddy like a child! I can’t wait for the holidays this year.  I’m not really sure why since we’ll have no family in the country and all our friends are expats and will be going to their home countries, but I am!! I’m counting the days until Dec 1st, which is as …