Amsterdam - 2009

Our Boxing day adventure started out with a trip on the Eurostar to Amsterdam. This has been on the tour list and it didn't disappoint. Of course, with temperatures hovering around zero, we spent most of our time bundled up in our ski gear. We did have a really cool apartment that was just around the corner from the canal shown in this first picture. What was really cool were the boat houses. A tour guide told us there were over 2000 all around the city but they have stopped issuing permits so what you see is what you get. As we made our way around town, we were walking past this supermarket. The shelves were slightly interesting; and then we saw the cat. And yes, the box was labelled cat. And in case you are asking, of course Maggie wanted to buy it and bring it home.

No trip is complete with out a visit to the local Hard Rock Cafe, overlooking one of the canals. This one had some particularly nice mementos handing on the wall. When you think about it, I suspect a great number of rock stars like to visit Amsterdam. Favorite things to do where the canal boat tour (mainly because it was warm) and the whole family really liked the tour of the Anne Frank hiding place. This last picture is just the reminder that Vivian likes anything purple. Here is a back canal with a purple set of flats and it just had to become a Kodak moment.

The Netherlands and Belgium are famous for their pancakes/crepes. We enjoyed the Belle Helene, which was pancakes with pears and chocolate while the boys ordered the Josselyn, bananas and chocolate. Maggie chose mint pancakes with whipped cream that were green!

Christmas 2009 - getting ready

The skies were kind to us today and rains held off long enough for us to make the 2nd annual trek to Elveden for our Christmas tree. We were told today that you must name your tree after the dog that delivers it so this year, the Skelton Yuletide greenery is hearby named Fizz. This big fuzzy rug is only 14 months old and was actually the cute little puppy that people played with last year.

We did the quick selection, grabbed some roast turkey and cranberry jelly sandwiches from the cafe, and then watched the sky decide it had been kind enough so we jumped in the Volvo in time for the rains to come visiting. Kind of sad to think that this will be our last visit with the big old shaggy dogs. We then proceeded home, built a fire and are spending the afternoon decking the halls. MJ did let us know that it would be much more fun to go and cut our own tree. He is obviously too young to remember our excursions to the tree farm in Indiana where we would lay down this 12 foot monster every year and then we would proceed to yell and fight as we tried to get the way-too-big tree through the way-too-small door.

Mom and Dad also snuck in the annual PPD Christmas party. Graham and Alison shared a ride with us to the Winter Wonderland themed party. The meal was nice and the party was quite festive.