Our Christmas

In working with my pictures today, I found many of them that I haven't had the opportunity to discuss on the blog.  

Just in case you weren't with me in December, we went on a Rhine River cruise that ended in Amsterdam during the week of Christmas just in time to celebrate with the Expat kids.  We had packed light for such a long trip.  Their apartment is a little bigger than a studio, but they didn't take much with them when they moved.  What I'm trying to say is that this Christmas was different from any other by a long shot.  We thought everything would be closed, but it wasn't.  A few things were open.  Christmas is followed by Boxing Day, and it was about the same as Christmas Day.  Not knowing what to expect, we just planned the day inside.  We went straight over to the apartment when we got up, and the daughter in love had a fabulous breakfast with pastries and fruits.  Since I have never been a coffee drinker, I was treated to a local hot tea with a fortune cookie tag on the tea bag.

Great way to start my day!  

Since we had been shopping the day before, we decided on a new tradition.  We thought we were too mature (i.e. guys wouldn't cooperate) for Christmas pajamas, so we decided on house slippers.  They had to match, and next year we will be wearing our Netherlands Christmas slippers wherever we are.

Our hosts had prepared the heartiest and most delicious chicken noodle and vegetable soup with fresh cheeses, meats and crackers for lunch.  We absolutely chilled all day, with a few traditions thrown in for good measure.  I insisted that we take some Christmas pictures.  I had everyone's attention for a short while, then -- well, it just got out of control. 

 

I didn't promise explanations for these pictures.

Then they let me be the tall one.  I didn't realize it was such good preparation for going to the Philippines the next month.

This was supposed to be "attitude."  Apparently, the rancher doesn't have any.

He tries.  He was born bashful.  Sorta.  
We should title that one, "jazz hands."

Like I said, no explanation for most of these....

Okay, there is some clarification required here.  The rancher is photobombing the pic with a tiny Babybel.  The student is holding a pussy willow branch as if it were a weapon.  D.I.L. is holding the Die Hard full box set with her face as the other half of Bruce Willis' face.  And I just have my guns out because we are getting ready to watch the movie.  It's a family tradition, to watch Die Hard on Christmas Day.  Please don't judge.  The first movie in the set started at a Christmas party.  That is how it was explained to me, I didn't get it either for the first few years.  Eventually, the boys would yearly watch all three on Christmas Day.  
We opted for one this year, because there are now four films in the series.

This is the view out that window we were standing by in the pictures.  It turned out to be a really beautiful day, and the rancher insisted on going for a bike ride in this land of bicycles.  So off he goes.  About two hours later, it is starting to get dark, and we are wondering if we should worry.  He has a pretty good sense of direction.  But no cell phone.

Yeah right.
  Notice the darkness?  And the flash?  He wasn't worried.  
Why would we have been worried?

The movie theater (Pathe´) was open, and we had bought tickets (pretend like they aren't blurry) online to go see Captain Phillips.  Some movies are in Dutch and have English subtitles, and vice-versa.  Our multi-lingual leader had the correct tickets for the correct language at the correct time.  Off we went to finish our most non-traditional Christmas Day ever.  It was great!

Our Christmas