Opening Our Presents, Part 1
Well, look what Santa left for Erin--a new headlight for her bicycle. No more worries about lights that won't work in the rain--we hope. Now John just needs to figure out how to install this thing. Apparently when we sent our change of address form to the North Pole, we forgot to specify that we don't speak Dutch. So, Santa only left us Dutch directions. We'll see if John is up to the challenge.
We continued our holiday tradition today by enjoying a dinner of hamburgers and french fries, complete with fancy sesame seed buns and John's secret seasoning mixture (it's really just a dash out of every bottle of seasoning we had in the cabinet).
That's not to say we didn't do any cooking today. Erin has all the meals planned out for the next week and half, and we continued in our advance preparation (this has really been going on all week). Today we made chili, sweet potatoes, and cider roasted chicken. For the first time, we've actually maxed out the space in our refrigerator and freezer.
We also found time to make it to church this morning. Erin sang in the choir so she had to be there at 8:15, which meant waking up around 6:30. This is in addition to the two services last night. Erin has had her fill of singing for the week, and while she was singing John had his fill of Christmas bread and cookies. The service was a unique and creative experience, and we're trying to figure out how to upload some video that John made. Until then, you can see the still pictures at our Flickr site.
We also managed to ride our bikes into the city centre this afternoon to check out the goings-on. To our surprise, there were several shops open in addition to a Christmas carnival complete with ice rink, merry-go-round, and Christmas shops.
In between these activities, we've been enjoying the almost-constant Christmas tunes playing on our Dutch radio (in English, for the most part). When they decide to play a non-Christmas song, we go to Plan B and download streaming audio from KLTY in Dallas.
It's beginning to feel like Christmas, and we're anticipating the arrival of John's family in the morning. They will begin their flight here about the time we go to bed, and we'll head for the airport shortly after we wake up. We'll then celebrate Second Christmas for as long as we can keep them awake. That's right, Second Christmas is a national holiday here (kind of like Second Breakfast in the Lord of the Rings). This is one tradition we are hoping will come to the United States someday. So, we're only halfway through Christmas now. Stay tuned for more of the celebration...
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