Oliebollen...

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar, Ett Gott Nytt Ar and Happy New Year for those of you living in Europe! We're still 8 hours away from the festivitites, but we fried our Oliebollen today so we're good...

The dough is rising

In our new deep-fryer

Ready to eat: Yum!

Getting ready for 2011!

This morning, the last one of 2010, I'm getting ready for a new creative year! I've cleaned the table, stacked all the fabrics and re-organized my crafty/ sewing bins: Woot!

Wishing you lots of creativity

for the new year!

Horses...



Myself on Wikki, a Fjord.

It was around 30F/ -1C there, that's why my smile looks kind of frozen!



Today I got to do something really fun: helping in a long-lining training at Little Bit, the place where I volunteer twice a week. Normally I am one of the side walkers that holds on to the (handicapped) rider, but this time I became the rider. You'll notice I'm sitting on a Supracore mat, just a thin suede padded mat with no reigns or stirrups. Quite a different experience and it definitly makes you look at your riders with different eyes: what a work-out!

Mahon, a Haflinger

Zorro, a Fjord



Raffi, a Sachsen-Anhalt



On our way home we shot these pictures of the river valley along the 'Cow Road'. Gorgeous with all the snow and the sunshine!



The Olympic Mountains to our West!



Remnants of the Dutch even here:
the name of the farmer is Jake Groeneweg...



Belated X-Mas update...

This year we invited the whole side of my husband's family to join us for Christmas. Some travelled 4 hours to get here and some more even a day and a half! G. smoked two pork butts, we had made-from-scratch biscuits and more yummy items. (and beverages! see below) Afterwards we played both the Kinect and the Wii dance games to burn of all the extra calories we had consumed: Fun!

'Kids' table

Pomegranate Martini Cocktail!

Buche de Noel

Snow!

A few days late but all of a sudden we have snow this morning: Yay! Husband and son are getting ready to do some skiiing/ snow boarding up on Snoqualmie Pass this morning and I'm sure daughter will be spending tons of time outside with the neighborhood kids. I will be reorganizing my fabric stash and other clutter: Yay again!



Birdies on our new (home-made by my sister-in-law!)
bird feeder...





 A good thing the tree is still standing for

some added X-Massy Feeling!

Design...

I'm still playing around with a fun design, but haven't quite found it yet. Again, please bear with me! :-)

2nd X-Mas day: the big one!

So, first X-Mas Day is behind us now and it was spent in relative peace and quiet. The kids got the Kinect and so we decided to move the x-box downstairs for a couple of days. (bigger screen) That is some fun technology and even I and G. participated in the up and down jumping! I had to watch it with my ankle a bit though (I broke it over Thanksgiving 2009) but most of it was fine. Unfortunatly having the x-box downstairs also meant that we had to witness some Halo-gaming by C., but he also managed to find some Halo racing games in which we could all participate...

But now today is the big one: both of G.'s brothers and family (one from Utah and one from Oregon) plus his parents are coming over today for dinner, 12 people in all! The folks from Utah will be spending a couple of nights here as well so I've been busy cleaning etc. G. is smoking a pork butt (= pork shoulder) and we're making biscuits from scratch and will serve a large salad with that. Deserts will be brought in by other family members as will some Martini/ Pomegranate Cocktails: Yum! Not the most traditional Christmas dinner but that is how we like it: a little bit different! Hope you guys have a nice Boxing Day as well?!





We already set the table last night!

Fun home-made decorations...

But most important of all: my morning cup of coffee,
(in my Cirque de Soleil cup) made by my hubbie every day!

slade - merry christmas everybody

Prettige Kerstdagen, God Jul, Merry Christmas!

A Gift...

While I was writing the previous post, a car pulled up on our driveway. Wondering who it was I went outside (in my pj's) and found the dad of one M.'s friends who had driven all the way (half an hour) to deliver this tin of home-made cookies! I'm starting to feel that Christmassy feeling now! :-)

Lekker!

Cute...

I just received this Christmas Greeting from a friend of mine. I am not religious at all but just LOVE this set-up:

Christmas Feeling (or not...)

Well, it is good thing the inside of our house looks like Christmas, because outside it is just plain Yukkie! Cloudy and pissing with rain: 'pis weer' as we call it in Holland. At least over Thanksgiving we were hit by a sudden snow event which was magical. Here are some impressions:

First snow

Through the front window

Olive was super happy!



The next morning!




Magical...




And then the sun came out!





M. also appreciated the light and made her own pictures




And then the neighborhood came to life!




Great fun was had by all!



Even C. made an appearance!

Yes, so those days I was in the Christmas spirit, now, not so much. Of course it shouldn't depend on the weather, but snow definitly helps doesn't it?! 

Floods...

A little over a week ago we were inundated by lots of water in our area. In fact, the 'Cow Road' was the only usable option for us for a few days. I made some pictures along the way:

 

Thank goodness all the waters have gone down again!

Signs of X-Mas...

... around the house: (I couldn't figure out (yet!) how to place the pictures next to each other, but I thought that this was a rather creative solution...)