Christmas Eve and Morning

Mel's favorite Christmas present: Thys's train! Although I think Thys likes it too!
Thys's real favorite Christmas present--bubble wrap!
Annie with her new "chalkboard" (and whiteboard) and guitar.
Cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.
Or cookies for Thys on Chirstmas Eve!

Christmas Traditions

As close as I could get to a nice pic of the kids with nice Christmas outfits on.

Making cookies for Santa. (Anna's babysitter made her the darling Chirstmas apron! She is the greatest find in the world!)
Anna dressed as an angel for the nativity.

Lights at Temple Square. Please ignore the fat pregnant lady who couldn't find a coat to go around her, and the two-year old who wouldn't wear a coat, hat, or gloves!
Thys's first train ride (TRAX)--he was delighted!
Annie making Christmas treats. She loves to bake!

The Tree Party

It just so happened that Sinter Klaas and the tree decorating all happened at the same time. After we decorate the tree we sleep around it, so here we are. Annie and Thys had their new PJ's from Sinter Klaas. We did put Thys in his crib, but the rest of us slept around the tree! Fun! Anna already looks forward to this party for days! She couldn't wait for all the activities of the weekend.

Dutch Traditions

One of our favorite Dutch traditions is Sinter Klaas, which was last weekend. Sinter Klaas leaves gifts in our shoes, and then leaves a bag of gifts on the porch and knocks. This year Sinter Klaas brought Build-a-Bear gift cards, so we immediately went to choose the bears. We knew Anna would LOVE it. We were so excited for Thysie because he has been fighting with Annie over animals for weeks, so we wanted him to have his own. Contrary to the pics, he had absolutely no interest in choosing, filling or anything else--until he saw the bath. Then he needed an animal. We chose his, Anna filled it, and he bathed and dressed it--in a pink shirt with sparkles. Nice.





Anna waiting for Sinter Klaas.
Thysie eating the cake Annie made for Sinter Klaas. What do you do with such a cute kid?
My banketstaaf and letters--last year I tried from scratch. This year I used puff pastry and store bought almond filling--a much better idea, although the filling leaked out, as you can see.
Mel cooked Nasi and Sate (Indonesian dishes) for dinner. Yummy!

Anna

Anna likes to sleep in her tent occasionally, but her papa doesn't think it is so comfortable for her on the floor. Here is his solution!
Anna's latest grown-up job is doing dishes. NOT that we make her do dishes, but she wants to wash all the dishes in the sink. She does a pretty good job, and yes, she did the knives. We are good parents, aren't we?!?!

Thanksgiving Turkey

Every year we follow the example of our sister-in-law and take a picture by my mom's turkey to see how much the kids have grown. If you want to see the difference, click back to last November! Thys has grown up. What a kid!