We just finished having our second Thanksgiving celebration. The first was on Thanksgiving Day with our family. I ordered a turkey at the Albert Cuyp Market a week before hand and picked it up the Wednesday before. This was my first attempt at cooking a turkey and it turned out really good! Matt was able to be home around 4 which was so nice.
Yesterday we hosted Matt's colleagues for our second Thanksgiving. We didn't have to do much though because everyone brought a side and the turkey was ordered already cooked. It was SOOO good. We had about 20 people and had such a nice time.
We hope all of you had a great holiday also. We really have so much to be thankful for!
Now we are getting ready for Christmas! The tree and decorations are up and some of the shopping has been done.
As most of you know, we were in Paris a few weekends ago and I am in the middle of getting that post. The amount of pictures overwhelms me. We had a wonderful time though and I am excited to get the pictures up here. One word for the Eiffel Tower at night...STUNNING!
Matt was in Germany last week and is off to Taiwan today until Christmas Eve. I would be lying if I said I was okay with it, but he has to go. We are happy that he is again going somewhere we never expected, but disappointed he is not coming home on the weekends. Weekends are really the hardest part. We are both to the point where the traveling is going to have to really slow down once we move back. He has been traveling pretty consistently for 7 years and now and it is starting to take a toll on all of us. It has nothing to do with being here...when he is working in town, the work life balance is much better here than it is the states. What makes it the most difficult is our families are not here and I have a much bigger daily support group back at home. (I miss you Gtown ladies!)
Other than that everything has been going smoothly. The rain and clouds have settled in so we are getting into a different daytime routine. The park days are fewer and fewer. How I long for the Amsterdam Summers. The best!! :)
Kaylin is doing really well at school. She had a few rough mornings...wanting me to stay, but once I leave she is fine and when I come to get her she ALWAYS wants to stay longer. :)
She had her yearly check up last week and JUST hit 30 lbs. I think Shane will pass her up with in the year. She is growing right along the curve and is doing great! Still singing and dancing all of the time! She is 3 going on 30...the things that come out of her mouth are hilarious. I was in the living room the other day and I hear over and over "You left it in front of me which is why I have to touch it" MMM...I walk in the kitchen and she is at the counter rubbing butter all over the counter because " I left it in front of her."
Both kids also went in for their first round of H1N1 shots. I was SOO impressed by how it was done. Appointments were broken down by postal code and at the appropriate time we went to something like the Expo Center. We were in and out in 15 minutes. No joke. We arrived and an attendant was directing the parking (bike of course! :) ) We walked into the building and were directed where to go. There were probably 100 groups of 3 people, one to check the paperwork, one to hold the child and one to give the shot. As we walked out each kid was given an apple and a flag. Pretty impressive how smoothly it went.
Shane is such a sweet little boy and has NO fear. His new trick is to climb up onto the couch onto the windowsill and then just walk right off. Gives me a hear attack and is told in no uncertain terms NOT to WALK OFF the windowsill. Really child. He thinks it is hilarious. He also took his rocking chair, tipped it onto its side, pushed it up to the couch, climbed onto the couch and tried to walk right onto the side of the chair. So, as you can imagine he likes to climb. He also says "I do , I do" when he wants to do something. He is really talking a lot.
No pictures this post, but a lot in the next!
