Thanksgiving 2014

This year for Thanksgiving the three of us decided to go to London. Brent and I had each been separately, and wanted to go together. Plus our friends Sam and Dan moved to London this past summer and it was a great excuse to visit them. I really love London and any excuse to go is a good one :)

We left on Thanksgiving and unfortunately all three of us woke up that morning not feeling great. We powered through and got to our hotel. They were having a Thanksgiving dinner there and we all ate a little bit and were in bed embarrassingly early. We knew we wanted to feel better for the rest of the trip and that night of sleep really helped all of us.

Trying to enjoy a little Thanksgiving

Crammed in the tube!

We started our day with a walk over to Buckingham Palace

Saying hello to the Queen 

Elliot's new thing when taking pictures

A perfect London shot

After walking around a lot of the London landmarks, we made our way over to Covent Garden district. It was all decorated for Christmas and they even had a Santa! We had lunch at the Jamie Oliver restaurant and enjoyed reading an English menu!

Someone is excited for his lunch

One of the best cookies ever!

Covent Garden Santa- Made from legos! 

Our walk back to the hotel through Hyde Park

That night we met Sam and Dan for dinner. Elliot and I were only there for a little bit of time as it was way past his bedtime. Overall, our first day in London was great!

Sinterklaas

We've had so many events lately that I need to write up about and really hope to get a bunch of them down this weekend! But I have to jump ahead of all of those and write about last night.

While we were eating dinner last night we heard a loud banging on our window. We were all a bit startled and so B went to check it out and when he opened the door he was greeted by quite the surprise. His employees dressed up as Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet(Black Pete) as a surprise for us and Elliot. It was seriously so funny and super sweet of all of them to do that for us. Elliot was a little unsure of them at first but as soon as they started giving him pepernoten(traditional little such cookies that Zwarte Piet throws around) he was ok with them all. There is a lot of controversy right now over the Zwarte Piet and if it should be changed. I'm not going to weigh in on my thoughts but we definitely got the true Dutch experience last night. Hopefully, the pictures don't offend anyone and keep in mind it is the norm here.

Approaching Sinterklaas

A little unsure

Presents for Zwarte Piet

He loves his train set 

Finally a smile!

Group shot

I can truly say I think we have experienced just about every "Dutch" thing now!

Weekend Fun

Happy Monday I mean Tuesday! We did quite a bit this weekend but it still felt like a relaxing weekend. Isn't that the best? We had been planning on driving up to Northern Holland on Saturday but the weather was terrible and there would not have been much to do indoors. Since we were all ready to go early in the day, we headed into the center so we were there right when everything opened. We did some Christmas shopping, ate lunch and then made our way over to the train museum. Elliot and I have been multiple times but Brent was a first timer.

Playing with the gears

Hi Mama!

My little conductor

Playing outside 

On Sunday it was Sinterklaas parade time. I've written about our previous parades here and here. The weather was really rainy and gross but with this being our last holiday season living here we were determined to go. We went with a few other expats and their kids. Elliot didn't quite know what to think about it all. Or maybe he was just tired because it was nap time :) 

Zwarte Piete

Trying to stay dry and warm

Elliot waving at Sinterklaas

Lots of people braving the rain

Kingsday 2014

This past weekend we celebrated Kingsday. I've talked about our celebrating Queensday the past two years here and here. This year we celebrated with friends of ours at a park in the city. The weather was wonderful and Elliot loved spending the days outside with everyone. We parked ourselves right on an open piece of grass right across from the packed park. It was the perfect mix, we got to see all of the action but had plenty of room to relax.

I had no orange so thankfully Elliot and Brent pulled the weight for our family

Celebrating Kingsday and our sleeping babies

Part of our group

Elliot and Auntie Mel

Loving Kingsday!

Bente was going in for a kiss

Family in the city

Don't worry, it wasn't open :) 

The men and their babies

Christmas Recap(Only 3 weeks late)

We had quite a few Christmas celebrations this year. The weekend before we headed to my parents house in Melrose to celebrate with my family. We of course forgot our camera but managed to get a few pictures of Elliot opening presents on our phones.

First present-mama got a little emotional :)

Elliot got some great gifts from my parents and my sister(his godmother) and of course at first he was more interested in the wrapping paper :) We exchange names with my parents and siblings(and in laws) . A few years ago we started a no gift card policy and its fun to see what everyone comes up with for each other. I got a shirt that I love from my sister in law and Brent got a new shirt for soccer and toiletry travel bag from my mom.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Brent's parents house to celebrate with his family. We had the traditional Anderson family meatball dinner, the Christmas play and presents. Elliot got to be baby Jesus in the play since little baby Hugh wasn't there. It was pretty cute.

Litte E and a big tree

William, Sam, Elliot and Ryan

First Christmas as a family of 3!

Getting ready to be baby Jesus

Looks like he is waving

Baby Jesus didn't want to be in the manger anymore

Elliot once again was given great gifts from Brent's parents and his cousins who had his name. He got pretty tired during present opening and crashed until we went home. Next year he'll be running around with all the other kids!

Christmas day we drove up to my grandpa's for lunch and came back home to our house after for dinner and present opening with Elliot. Santa was very good to him this year. He got a personalized suitcase, a monogrammed chair and some smaller things in his stocking.

He loves his chair! Such a big boy!

He knew exactly what to do with the toothbrush in the package, so advanced :) 

Loves his links too!

We had so much fun celebrating Christmas in Minnesota with our families this year. It is such a different and wonderful experience to have a child when celebrating the holidays. It really has become about making memories and all these times special for him, with a few goodies in there for us adults too :)

Have a great Tuesday!