Christmas time

I spent the first five days of Christmas break with Christa, in Holland. She has a cozy little house (renovated garage) on her parents' property and that's where we hung out when we weren't sight-seeing, visiting old friends or shopping. I've been to Holland twice before on our A-lag trips but it was nice to visit people in their homes and to do your own thing.

Martijn went out of the way to take me to see a windmill! We ducked under the electric fence and managed to scramble to the top of the base for a picture!

Martijn, Wilma and little Lovita

The Lahms live in Apeldoorn, a really cool historical town with cobblestone streets and awesome old houses. Maritzka, Christa and I walked 10 minutes from their house to Paleis Het Loo, where some of the royal family still live in one wing. I laughed when I heard the name and called it "The Toilet Palace", although Loo doesn't have the same meaning in Dutch! We took a tour of the palace, which was simple, but beautiful. The gardens were amazing!

A puzzle of the palace which I brought home with me - love it!

We stopped at Elise's for a short visit and cup of coffee on the way to the airport. It was really nice to see her again and catch up! Thanks for the lovely chat!

We took a short walk down to the River Rhine. It was surrounded by dikes which we walked along the top of. The time to the airport from Elise's apartment took 2 hours instead of 1, as anticipated, which resulted in me going through security (without checking in first and hoping that no one would notice) 25 minutes before take-off! Thank goodness they DIDN'T notice and neither did they weigh my bulging carry-on which was chuck full of new boots and shoes (that actually FIT!!), Dutch cheese and lots of stroopwafels!! Three cheers for Ryan Air!

Christa and I

Today: I'm spending Christmas this year with David and Lene, in Drammen. It's so nice to be here and feels almost like home. We are just relaxing and sleeping until lunch and working on The Toilet Palace puzzle, which is coming along nicely! I'm loving that I'm dreaming of getting a white Christmas this year and that I don't have to be back at work until MONDAY!! Merry Christmas, everyone!