Not much to add this week. The weather's a bit warmer than it has been, although still clearly winter. The sun is a bit higher in the sky, but I'm still feeling light deprived. All four of us seem to be sick to one degree or another.

We spent the weekend doing very little of anything. The boys went to their drama class on Saturday as soccer was canceled again due to the fields being too wet. Several small errands got done (like washing the car), but otherwise, not much to mention.

Well, time for bed. Best to get the week off to a good start with enough of sleep.

This was a very busy weekend. Not exactly what I needed to balance the working week, but fun none the less.

On Saturday, we drove down to visit our friends in the south. They are about to have their second kid, so instead of our usual walking around to see something we sat and talked over coffee and dinner. It was a good visit, and I wish they lived a little closer, but we showed that on a good day, they are only a 1:30 drive away.

On Sunday, the Younger went to a birthday party for one of his classmates. At the same time, the rest of us attending a game party. Getting us all back together was a bit of a fuss. I ended up only being at the gaming party for about an hour before I drove off to get the Younger and some dinner. We ended up eating dinner back at home later, but fun was had by most if not all of us. N and the Older discovered a new game they like and met a couple of new people. It was a good couple of days.

In between the big things, we've been playing on the Wii, reading books and doing the other typical family things from fighting to snuggling. Living in Europe is feeling less and less weird, and I'm sure we'll never be the same as we once were. But then, that's true for everyone, I suppose. I'm looking forward to our next trip back to the States in February and beyond that to our (supposed) trip to Italy this summer.

Speaking of which, we'd better go book that now before Italy gets full. (It apparently does get full around August, so we may already be too late!)

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday and that your 2009 will be wonderful.

I'm trying something new with my blog this year. I'm going to try to blog from the train on my iPod. It's not completely easy to type long messages this way, so my entries may be shorter than usual, but hopefully they can be more frequent. [Update: It hasn't quite worked out that way yet. This post was started on the 5th and is now being posted on the 11th]

New Year's Eve was quite interesting here. We had been warned by our Dutch friends that it can be a bit like a war zone with all of the fireworks going off. About two weeks before Christmas, we started getting big catalogs for what looked like professional grade fireworks. Just before Christmas, we started hearing one or two small explosions every day. On the morning of the 31st, things started to ramp up. At about 10am, we saw a dad in the park across the street showing off to his small kid. Things escalated from there until at just before midnight, there was a long pause. When 12 struck, we heard one or two bangs, but surprisingly little. But things built from there to quite impressive levels. Imagine a professional fireworks display on every major (and many minor) intersection. The smoke became so thick that it looked like fog. Things went on like this until 2am when we dragged ourselves off to bed.

We've arranged to travel back to the states in February where we'll visit my family at and around my sister's house. We'll fit in a trip to Disney World and some time on the beach. My goal is to minimize my exposure to work and to thaw out a bit. It's been really cold here. The canals are frozen enough to skate on them, something that hasn't happened since the late 90s. It really feels like winter here, and it's really cool to see the canals packed with skaters. It's like something from an old painting, but I'm looking forward to being warmer for a while.