A Holiday Message from the Kids

Without further ado:

Laurens and Anneke (as well as the Mommy and Daddy) wish everyone a Happy Holidays and "good slide" (as they say here) into the New Year!

Buildup to the Big Day

Christmas tends to be preceded by a series of events with varying degrees of quirkiness. Due to the Terrible Twosome's international background, their pre-Christmas calendar is even more packed than that of the average toddler. The winter festive season starts in late November with the traditional German St. Martin's lantern parade (the music to which has already been feature prominently on this blog). Lautje thoroughly enjoyed this occasion, marching along with his lantern tightly gripped in his fist. Little Miss Fearless, however, decided that the horse St. Martin was riding was entirely too big for her liking and refused to set foot on the ground again until the apartment door was safely closed behind her:
St. Martin's was quickly followed by turkey, gravy and sweet potatoes, a.k.a traditional American Thanksgiving. However, while Lautje certainly enjoyed the food, that wasn't what he was craving most. This is what it looks like when the Dude is anxiously awaiting the arrival of "his" guests - his friends Sigi and Heiko, and the Opa and Oma:
...and this is him literally dancing on the chairs once they are FINALLY there:
Then there was the Dutch St. Nicholas Day. Once again, little Juju sought refuge in the arms of someone else - even the promise of presents to come could not comfort her at the thought of a large man in a Bishop's hat coming knocking on the door:
Once the imminent danger of being stuffed in a sack and taken to Spain had been dispersed, however, she once again became her usual cheerful self, regaling the Opa with more or less coherent stories and anecdotes from her life:
Only a couple more holidays to go...

A Day with Aunt Stephie

As evident by the summer clothing, bare feet and, well, the lack of rain, these pictures were taken a few months back. However, this was a very memorable day for Lautje. It began with a picnic in the park, followed by the coolest thing ever, a ride on a small open train through the park of Aunt Stephie's home town:
The most doting godmother any child could ask for, Auntie Stephie's delight in sharing the big slide with Lautje almost matched his delight in actually having found someone he could guilt-trip into joining him:
And he literally could not believe his luck when she could even squeeze herself into the little baby swing next to him - a feat no other person could possibly have accomplished:
Overall, a good time was had by all...
... and charged with so much good energy, chocolate ice cream and lots of sunshine and good fun, Lautje even dared make friends with the giant teddy bear at the local department store (which, incidentally, he insisted was called Heiko - for whatever reason...):