My intention was to send out x-mas cards but I have had no time nor energy to do so the last few weeks. I even attemted to make a nice x-mas card photo, but as you can see below that didn't really succeed..........

Instead I have donated the money I would have spent on cards and postage to Unicef.

The twins Stijn and Loed, Diederik and Diederiks girlfriend Fay really enjoy relaxing in the sofa at Stijn and Loeds house after running around playing, fighting dancing and kissing.

Oscar is growing up fast, he had his first half day at the cresche today and it went so so. He was not too happy. Friday his will have another trial day and the 2nd of January when I start working again he will hopefully LOVE IT.....At least I will only work Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Diederik really loves it there, when I drop him off he runs in to his friends before I even have time to get Oscar out of the bakfiets or car. Hopefully Oscar will feel the same about it very soon.

Sinterklaas is here, and Diederik is sitting infront of him dressed up like one of his helpers. The offical date for Sinterklaas is the 5th of december and this will of course be celebrated with singing, presents and pepernoten.

Alice, Melissa and Ed are here to celebrate Sinterklaas as well. Here we have the two cousins busy getting the children ready for bed.

Today was a very relaxed morning for me. After getting up every hour during the night because Oscar was crying I forced Jan Mark to get up when Diederik woke up so that I could sleep. It was my turn to take him so that JM could sleepin but after being alone with both the boys and Dallas for 10 days while JM was in China and then again last week for a couple of days when he was in Italy I just neded to sleep, to function as a "normal" person. It is a lot harder work to have two children so close in age than I had imagained and not to forgett the dog. I love them all more than words could ever describe but my gosh it is intense! Diederik is very "inventive" especially if I don't have time to give him the attention he wants when he wants it, because I'm for example busy trying to change Oscars dypers, cooking, or even just going to the bathroom. During those moments he can make a ladder of the drying rack where I'm trying to dry clothes, or take the end of the toilet paper and walk with it as far as he can before I catch him doing it or until the paper on the role is finished, or pull Oscars hair, or lay on top of Oscar or bite Oscar or chase Dallas or pull everything out of the kitchen draws or climb onto the kitchen table or or. I can go on and on.

Making sure Diederik doesn't hurt himself, Oscar and or Dallas means I have to be alert all the time.

Apart from being very inventive and active he is very sweet, He will come close to my face and point out my nose, my mouth, my ears with his often sticky fingers and then give me a kiss and a hug, or hug my legs or give Oscar a kiss and a soft pet on his head. Those are moments of pure happiness and joy. Often you will hear him sing "ia ia o" out loud from the song "Old McDonald had a farm ia ia o" .He also loves sitting on your lap with his bottle and his beloved "elky" while me or someone else reads him stories.

Anyway back to today, so I got up and JM got dressed and ready for his hocky game. Before he left for his game he walked with Diederik to visit our neighbours the goats, hens and ponys, there he bumped in to Siemen who also had taken his two sons Stijn and Loed (twins) there. Siemen and Roos are married and live with their twins on our street. Roos and I met eachother one day in the village and just smiled at each other and started talking. We "klicked" right away and it turned out that we lived in the same street. Stijn and Loed are a few months older than Diederik and they have a lot of fun playing together. Even better JM and Siemen also really like eachother. I would not have enjoyed living here as much as I do without them. Anyway, back to today, after JM left for his game, me and the boys went back to Roos and Siemen house. They make fantastic caffe lattes and while I was enjoying mine with Oscar sitting in my lap, Diederik was busy playing with Stijn and Loed. Roos made rice porrage for the boys for lunch and when we left Diederik was so tired from playing that he fell asleep before we had made the 3 min walk home. This is taking me so long to write. It's long passed my bed time so I have to stop now. Good night.  The pictures are of Loed and Diederik, Oscar, Siemen with Stijn and Jan Mark in his hockey outfit with Diederik, and Loed Diederik and Stijn eating their porrige.

His first taste of "real" food was potatoes, not exactly love at first taste but a very small amount went down.