Amsterdam Day 151: Idaho Day Something

Magical Christmas! So many things to be happy about. So grateful for an awesome sister who shared her cabin with us, thus saving Christmas.

We have enough snow that we are happy for a lifetime (or at least until next year). 

Amsterdam Day 145: Utah Day 1: Waking Up Early

So what do you do when your kids cross eight time zones, then wake up really early and refuse to go back to bed?

You hold a snowball fight outside the breakfast cafe and wait for the cafe to open. 

Charlie decided to wake up at 3am, which is really 11am Amsterdam time. So I guess in a way, he did a really good job sleeping in late. Cameron and Beverly were not far behind and woke up at 4am. So we took off at 5am to go get scones from a restaurant that I loved when I was in high school. We used to skip first period, often seminary, for the scones with the hot honey butter from this place. I guess I probably should not admit to stuff like this when it is possible that my 15 year old daughter could read this.  Also, scones in Utah refer to Indian Fry Bread, not biscuits like the rest of the world believes. Utah is right on this one. 

It turns out that the place does not open until 6am, so we had a little time to kill. After doing donuts in my high school parking lot (there is a whole history here with doing circle eights in the high school parking lot, a reckless driving ticket, a mess up with the the court date, and an arrest on the way back home from a college level class with my high school girlfriend - ask me later and I'll tell you the story), and picking up some cash from the ATM, we decided to have a snowball fight in the front of the restaurant until they opened. The kids had a blast as this was the first time in the snow in quite some time, since the big snow threat of 2015 in Atlanta where there was no actual snow.

Amsterdam Day 144: Longest Night of My Life

That is a dramatic title just to get your attention. I think that it is probably true in that last night was the actual longest dark in a row that I have experienced. Now officially Dec 21st is the longest night, or shortest day depending how your glass is, but since we are headed back to the states today, this is the longest night for us. 

Seriously. The sun is not up until 8:47 in the morning. The kids school starts at 8:45 so it is dark when they arrive at school. But the crazy part is the sun goes down at 4:29. Kids leave school at 3:30 so they get a bit of sun. But if I don't go out for lunch, I don't see the sun. It's so crazy. I do leave for lunch though just so that I can see the sun. I by see the sun, I mean bask in its glow from behind the clouds because I can't actually remember the last time I saw the actual sun. 

Amsterdam Day 142: Xmas is for . . .

We found this sign in the window of a store in the mall. Either there is a translation issue or they have determined that there really is a war on Christmas (and that they have to defend Christmas against xmas). 

I'm guessing it was a mistranslation since the name of the store is CoolCats. 

Amsterdam Day 140: Amsterdam Light Festival II

I thought it would be fun to give you the other side of the story about our walk through Amsterdam through the eyes of our friends that went with us. They have a lot cooler pictures. And they appreciate art more than we do. So I thought it would be fair to have an additional perspective, because I know mine is biased. Plus they have children that are well behaved.

Plus I think walking through with them helped me appreciate some aspects to the art that I would have just skipped right over. 

https://alishahagey.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/amsterdam-light-festival/

Amsterdam Day 139: Amsterdam Light Festival

So apparently as parents, we never learn. After our great experience in Gouda, we decided to venture off in to Amsterdam for another family adventure. At least this one was really close to home. And we took the whole family to spread the joy. 

The Amsterdam Light Festival is many different pieces of art done with light that they stick around the city. You can tour by boat or on a walk. Being the big modern art lovers that we are (not really), we thought this would be a wonderful adventure. So we headed of on the tram to start the journey. And an added bonus this time was that we all had our pants on when we arrived (see the previous post if this doesn't make sense). 

We met some friends, the Hagey's, who are actual art lovers, to enjoy the evening with. That part of the evening was wonderful, and we always enjoy our adventures with them. We walked around from one art piece to another art piece. Some of them were really cool. Many would have been enjoyed a lot more without children of a certain age. I don't want you to start thinking that I am not great fun for my children. I love them. I just kind of like having time away from them sometimes. 

We were really thinking that the artwork was going to be more Christmas related, but it was just cool pieces of art. We did walk a few blocks outside the actual festival area and found this cute road. After some time we bid goodby to the Hagey's and headed back home. 

But not before we walked around the corner and found the Christmas markets on Rembrandt Square. For a Vhristmas market, there is not a lot to it. But it was decorated real cute and the stalls had a lot of great food options. 

So before the kids began their mutiny, we decided to indulge in their most favorite European snack, crepes with Nutella. All of a sudden, the night became the most wonderful, magical time that we have ever had. Kids were smiling and laughing and having an absolute wonderful time. It made me happy to have children again. It made me enjoy them and want to have more (just kidding in that last part). And all this from a bit (or a lot) of sugary energy boost from the most wonderful food ever. Thank you crepes. 

Amsterdam Day 138: Gouda Light Festival

We took off for the city of Gouda (yes, the famous one for their cheese) because they have a wonderful celebration of lights an a huge tree lightning ceremony. What should have been 35 minutes in the car took just over an hour, but long enough for Charlie to decide he was out for the night. We finally arrived in Gouda, quickly found parking, and headed to the main square. Charlie was in a horrible mood because we just woke him up. Cameron then let us know that he never put his pants back on when he put on his long underwear. And Beverly was just being Beverly. Jac and Ryan stayed home with friends, which turns out was probably the best decision of the night. 

First thing we did was find an Oliballen food truck. Oliballen is a traditional winter treat, that I am sure we will talk more about on New Years Eve. I would describe it as a ball of Indian fry bread, or Utah scones, covered with powdered sugar. Pretty dang good. That kept everyone's spirits up pretty well except for Charlie who hated everything at this moment, because we woke him up from his nights rest.

We found the main square about 30 minutes before the main celebration was to begin. There was people gathered everywhere and the bells from the town hall were ringing to the sound of Christmas songs. The people were singing along to the songs, mosty in Dutch. It would have been a great Christmasy activity if Caneron wasn't complaining of the cold (because he wasn't wearing any pants that he left at home) and if Charlie wasn't so grumpy. 

We stayed for the program which was highlighted by an American Gospel Choir who sang the most depressing Christmas songs you can find. There version of Go Tell It On the Mountain, was so slow and lacked any energy (really it sounded like two separate groups were singing the same song in different keys and timing in a very trying way too much to be original kind of way). Finally, after a reading of the Christmas story by the mayor and a few not as depressing songs, we counted down in Dutch from 10, to the lighting of the tree. 

After it was all over, Charlie decided that he would be in a good mood now (after he ruined the whole celebration with his attitude) and we headed back home. In the way, we did notice that the town was lit with candles are was really charming. There were musical groups throughout the city playing Christmas that would have been so much fun, if the kids weren't monsters. 

So fun? No. But it could have been amazing if I'd didn't have my kids. And why in the world would you walk out of the house without your pants on? And what kind of parents don't notice that you are not wearing any pants?