Prevailing Dilemnas and Expat Life

---appreciating making friends even though they will move away

---giving up your job and realizing how much you miss it

---not reading too much into your neighbors' lack of enthusiasm for communication

---pouring your heart and soul into motherhood and figuring out how to recognize short-term rewards

---not resenting your husband's trips to Marrakesh, Maribel, Barcelona, Cancun, etc, etc, etc....

---making the effort to start a conversation in Dutch and getting NO response. argh!

---setting expectations without being mega high-maintenance

---picking an area of personal education when there are so many (classical music, world history, dutch, dutch, dutch, glass fusing, cooking, meditation, art history, etc, etc, etc.........)

---not wanting your kids to grow but letting them

---wanting your kids to grow up right now! and deciding what the devil it is that you really want..

-and so ends the thoughts of the day..........

Christmas in Norway Followed by Dry January

For the ultimate in an intimate, romantic, cozy Christmas holiday, try Trysil ski area in Norway. Be warned, you get up late- the sun rises after 9:00- so it's impossible to get skiing early! In the afternoon, by 3:00 pm, you are lifting your goggles to figure out why it's so dark. By 3:30 you give up and run in for a hot toddy and, of course, that's when the fun really starts! Double thumbs up!!!

Snow!

We have had a great string of luck with our winters here in The Netherlands. Ice last year and snow & ice this year! The girls have been more adventurous than ever playing out by the local pond in the dark and we've kept biking to school through most of it. It's a life filled with fresh air and rosy cheeks!