On the beach

The sun finally came out (and I finished cooking some puff pastries in
preparation for dinner) and we are all enjoying the warm sun in the
beach. -Gerrit

Pre chistmas eve trek

Took a road trip up hood canal to burn off some energy with all the
Nyland boys. -Gerrit

A lovely shot from zoolights

Another picture from zoolights (my favorite is the purple tree with the green trunk). -Gerrit

Zoolights fun and dishwasher

The boys and I went to zoolights this evening. Lots of fun to see the light display. The boys know most of the different displays from previous visits, and they really enjoy finding where their favorite ones are located this year. Max likes the big Mt. Rainier the most (although he never says it is his favorite, it really is), and Henry always likes the 50 foot long Narrows Bridge model.

On another note, I ordered a new dishwasher today. Max and I went to Weirs to buy a fancy Miele dishwasher. It will come in on Monday. It is very quiet and energy efficient, plus it has a third rack in it for silverware, which I think I will love, but we'll see. It is the same dishwasher that Ollie's family in Belgium has, and I am smitten with the idea of a rack for the silverware instead of the little tray at the bottom. Should be better for big spoons and such, I'm hoping. My Grandma Lois had a cool dishwasher with the silverware tray in the door that I always though was a nice design.

A couple of months ago, I took Henry dishwasher shopping. Very interesting how the two boys are so different. Henry and I compared the diswashers, looked inside each one, understood how they worked, how many racks they had and how they were setup, and figured out which we liked best. Henry was quite interested in how the wheels on the racks worked (he liked larger, multi-wheel setups best - he even asked me what the wheels on the main rack looked like in this one, which I of course paid no attention to since he wasn't there, and couldn't answer). In contrast, Max looked at a few different dishwashers, then spent the rest of his time in the model kitchens with me, pretending they were restaurants, and he was either the cook or the customer.

-Gerrit

Rides

Ian wanted to go again and again and again!

More market

Leslie and Ian on a ride

The market in Aachen

Sarah and Ian

After Ian's nap we went to the Aachen Christmas Market.

Janet by the community pea patch

Not much going on right now but there are lots of leaks wintering over.

Home for lunch

We brought all the good stuff home.
Isn't it pretty?
Sarah

Pastries

The same shop now for the pastries
I think I have died and gon to food heaven!
Sarah

The same bakery makes chocolates!

The patissier

Next to the veggie shop is a fabulace bakery. We brought a tiny tiny
Cake fo lunch and some small sausage stuffed croissants and a small
quiche with meet and veg. Yum

Flat Stanley with veggies

Veggies

This am we walked to Leslie's local veg shop. The food is beautiful.

Flat Stanley has made it to Maastricht

Henry has a class project. All of the students have mailed their flat
Stanley's to friends around the world. The friends send pictures and
progress reports back to class then send him on. Our Stanley will be
going to Scotland for Christmas. Sarah

Ian eats yoghurt!

Mom in the snow

While mom and I were in the shop yesterday it started snowing!! Burr
but it beautiful.

Dinner with Andy

On Sunday, we were also able to hang out with Andy for a while. We ate dinner at a nice little Vietnamese Restaurant on Capitol Hill. -We were going to go to Julia's on Capitol hill for dinner, but apparently we arrived just before a drag queen show of some sort was to start, which apparently gets quite noisy. I thought it would be fun, but Andy said it was pretty annoying, so we found a quieter venue. -Gerrit

Building

A cool building area at the museum led to this fine creation by Henry and Max. -Gerrit

The Seattle Center House Train Layout

Here are Max, Henry and Achim watching the huge G Scale train layout in the Center House. -Gerrit

Drums at the Children's Museum

Fun playing drums at the Children's Museum in Seattle on Sunday. - Gerrit

Decorating the Christmas Tree

The night before Sarah left for Maastricht, we put up and decorated our Christmas Tree. -Gerrit

Garlands with lights hang over most of the big streets.

Tree outside a pretty church

Maastricht at night is all ready for Christmas

Our "snack"

I love pretty food. Maastricht is known for it's food.

Janet and Ian at a Cafe.

Snacks

After nap Les and Ian joined Janet and me for snacks at a cafe. I love
croquets! The bread here is so good.

A really big grill in the market.

For really big sausages

Ferris Wheel at the Christmas market

We didn't do this either but it looks fun.

Skating at the Christmas Market

We did not go skating

Ian looking for more!

Chewing

Ian eating said frite.

Ian contemplating a frite.

Posing with Santa

Frites in the square

Later we found a booth that sold all veggies breaded and fried but we
were to full.

Carousel

We walked in to the old city today.
The central square has been turned into a Christmas bazar and fair.

Here are Leslie and Ian on the Carousel.

Ian out front

Seattle childrens museum

Max, Henry and I picked up achim and are playing st the Seattle
childrens museum today. -Gerrit

Ian's new Hat

It is cold here in Mastricht so we stayed inside today.
Sarah

Victoria Video

A very short video from Henry and My trip to Victoria is here at http://gallery.mac.com/gnyland#100421

-Gerrit

Scream IV available for viewing

While it is true I have not yet finished editing the Scream III, I did finish the Scream IV (starring Henry, Max and their friend Harry) in time to wrap up as a present for Harry's birthday today. In addition to limited (um, 1 copy so far) distribution on DVD, it is posted at:
http://gallery.mac.com/gnyland#100430
I hope you can view it OK.

-Gerrit

Lunch out

Sarah and her mom left for a week in maastricht with Leslie, Ian, and
Andrew. So, Henry, max and I are bachelors this week. This morning
we went to Fred meyer (way too many people there) to get a birthday
present for harry's birthday party. We picked up Harry and Lucy to
give the Devlins time to prepare for their party, and here we are
having some lunch at Harmons. Max has the preschool stuffed animal for
the weekend, so he's excited about that. -Gerrit

Max and Henry in front of the nyland tree

Ice cream

Went fir a bike ride in the waterfront. Cold, but no wind, so it was
very pleasant. Max, unfamiliar with the concept of cold, decided on
some ice cream for a snack. -Gerrit

36 degrees at UP elemenary

GM Janet and Max on the stegosarus

Silly boys

Sorry this is the 11/29 picture

Breakfast

A breakfast upstairs before our ferry ride to port Angeles and then
back home. -Gerrit