Christmas in Holland, part 3

These two look Christmasy!

Eli nearly abandoned unwrapping his own gift to check our Josiah's, since he was faster unwrapping. Silly boy.

Three interested boys checking out the book Brian just got.

Josiah watching his Opa unwrap a gift very carefully:

No matter who was unwrapping, these 3 boys were always watching. Oma shows them her new book:

Christmas in Holland, part 2

Eli was trilled with his birthday gift, although it did lead to some other upset boys. The next day, when it was time to share, everyone was a lot happier.

These little boys like to listen to stories. Here their Oma is reading one.

Merry Christmas toast!

Dad and Eli, petting Ginger:

Since it was Christmas, we had to decorate some cookies. (L to R) Josiah, Mom, Simon, David, Rachel

Christmas in Holland, part 1

I'm not really in the mood to write a lot, but I wanted to post some pictures from our recent trip to Holland for Christmas. It was really great to see family and spend some time at my parents' house.

Eli's birthday is a few days before Christmas, so we were around to celebrate it. Here are the boys with a cake made my their Aunt Lisa. (L to R) back row: Rachel, Mom, Rachel's Dad; front row: Simon, Eli, Josiah

I visited with some of my friends from high school on our first day in town.

The boys quickly discovered that Uncle Brian had some games on his phone, and never tired of playing with it.

The boys also liked visiting with the ferrets. On this visit, we practiced sitting down on the ground when the ferrets are out so no one gets squished and giving the ferrets water.

ferrets in the new place

Since we moved out stuff here a week ago, I have been unpacking boxes and doing other work during the day. Still, it seems like there are always more boxes to unpack, and I haven't been taking pictures of the house because of its messy state.

There is one exception to this rule. I am always taking pictures of the ferrets, since they are always being cute. This week, we got a humidifier because the dry air caused a lot of carpet static. The ferrets were rubbing up against the carpet and then surprising themselves with little shocks when they touched their noses on my hands. The humidifier puts out a cool cloud of water vapor. The cloud has fascinated the ferrets. Rex took an open-armed leap at it a couple days ago, and he seemed unhappy he couldn't catch it.

Getting ready for Christmas / Sinterklaas

This week, I've been in Columbus boxing up our stuff. We are moving on Saturday, so there was a lot to do. Just about everything is ready to go, finally. Last weekend, we decorated a bit for Christmas and celebrated Sinterklaas. After putting together the tree, Brian put on lights and I put on ornaments. The tree is up in the front room, where the lights can shine through the windows.

My parents bought us a pair of leather chairs as an early Christmas gift. They are lovely (and some of our only furniture, until Saturday). This picture is to show off the new chairs. :)

Cincinnati visitors

This weekend, we had our first Cincinnati visitors: my parents. We might not have our furniture, but it was still great to show off our apartment and do some sight-seeing in our new city.

This is the view from our neighboring street, out to the Ohio River. As you can see, we are quite close to the river. Our street is also a dead end, facing the river, but there are trees and a house impeding the view. The view a couple streets over is much clearer.

We went downtown and saw Brian's work building (from the outside). Right next to it is fountain square (named such because of this fountain). It was really sunny, so the camera was having a little trouble capturing the blue sky. It is a beautiful fountain, even though it is turned off for the winter. The city had set up an ice-skating rink next to it, for December. I was impressed they could keep the ice frozen, since it was in the 50s and sunny yesterday afternoon.
We also visited the Freedom Center, a museum and learning center dedicated to the underground railroad. There are so many exhibits, we didn't have time to see them all. I learned a lot about slavery in the US, modern slavery, and the work of the underground railroad in Ohio. They even have a slave pen (a building used to store newly-purchased slaves), which was moved from a plantation in Kentucky to the museum, that you can go inside. I really liked this sculpture (the slave pen is the log cabin-like structure in the background).
After our time in the museum, I walked with my parents across one of the many bridges into Kentucky. We used the Ruebling Bridge, since it was next to the Freedom Center and has a nice walking lane. It is a beautiful bridge. Designed by the same person as the Brooklyn Bridge, it looks similar to the Brooklyn Bridge. While walking across, we saw several horse-drawn carriages also making the trip.
Ruebling Bridge, with Cincinnati downtown:

Happy Thanksgiving

This year, we went to Peter and Anne's house for Thanksgiving. Peter had to work, so we had a nice dinner together after he got home. My parents are in town for the weekend as well, so we had a great time catching up with family.