finally an update!

15-19 october

monday morning i traveled back to den haag in time for my dutch class and that evening i was able to skype with my little sister! 

tuesday was more classes and then a fun night out with friends. but the best part of the night was when i came home and found this waiting for me at my desk! 

total score! thank you aunt manjo for all the fun surprises! i've been sharing and all my friends are super thankful too! 

wednesday was a day of accomplishing tasks and getting assignments turned in. in the evening we went to a film about prostitution around the world. it was interesting to learn about the different attitudes and what the women involved think. it was also sad to see how some people are so trapped that they already know it is the only way for their children to go. after the thought provoking film we went to get some very yummy chinese food for dinner which was fun. anytime we can get together is a great time! 

thursday was a fairly relaxed day then in the evening i headed over to meet up with the others in the school. our school has a bar in it! the attitude concerning drinking is very different here and that is especially apparent when you realize that it is even in the school! it was a halloween theme for the night and it was fun to meet new people there and spend time with friends. later that night we went out to a classly little place named Millers which was opened specially for students. it's great to explore new places especially when you can get in for free! 

friday morning i had a meeting for a group project then meet up with my friend M and talked with her until i had another meeting with K. wow do i just sound busy! that afternoon M and B and i wanted to bike to Delft because we knew it was within distance. we set off a little later than we had expected and got a little lost along the way. 

we ended up getting there right about closing time so unfortunately there wasn't much to see. 

the church and all the shops were closing so we walked around the square for a bit and then promising to come back again, set off for home. we needed to get some rest as our big trip to Italy was next! 

celebrate good times

14-16 september

this last weekend was largely an effort to celebrate our dear friend's birthday. 

i don't have class on friday so i spent the day going to get groceries and pick up a cute new dress to celebrate! {someone else's birthday is a good enough reason for me to get new clothes right?} 

at about 7 in the evening we all met up at the birthday girls apartment to enjoy the last of the no bake cake truffles and each others company.

i seriously enjoy spending time with these people. they all have their own fun personality and it makes for a great time!

all those fears about making friends - totally put at ease!

we all hung out until about 11:30 when we made our way to the international pub to keep rockin.
it was a rather interesting time there. losing people and finding them again in the large crowd that was there. it was certainly a packed building and we had a fun time. by about 1 or 2 we were feeling all danced out and we walked one of our friends home. my walking buddy and i thought we would check out one of the other places that was busy that night. turned out it was a dj contest and it was all guys that were there. it wasn't really our type of music so we headed home for the night. overall the night was a ton of fun and i look forward to more evenings with all these crazy people!
*happy birthday* my dear! i hope you had a fun time and i am so glad that i have had the chance to meet you!

the next day was a pretty relaxed day. in one of my classes we had to write a group paper and give a presentation so i met with my group to polish off the paper and to start the presentation.
that evening a few of us met in Grote Markt to figure out a plan for what to do that evening. we had a guide book to Den Haag with us and after flipping through some of the pages we thought pancakes sounded really good. the pancake place wasn't open anymore but on a whim i had gotten pancake mix the week before. talk about convient. so we snagged some syrup and chocolate milk mix and headed back to my place.
there were tunes playing while we mixed up some warm chocolate milk {college student version of hot cocoa} and a batch of the yummiest pancakes i have ever tasted! we didn't have enough plates so we simply ate with our hands dipping the pancakes into the caramel syrup we had. *so delicious*
if only i could have pancakes every night :) 

*Merry Christmas*

Whew! It has been a rather busy last few weeks so I'll take awhile to enjoy a cup of coffee at Woods with my sister and recap of all of the activities from the last couple weeks....

We celebrated Sister's *18th* birthday with a night by the fire and family games. 

The Boy and I took Brother #2 out for a night of glow-in-the-dark mini-golf and bowling. 

I think I earned my code name of 'Destroyer' with that great score. Record high! 

We kicked off the Christmas parties with a night at Grandma Dee's. 

Brother #1 with his nice new knitted hat. 

After all the gifts were opened everyone was buried into books of Ripley's Believe It or Not until we played a few games of Qwirkle.

Then a couple nights later we made our way to Grandpa and Grandma Van Dalen's family party.

A fun night playing with family ~ chasing cousins and spending time together. 

Ignore brother #1 - he hasn't learned to smile yet.

love this beautiful girl :)

there was an unattended auntie's camera so we took some lovely pictures *hehe*

Then we saw most of the same family the next night at Grandpa & Grandma York's for Christmas Eve.

We couldn't wait to open presents! 

Once again at least half the people were lost in some sort of book or checking out what they could share from someone else's pile. 

But what party is complete without a camera being unattended?

After such a fun night {tons}of laughs and food it was time to go to home and to bed so Santa could come! And as a tradition Santa dropped off a gift early ~ PJ's! 

We made it home and everyone hustled to bed to dream of sugar plum fairies and snow. Neither of which appeared sadly. But the next morning there were gifts awaiting under the tree! 

I am rather pleased with how the gifts I found for my loved ones turned out!

 Morning picture in our PJ's

We enjoyed our morning by making sticky buns and as they baked we opened our stockings. Then we ate the most delicious sticky buns I've ever tried. Then ran {well at least the kids did} to open the gifts under the tree. Santa left only a few presents for us to open hmmm what could they be? 

We got to open one which told us that we had to present some sort of clue to the parents before we could open the big gift. Inside the box we did open were a couple of puzzles. Two weren't even opened so we moved past those and poured out the one in a zip lock bag.

Refusing to be stumped by a puzzle with no picture

We slowly assembled these sections:

Sister presented our best guess that it was some sort of Route 66 road trip. Bingo! 

from here

We opened the big box to find out this summer we are going on a 3 week road trip along the old Route 66! We will travel down in an RV to start in Santa Monica, California then follow Route 66 all the way to Chicago, Illinois! I'm stoked to see parts of the country we haven't seen before and to maybe catch a glimpse of what America looked like way back in the day when gas was about 10 cents and life was simpler.

Christmas day also included an afternoon at The Boy's family get together but I don't have pictures from that. 

So that's how my Christmas went! I hope yours was just as much fun and filled with as much love and laughter :) Now all that is left is to ring in the *New Year*!