Christmas Morning

Here are some pictures of us Christmas morning. Rachel enjoyed unwrapping presents this year. She can be pretty silly sometimes about trash. As she unwrapped her presents, she was rather quick to throw the paper in the trash. It made the clean up easy for us! It also made it seem like we had a ton of presents, because it took forever to get them all unwrapped. Santa brought Rachel a rock, roll, 'n ride trike. Right now it's in the rocking mode and she loves it. She calls it her "geico", which is her word for motorcycle. We missed not being with family this year, but it was also nice to have our own little Christmas.

Christmas Cutie

Cologne, Germany

The weekend before Christmas we took a trip to Cologne, Germany. We went with two other families and had a lot of fun. The only disappointing thing was that Rachel didn't get a stamp in her passport. :) We need proof of all the places she'll see while we are over here. We went to check the Christmas markets out, which are basically a bunch of booths with food, crafts, and other stuff to spend money on. I think our big purchase was an ornament! We also saw the Cologne Cathedral - Germany's greatest Gothic cathedral. The foundation stone was laid in 1248 and it was officially completed in 1880. It was pretty amazing. The biggest challenge of the whole trip was staying warm. It was quite cold and everything was outdoors. Rachel was a trooper. Enjoy the pictures!

The moms and kids in front of the entrance to the Christmas markets.

Rachel's first carousel ride. She loved it! I think we spent more money on rides than we did on souvenirs. Cologne Cathedral

The Happy Family

Our New Home

Here are some pictures of our new home. We have basically cut our living space in half. We miss our house in Texas, but this is home for now. Andy picked it out all on his own and he did a good job. It's close to shopping and there's a park just down the street. Definite pluses! :)

Our living room. We have a better TV here than back in Texas. I'm just looking on the positive side!

I did a 180 and took a picture of our dining area. We finally have a table that can sit 6 people. We just had to move overseas! :)

Around the corner from our dining area is our teeny kitchen. It's quite functional. Everything is built-in - fridge, dishwasher, etc...

Our backyard - Andy doesn't have to spend hours working on the yard every Saturday and there's enough room for Rachel to play.

This is Rachel's room/the guest room. She's still in her crib, which is on the other wall. Cute room though, huh? It's ready for visitors!!!

Not exactly your Texas-sized bathroom, but it works. Luckily Andy and I don't have to get ready at the same time too often.

Our bedroom. This is the view from our bedroom. The canal froze the week before Christmas. Some kids were even daring enough to walk/skate on it. Not us!

Last, but not least, our scary stairs. Although they aren't as bad as others I've seen. Luckily Rachel is frightened of them and insists on holding our hands when she goes down them. No falls yet and hopefully it will stay that way!

So, there's the tour of our new place. You are probably wondering where we've stored stuff. Luckily there's some room underneath the stairs. There's also a little nook in the kitchen you can't see from the picture. We have a freezer in there and then shelves. And then in our room the wall opposite our bed is all storage space. It's a huge closet with shelves that go up to ceiling. So, that has been nice. If you see any furniture you like, just take a trip to your local IKEA store. We went there a few weeks ago to get a computer desk and we pretty much saw all the furnishings, dishes, towels, you name it...

Finally Settled...

We are finally feeling somewhat settled in Amsterdam. We have been here just over a month. The first 10 days were spent in a hotel and that was enough with a toddler! :) We finally got Internet, TV, and phone set up in our house. Everything is a bit slower over here. It only took them 4 weeks! :) Our shipment arrived 2 weeks ago and it was nice to get all our stuff. We were even able to find spots for everything. Here is a picture of our new home:

And no, the car in front isn't ours. Luckily E&Y was a bit more gracious than that! Our place is the red brick. We even have a tiny balcony off of our bedroom. It's been too cold to even think about opening the doors! :)

I have figured out shopping to some degree with the help of a friend. Pretty much everything is in Dutch, but we're figuring it out. And we've had many successful meals at home. I still have to look in the owner's manual every time I want to cook something. We have a microwave/oven combination and I need to convert everything to Celsius. But so far, so good.

Rachel has adjusted wonderfully. We had Christmas a few weeks early when we received our shipment. Every time I pulled out one of her toys, she did a cute "oooo". She was excited to get her stuff! She's a great sleeper here. On average, she sleeps 13 hours a night and then takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. There's no complaining here!

Work is the same for Andy. He is staying busy, but he's been home at pretty decent hours recently. Things will pick up soon, but such is the life of a CPA. He likes the people he works with and he has a decent commute - about a 15 minute drive. Rachel has certainly enjoyed having him around during the holidays. She is one happy girl when her daddy is around!

So, life is moving forward as usual. Rachel and I are getting used to walking everywhere. The shopping center is really close, so as long as the weather is decent, we do just fine. More pictures will be on their way...