HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sorry it took me such a long time to write another post…
And now it seems I have too much to write about.

What have we been doing lately, since Axelle’s birthday weekend…

Alain and Axelle went on a short ski trip to Les Deux Alpes in France. They left on Friday, December 19 and came back on December 24. They had a great time. Axelle was very proud that she almost did not fall anymore on the slopes. They had a lot of snow and a lot of fun.

On December 20, I went on a day trip with Rosette and my mom and her niece. We went, by coach, to Cologne in Germany to see the famous Cologne Christmas market. I had high expectations and must say that they were not met. We got up early in the morning and only arrived by 11 am in Cologne. The weather was not of any help: rain the entire day and by the end of the day also a lot of wind. Lucky for us the sales had already started in Germany, so we spend some time in the shops. I got myself a nice jacket and a handbag on sale. My other companions also did some shopping. By 9.30 pm I was back home. My conclusion: I will not return to Germany to see a Christmas market, I think our own Christmas markets here in Belgium can compete with what I've seen in Cologne!

Starting December 24, I was also on holiday (till January 5) and so I had enough time to prepare a nice Christmas dinner for December 24. Alain and Axelle came home early that morning and did not feel like staying up too late that evening. On December 25 it was family time… we had dinner with our parents.

On December 26, Axelle had invited the girls from her class to come and celebrate her birthday. We played games, Alain made a big stack of pancakes and at the end of the day 4 kids stayed for a sleepover. They watched a fun movie and went to bed way too late. But they said they had fun and that’s what we wanted to hear the next day.

Last weekend Axelle had a sleepover at my parents and on Sunday, December 28, and we had a “tête à tête” in the sauna. We went to a very big sauna in The Netherlands (Schiedam), Thermen Holiday, were we enjoyed the good life the entire day! This was still a gift we received from our friends when we came home this summer. So thanks guys!

On Monday evening, Nadine and Kris had invited us and Axelle stayed for a sleepover (and she did the same thing on Tuesday). Since we had no kids in the house, we started a big cleaning action. We had been to Ikea to get some chest drawers and started throwing stuff out and filing other things that had been laying around since our move back to Belgium. You can say that we started this new year “clean”…

On Wednesday, December 31, we did some more cleaning during the day and at 5.30 pm we had to be at Nadine and Kris. Kris is member of an organizing committee that organizes a End of the Year party. We were very happy they invited us to go party with them…. Eating, drinking, dancing, having a lot of fun with our good friends… No pictures, sorry… did not feel like taking my camera with me.

And now the new year has started, so let me wish all of you “HAPPY NEW YEAR”, especially “AN EXCELLENT HEALTH” or “A QUICK RECOVERY” (for those who need it right now),
“A FUN YEAR WITH LOTS OF CRAZY MOMENTS, FREE OF WORRIES”, so many things I want to wish all of you, my dear friends, my family…

Here are some pictures…