Sinterklaas and the Spanish Invasion

How are everyone's preparations for Christmas going? Things here are just starting to go into motion. The Netherlands are well underway in all of the Sinterklaas events and chocolate letters are everywhere! We checked out some of the shops last weekend and enjoyed seeing all the Christmas displays that have started going up. This weekend we decided to avoid the Saturday shopping frenzy and headed to the Natural History Museum instead. Atticus loved looking at all the neat displays and we tired out before he did! We weren't able to quite see everything so we will be back again soon.

We have a great video of Atticus laughing up a storm. We are not too sure what he thought was so funny, but it sure wasn't mommy. He is a riot and gets us laughing all the time with all the faces and noises that he makes. Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hvb2Erwvec

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. There was good food, good friends and so much to be thankful for! Our tree has accumulated a lot of ribbons already and we are excited to add some decorations to it next week.

Laura has one more exam to go and Jason is working hard to finish up his projects before Christmas. Atticus is enjoying all those cute baby things; he is turning pages in his books, "singing" along to music, playing piano keys with daddy and dancing up a storm with mommy. When he is tired of all that he winds down by making faces in the mirror. What a kid. He is an incredible blessing in our family.

Well, hope you enjoyed our quick update. Here are a few pictures of our recent happenings. ENJOY!

Love and miss you all.

The Clog Crew

Atticus enjoying a good book

He must have got to the funny part.

Atticus and daddy checking out some bones at the museum.

Atticus, mommy and a rhino at the museum.

One of many red ribbons on our tree.

Jason all decked out in his rain poncho for his morning ride to work.

Mow the grass or shovel snow....???

We have been blessed with great weather for November and everything continues to be very green (this makes up for the often grey sky!). The locals are still needing to mow the grass weekly. We've decided that we prefer the smell of fresh cut grass in November over shoveling icy sidewalks.

Things here are as busy as ever. We are working away to build up our food storage, exploring the neighborhood, and spending plenty of time with the Little Guy. For Halloween we enjoyed a lunch with some other Canadian couples who have some young babies. Atticus was dressed up as a Little Ranch Hand and looked very handsome (naturally). This weekend we will be cooking a belated Canadian Thanksgiving and have invited over another Canadian couple who missed the festivities to enjoy the feast.

Atticus is rolling over, chatting, blowing bubbles, laughing, grabbing his toes, sticking his bum in the air, drooling and teething. Poor kid, we hope some of those teeth pop through soon! He loves music and books and gets very excited about both. Here's a link to a few more recent video clips of him that we've spliced together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mr85AHosB8.

Work is keeping Jason on his toes and he is now the ward pianist and is looking forward to being able to practice his piano/organ playing again. Laura is down to the final crunch for her courses before she gets a break for the holidays. We're getting very excited for Christmas and the tree has already been set up. The decorations haven't gone on yet as we've made an agreement that we will withhold Christmas decorations until the 4th Monday before Christmas. In the meantime we will each be tying a ribbon on the tree daily. On each ribbon we will write something that we are thankful for. It is a tradition that we hope to continue each year and it will commence during Canadian Thanksgiving. By the time Christmas arrives we will have a tree full of beautiful ribbons, each representing a blessing in our life, and in the end all of those blessings are thanks to the Savior, whose birth we celebrate. We love the Christmas season!

Well, it's time for us to enjoy a peaceful nights rest *fingers crossed*. We've loaded some photos for you to take a peek at. Enjoy!

We love and miss you all.

Love,
Laura, Jason and Atticus

Our little ranch hand

Leiden City Hall

Jason showing a bicycle traffic circle. You should see them during rush hour!

Laura enjoying a fresh Stroopwafel

Little Man being cute

Sporting the fantastic hat from Great Grandma Hochstein

Already looking more grown up!

LOVE those cheeks!

And let the drool flow.

Yummmmmmm...FINGERS!