Someone from my other blog asked me what 'tweener meant but I know you know: this is the week between Christmas and New Year's.
It's a hiding-place week, like where the soldiers hid in the Valkenburg caves during WWII.
Except minus a war, maybe we can whoop it up a bit till normalcy returns?
Actually, start with me 2 days before Christmas, when I took my walk around our citadel walls.
Our temps are still hovering around 40F here in the Netherlands...not too conducive to the holiday spirit.
At the inner harbor, he at least dressed for the season, don't you think?
I wanted to know if he had family with whom to celebrate?
Or had his wife died the year before...as we often see here in our senior complex?
Gelukkig Nieuwjaar and Prettige Feestdagen were everywhere.
Happy New Year and Happy Holidays, snow or no snow..
My €10 fake tree, after my first 2009 Christmas here, is still going strong.
Year after year it reminds me of how quiet she is...the Christmas spirit.
We celebrated with Astrid's Jeroen, Eva and Jaap 2 weeks before...at Jeroen's house.
Then we celebrated here with Femke and Jeannette the week before.
Quiet celebrations.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Then on Christmas Day Astrid and I celebrated our 5th Christmas here, eating out at 4 p.m.
See that overhang on our Gorinchem canal, top-right? That's our Greek restaurant.
We watched the day grow dark there, with festive lights all around...our gift to each other each year.
And then we took a walk...to see the lone man on his houseboat across from the restaurant...
Astrid set up her tripod all along the way to take time-lapsed pics...
while I checked out my new camera for hand-held night shots.
Christmas night in our inner city is so...quiet.
How many times have I said that I love our city!
How can you get more festive...and quiet...than that!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Our temps are still hovering around 40F here in the Netherlands...not too conducive to the holiday spirit.
I wanted to know if he had family with whom to celebrate?
Or had his wife died the year before...as we often see here in our senior complex?
Happy New Year and Happy Holidays, snow or no snow..
Year after year it reminds me of how quiet she is...the Christmas spirit.
We celebrated with Astrid's Jeroen, Eva and Jaap 2 weeks before...at Jeroen's house.
Then we celebrated here with Femke and Jeannette the week before.
Quiet celebrations.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
See that overhang on our Gorinchem canal, top-right? That's our Greek restaurant.
We watched the day grow dark there, with festive lights all around...our gift to each other each year.
And then we took a walk...to see the lone man on his houseboat across from the restaurant...
while I checked out my new camera for hand-held night shots.
Christmas night in our inner city is so...quiet.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
That was Wednesday. A bit of rain fell after that and then...Voilà! Yesterday, Saturday, surprised us with SUNSHINE. It was a glorious day, and like all good Dutch, we went out-n-about to welcome the day.
We drove the backroads on the dijks nearby.
THIS is for me like Christmas all year around, any day.
Even Astrid was surprised by the hunters. Pheasants? Deer?
But look at what I hunted...and found. It was Christmas all over for me....
As Astrid and I often say, it doesn't take much to make us happy!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
And now, it comes...the Happy New Year!
Here's to 2014.
If two thousand and fourteen is only half from what we had in two thousand thirteen, I am a happy camper......... Looking at these fabulous pictures, what else does one wish, N O T H I N G......... We live in a nice surrounding. Who can go out on the Christmas night (after a wonderful dinner) and take pictures and nobody is around, so quiet, so peaceful, so special.
ReplyDeleteThe weather-vanes are the cherries on the applesauce, the icing on the cake or as we say, the raisins in the porridge.
Een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar, Happy New Year........ (with many pictures to come)
I'm sitting here LOLing, MLMA. Cherries on the applesauce. Raisins in the porridge. No wonder I fell in love with you!!! :D
DeleteIndeed let's whisk this old year out the door and hope that the new year will bring a better world. Very pretty night photographs, indeed! All my best weeks are hiding place weeks. This Xmas to NYE period is the time I can't hide. Soon we will start preparing for NYE lobster party. For Xmas I gave Jane a set of funny lobster hats for all our guests. I will have to have the camera ready for blackmail worthy photos of adults with lobster claws popping from their heads.
ReplyDeleteHave a very happy new year. I know you will.
Ted & Jane
I guess you're lucky, then, Ted, if you can "hide" the rest of the year! A lobster party? Now that sounds like a fun way to bring in the New Year. HA! Have fun and don't forget to take your hats off afterwards. :D
DeleteHappy New Year to us all!
Cheers to 2014! Can't believe you're there 5 Christmases already!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Maria. Four full years but 5 Christmases, indeed. That's what happens when you arrive on Sinterklaasdag, December 5. I keep pinching myself, as you know. :)
DeleteGosh I remember the first time I saw your blog – you were moving to Holland. It is hard to believe that it was 5 years ago. Your town does look splendid at night. So you have become a Dutch girl/person/lady – you pick. Now, are you still a bit Southern? Will you eat black eye peas for New Year for good luck? We will. But even without the peas I know you and Astrid will have a great New Year celebration and much happiness ahead in 2014.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to think back to when I first met you in Blogland, Vagabonde, and I can't remember. Isn't that strange. Time. Sometimes I have no sense of it at all. It doesn't begin to make sense...except for having grown up hearing the Afterlife is timeless. Maybe we get twinges of that in the here and now?
DeleteAnyway, even though I grew up with black-eyed peas in Michigan because of my Southern dad, I never heard of eating them on New Year's day till after Bill and I divorced in Atlanta back in 1990. I suppose I could find them here in the Netherlands but it was never a tradition I acquired. But now that you've mentioned it, I wouldn't mind tasting some again. :)
And now, here's to 2014 for all of us...wondering what all is in store for us this new year!
Your Christmas sounds lovely and you got many memorable Christmas captures. Happy New Year, Ginnie. and pass on those wishes to Astrid please.
ReplyDeleteI so wish I could send you some snow . We are getting our first cold spell. It will be minus 13 overnight and all day tomorrow.
Thank you, dear Mary. We have so much for which to be thankful...even without snow. But some snow this winter would be a nice cherry on top. :)
DeleteHappy New Year to you and yours!
Happy New Year (belated). (younger) kids are back in school, college ones start next Monday. It's been a busy three weeks for me. I adore the photo of the lit up boats reflection - and what a spot to dine! Hope you got to sit in the window area!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year, Margaret. I'm sure your were up to your ears in aligators while the kids were home. What a household! And yes, we ssat in the corner of the alcove at the restaurant, with windows on two sides of us...every year. They call us De Dames (The Ladies). They know we'll be there! :)
DeleteI had never thought of it as tweener week....so many interesting and fun things to do there. I enjoyed coming along.
ReplyDeleteIt's always the one week of the year that hardly any work gets done in many sectors of society, Donna. School is out, many employees are on vacation, etc. Thanks for coming along.
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