Happy New Year!

After getting back home only one day behind schedule, I was happy that I had the whole week off anyway. I spent some of my free time working on the last of my Christmas cards. Of course, they are now New Year's cards and since I haven't gotten them mailed yet, they are in danger of becoming Valentine's Day cards!

New Year is a pretty big deal around the Netherlands. All the bike stores improve their winter sales figures by selling fire works. The liquor stores also do a big business. Being boring, Dennis and I stayed home and planned to be fast asleep by midnight. People were setting off fireworks all evening, but we finally drifted off to sleep around eleven. At midnight, we were startled awake by the noise of a million fireworks. We opened the curtains to watch. It sounded like a war-zone! Everyone was out in the streets with everything from firecrackers to Roman candles to professional style rockets. All the way around the house, we could see the fireworks. It went on for more than an hour.

We were surprised that the normally very reserved and conservative Dutch people would spend so much money on fireworks! In the morning, the streets were covered in red papers and other debris from the fireworks. I wondered how many people were missing fingers - but we still don't catch all the news around here!

Dennis had Thursday and Friday off work and it was nice to spend a few days just relaxing. We went to Ikea and bought some stuff for the house. We also got out for some long walks around the neighborhood. It was pretty cold, but the sun was out which is a special occasion around here. On Saturday, it was cold enough that people were out ice skating on some of the canals. It's been at least five years since the canals have frozen around here, so this was a very special occasion! The deeper waterways were still not frozen and a rain shower on Sunday morning caused a lot more thawing. But it's been cold enough since then to get everything good and frozen. People left work early today to go skating in the daylight and I expect a lot of people will take off on Friday to skate. It might be the last chance for another five years!

Dennis and I probably will not take part in the skating. While the idea of skating around the lakes is more appealing than going in a circle around an ice rink, I'm not sure its very safe. Remember, the Dutch think it's prefectly safe to ride a bike with a kid in the child seat while talking on the cell phone with no helmets on. I had one memorable skating incident in college that left me with a broken elbow, so it's not just thin ice that worries me!