Christmas Holidays : Part 2: Aachen

Drielandpunt

The Monday after Christmas we decided to go for a day trip to Aachen. We knew all the Christmas market things would be taken down. But we just wanted to go somewhere new. We left around 10 am and reached "drielandpunt" . This in in the Vaalserberg  area with the  location of the tripoint between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and its summit is therefore referred to as Drielandenpunt ("Three-Country Point") in Dutch. This is the highest point in the Netherlands. Not so high compared to mountains in Belgium and Germany but high enough for the flat country.
















The kids had a nice morning enjoying the play area, going through the labyrinth and enjoying the scenery.  We went into the restaurant and the kids had their free hot chocolate that came with the labyrinth. It was cool for them to put there feet on three countries at the same time. 

Dutch winner for managing 3 boys

Enjoying German sausages

We had our sandwiches in the car while I fed David. Aachen was just 20 minutes from here. 


We went around the small town and found the cathedral which Aachen was famous for. This cathedral built in AD 796 and completed two years later was the largest cathedral North of the Alps. It was very boring for Elijah, which he made sure to let us know multiple times before disappearing multiple times. Benjamin tried to keep an excited face and not get it from us. There were parts that he enjoyed too. For Elijah it wasn't "cool" enough. 

After being for for 30 minutes we came out and walked the streets. We had a typical German sausage which was the high point for the boys. A little bit more walking around the centre area the kids were happy to be seeing things. We spotted a typical Aachen cookie shop  called the Aachen Printen (There were many in this small city).

The Elisenbrunnen is one of the most famous sights of Aachen. It is a neo-classical hall covering one of the city's famous fountains. To commemorate Aachen's long tradition of spas and baths, in 1827 the town erected the Elisenbrunnen, an elaborate structure with a drinking fountain and a colonnade in Friedrich-Wilhelm-Platz. A series of plaques highlight the names of some of the many famous people who traveled here to sample its curative waters. It is just a minute away from the cathedral. It used to be a Roman bath. Which was hilarious to the boys. They just couldn't believe that the water was used as a healing drink. And because of the water from the fountain being high on sulphur ,it stank like rotten eggs.  A few toilet jokes later the boys were in good spirit. It doesn't take much to get them jolly.

We headed back to the car park around 17:30. I fed David while we drove back to Eindhoven. A nice day out with the family and back home to sleep in our own beds.  

Famous for their fountains

A wool shop with a bike covered in wool in front of the shop

 

The city centre

A beautifully decorated Printen shop

At the play area

Christmas Holidays : Part 1

We started off the holidays by just relaxing. Yes , relaxing.  Being busy with after school activities and work , it was great just to have an extra lie in. Kids were happy that they could be in their pyjamas longer (If I remember right , they were in their pyjamas all day). 

Super heroes in pyjamas

Elijah had his first sleep over with his  non church friend. He had a fun time. I picked him up and we went to Ballorig (an indoor play area) directly. Other friends of Benjamin came along. They had a blast while Ellen (a close friend) and I just sat on the comfy couches , chatted and chatted away.

David did pretty well. Of course he couldn't have his morning nap in all the noise. But after feeding him lunch, he tried to nap a bit before another kid screamed near him. I realized I just need to go out more with him and if he misses a nap, I just need to find another time in the day for him to nap while I am home. The only other place he will nap other than home is the resource room in church. 

Bobby was on leave from Thursday onwards and he will be taking it off until January 4th. It felt nice to have him home all day.

On Christmas Eve, the boys and I went to the Kerst Wintercircus (Christmas winter circus)

at the Park Theatre. I have never been there and it was quite exciting to go. The circus show was also spectacular and the boys enjoyed it thoroughly. After that we made a rush to the groceries as shops would be closed on Christmas Day. I didn't have my list made yet. But I bought random stuff , in a way that these can be used for various mix and match meals. Since most of the day went with lazing around and good part of the evening at the circus, I had'nt prepared the batter for the Appam(Indian pancake with ground rice ) and not cooked the mutton curry. Naturally , I end up doing all this late in the night when everyone was asleep. These days I ended up going to bed well past 2am. But this was perfect time to do things well ahead and prepare peacefully without having to feed David, or have interruptions from the kids. I always feel guilty doing other things when the kids are awake. I rather play with them than do other stuff. But the compulsion to get things done overcomes the desire to spend time with them. It's worked its way into my New Year resolution.

Appam

Appam and mutton curry for breakfast

Christmas day, the mutton curry was ready and the appam was ready for making, without having to do anything that morning. The boys and Bobby enjoyed having Appam and mutton curry. It's quite traditional in  Kerala to eat appam on Christmas morning for breakfast. Or at least that's what our families eat.

We hurried to get ready for church and before leaving I popped the last night marinated duck and stuffings in the oven.  

Duck in the oven

The duck came out well with some delicious gravy and I had a simple carrot fried rice and salad to go along with it.  A chocolate christmas cake with vanilla ice cream sealed the meal.

The spread and the men

Wine for the adults

The kids and I

Big brother and little brother

We were so stuffed that we decided to have something light for dinner. So I made a quick pea and mint soup with some frozen bapaos. (Chinese dumplings with meat fillings).

Pea mint soup and dumplings

Rest of the time we managed to play board games and work on our Christmas puzzle. Last year we started a tradition of doing a 1000 piece puzzle during the holidays. It just seemed perfect to do a puzzle.

Pre Christmas events and bakes

David's Birthday hungry Caterpillar cake

November was a busy month. Rather, from October onwards, actually. It started off with entering the Write for 31 days October challenge. I am still on Day 15. I am sure I will finish it one of these days. My parents were here during the Autumn break. It was wonderful for them to join us for David's first birthday. A special milestone for us too. We remembered how things were during his birth and the months that followed.We remembered the different ways God worked in us and him, and gave thanks for the way He brought us through this difficult time, victoriously. Needless to say, challenges still do exist, but the tube weaning was a big gift He gave us. True to David and his eating, as well as he can, I made an hungry caterpillar cake.

Other baby shower gifts made by friends

Divya's Babyshower cake

Riek's "entering the Anglican church" cake

A few other cakes that I made for a friends baby shower and for another friends. I was glad that I could make more cakes this year than the past two years. 

We went to the Lego world exhibition in Utrecht during the Autumn break with my parents. It was heaven for the boys. And certain constructions were exciting for my Dad too.  

My brother was with us for the weekend in between work in Germany. It was nice to have the family together again. 

The boys went for their first football match in the PSV stadium in Eindhoven. It was my first too. The size of the field and watching the players up close was thrilling. ZTo make things even sweeter, PSV won!

Before my parents came, our wonderful friends the David family finally came to visit us all. Now, they lived here in Veldhoven and moved back to the States. And we were planning to visit them there. But , God works in funny ways... They moved to Budapest. And that makes it a bit more easier to see them. More on their trip and seeing my best friend who is completely my opposite but we love watching "Fixer upper" on my Write 31 days posts.

Bobby made a 1 week trip to Shanghai in between this for work. He kept on sending pictures of all the yummy food he ate there!

The week and the weekend came and went like a storm and before we knew it, it was just us in the house. Noisy enough, but the boys missed Appacha, Ammachi and Tutu mama.

My father

My brother and the boys

My parents

The world of Sinterklaas descended upon us quite quickly. From here on , it was all about following the events of the Sinterklaas story on the "Sinterklass Journaal" on TV.And also gifts come with this celebration at the end of it. Sinterklaas left for Spain and it was the Christmas Fair and Outreach following right after. In between all this there was a shower of baby showers that we hosted and attended. 

The 4th Annual Christmas fair  happened again this year and I had a few goodies for sale. We raised 1447 Euros in 2 hours. The money that was raised will be distributed among the various mission Trinity Church Eindhoven supports. Some of the things I made:

Chicken curry spice mix

Christmas cake  pre-ordered 

Another Christmas cake

Homemade Lavender Body butter

Christmas cake in a jar for friends as gifts

Some more gifts for collegues

On the 13th of December the kids performed their Kidzchurch musical. Benjamin was one of the wise men and Elijah was a sheep. He had talking parts too. They did a wonderful job at it. "Straw and Order" was fun and a hit.The Kidzchurch leaders did an amazing job making the musical a hit.


The week before, the Indians from our church organized the 3rd Outreach program for other Indian families in Eindhoven. The theme of the program was "real joy". A wonderful mime was performed showing how different distractions such as money, fame, status, social media get in the way in between the real joy giver (Jesus) and joys of this world. The event ended with a wonderful Indian dinner.

I am sure I have missed out a few more things and events, in this mish mash of a post.this should have been written out when these things happened. But it was a fun filled, busy, two months!
Now, waiting for Christmas!

DAY 16: More photos

Taking photographs is a part of our everyday life. With an iPhone, the quality of the pictures are exceptional and its always with me in my pocket. No need to go find the camera, get the settings right and click. By that time you have lost the moment.

Other than randomly catching moments to save them, we also take some regulars. Here are a few:

1. We have a family picture taken for our Christmas card every year. And every year we hang those  earlier years pictures on the Christmas tree, or put them on the fire place mantle.
2. We also take pictures at the beginning of every of every school year. 
3. For David, I make a collage of pictures on Instamag to mark his monthly milestones.(10 months, 11 months etc...)
4. A friend of mine does yearly photo books. Its wonderful to see pictures from that entire year.
5. Catalogue school pictures in the kids files. I love going through every school year photo. read more on that here .

Christmas Picture 2013

Big and Little