I wish I made this picture but I didn't. I WAS there though! 

Wow, it's an old cliche, but time does fly! I'm back in the good ol' US of A, after a 5 week visit to friends and family in Holland. I had a great time, seeing everybody, drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of pies. I even got to experience a little bit of dutch winter, since it was unusually cold, it froze enough to be able to skate!
I barely took any pics, but here are some ...

 

You can't see it very well, but this is the sunrise above Amsterdam, while we were coming in for landing at around 7.45 am.

All flights, coming as well as going, went well, some minor and very short-lived turbulence, but really nothing to speak about. Which I like. A lot!

I flew from New Orleans to Houston and than to Amsterdam (no direct flights). By choosing a 'southern' airport as a lay-over I'd hoped to avoid any winter-weather delays that might occur when flying via New York or Boston. Which worked. There actually were delays over there when I came back ..

Like I said, and as usual, I drank a lot of coffee, while meeting with friends and family. 

Like here, at a restaurant at the 'dike', next to the harbor where the ferry to Texel comes in.

With my mom and sister

They always have great pastries here and you can't beat the view ...

Of course I visited the Nollen and met with my niece, her sons, and their wives and children. The family is growing!

This is the newest member, whom I had not met yet. 

What a ham! 

  

Always a great place for a family gathering. It's so 'gezellig' (cosy) here. Especially when hot soup is served and, as was the case, a big fire is roaring in the wood-stove!

Which definitely was a necessity, because it was COLD!

It's hard to see with the sun hitting it, but there was ice on the pond and it had snowed the day before!

Snow swirling around the train station, as seen from my mom's apartment (where it was nice and warm).

Winter was not done yet, or had returned, and pretty much all the time I was there it was arctic cold, with a hard wind from the north-east, straight from the pole!

The canals froze and you could even skate! I wanted to, but it really was almost too cold to risk the exposure, and besides that I was coming down with (what turned out to be) the flue, and wasn't feeling too well ...
Perfect weather for (dutch) pancakes though!

 

 I still know how to bake them!

I stayed at my sister for a few days this time around, and we baked this 'Oma-cake' together. Very good!

  

My sister and I visited the yearly flower show, 'de Lentetuin' (the Spring Garden), in Breezand, the town where we were born. 

This year had a nautical theme.

 

It's indoors, and I wish you could smell these flowers when you enter the first hall ... heaven!

Besides the 'entertainment' factor of this show, it's also an opportunity for the growers to show of new varieties. Prices are to be won for the best ones ...

    

I also went to the North-East of the country to visit my long-time girlfriend, Irène, for which I have to cross the longest 'dike' in the Netherlands, 20 miles, the Afsluitdijk!

I braved the icy conditions to stop at a viewing area about halfway and take a few pictures. Look at that ice on the railings!

Besides catching up with a year-and-a-half of 'happenings', I got to see my friend star in a musical, appropriately/coincidentally called 'America, America', brought on by a local musical theater of which she is a member.

She's the dark haired beauty in the middle here:

It was so well done and so much fun, we all had a blast!

Towards the end of my stay we all got together for a High Tea, my sister and my nieces, my mother and me, for which we each had made a few different dishes.
We first had a 'savory' course, followed by a sweet one.

 

 Man, was I stuffed!

As I said, time goes fast and before I knew it it was time to prepare for the journey back.

But not before collecting some dutch 'must-haves' to bring back to the States ...

 

                  

Stroopwafels (syrup waffles), Belgian bonbons (from Leonidas), Indonesian spices (for fried rice and noodles) and of course .. drop (sweet/soft) !

They will all disappear too fast but we'll enjoy every last bite of it until it's gone ..

And than I was back, and my husband was so happy, and the cat also, and the weather was beautiful and .. and ... it's like I never went, but I have the memories .. until next time!

It always takes some time to get over the jet-leg, and to acclimate, and to realize when I wake up that I'm home ..

And .. boy, was this an early Easter or what? 

Like I said, the weather was absolutely gorgeous, around 72, not too hot or cold, just right.

We were invited by our neighbors, which are family of James boss, and who are also, like a few others, living on the same property, to attend their Easter pot-luck.

Look at these cute Easter-bunnies!

Tables were set out on the lawn and, as usual, there was enough food to feed an army ..

 

With the sun so bright and the white table cloths and everybody at their best and the flowers and the tree-swing and the children running around, it was so ... southern, don't you think?

 

No Easter without eggs and candies ... enough for everybody to get a sugar-rush ...

       

Which the kids than tried to burn off by racing around during that other 'staple' of Easter ... the Easter egg hunt!

After a couple of hours we excused ourselves and waddled home .. all 300 yards ... I was pretty much stuffed.

Time to sit down and take a nap .. we're getting too old for this!

I'll end with a picture of these gorgeous, heirloom 'Hardy Amaryllis' that are lining the front yard.

They opened up just in time for Easter .. they're typical for most  'old' gardens of the South and they even have a slight spicy fragrance.

Phew, that was quite the post! It's almost 5.30 pm, time for James to come home from work and ... Happy Hour!