Huisduinen, the town we're staying

After a (mostly) uneventful flight, we've arrived save and sound in the Netherlands!
Only hiccup was a 65 minute delay before take-off in Portland, but fortunately we were not on the plane yet and during the flight we made up 20 minutes due to a brisk tail-wind.

Waiting for the plane to be cleaned, fueled and stocked up

It was freezing when we arrived and from the air the farmland around Amsterdam looked beautiful and frosty (sorry, bad picture, dirty window and dirty lens):

I'd already printed out train tickets on-line (the things you can do these days) and after grabbing a cup of coffee we were on our way to Den Helder, where my mom and sister live, about 1.5 hours north of Amsterdam.
The scenery going north was one of an old-fashioned dutch winter with frosted meadows, and frozen canals:

We were welcomed by my mom, sister and a niece and after coffee and pastries (the first of many) we drove to Huisduinen, a tiny little town just outside the city, where we will stay for the duration of our trip.
The adorable little cabin we'll live in sits next to the house of my niece in her lovely cottage garden ...




Here you can see the 'big house' on the left and us on the right:

                                         

And this is a peek of the inside, we even have a Christmas tree!

I think we'll be totally happy and cozy here. It's really very nice to have a space of our own where James can study and we can take some R&R when needed .. for everybody's sake.

We celebrated my Mom's 82nd birthday the next day, with more nieces and family attending. It was great to see everybody again, it had been a while. I was there 1.5 years ago but James hadn't been back for 6.5!
We all got together in the evening for pizza:

And just because I made all these pictures and didn't have time to post them before we left, here's a few from the 'Christmas Light Route' we drove around Newberg last weekend:

Most houses and decorations were a repeat of last year but it was a great tour once again ..

Inflatables are the thing these days. These reindeer (?) were gi-normous!

This last house on the list send everybody home with the season's standard greeting:
Merry Christmas!