Farewell Blogger

In utter disgust I am leaving Blogger and joining the Typepad family.

My new blog site is http://debbiebrenner.typepad.com/.

See you there!

Catch Up

I have received a few harassing comments about my lack of posting. I have been a little bit busy. Doubling your household seriously cuts back on your free time for blogging. In many ways blogging is a Catch 22. When you are busy enough to have something interesting to blog about, you are too busy to sit down and actually blog.

Christmas went off without a hitch. The boys got great new bikes which they promptly rode to school and back in seven minutes flat. Sam got an easel and a plethora of art supplies. She also got an Easy Bake oven that her grandparents brought all the way from America. She made a cake all by herself and then ate it all by herself. She was so proud. Helmut got me a cool cable so I can play my iPod over the car stereo.

We spent Boxing Day at the MauritsHuis Museum admiring all the Vermeer paintings. It was a thrill to see “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” in real life. It is truly beautiful. We tried to go to the mall and the grocery store, but we could only find one store open in the whole city. In my opinion, Boxing Day isn’t even a real holiday.

On Thursday we took a short train ride to Delft. Helmut had visited Delft when he came for his job interview and loved it. We were not disappointed. The town square was all decked out for a weekly market full of all kinds of local fare…everything from cheese, sausage, bike repair supplies and fruit. After a quick shopping spree, we decided to climb the church tower of one of the churches on the square. What were we thinking? It was a LONG 384 feet climb on 8-inch stairs straight up a narrow spiral staircase. I knew we were crazy when we got half way up and realized the stairway was two way and we had to squeeze to one side to let some other tourists by (a little too close for comfort). We finally did make it to the top, but Helmut refused to set foot outside when he realized how high up we were. It was a beautiful view of the city and probably worth all the trouble.

Friday we left for Dusseldorf, Germany. We got there and started our trek to the hotel. I then realized why our hotel room was still available (when every other Best Western in the city was booked solid) and it was such a great price. We were in the heart of the gay part of town. Let’s just say the kids were forced to watch the sidewalk very closely while walking by many of the shops. On the positive side, the hotel was very nice and the rooms actually seemed to be “non-smoking” rooms. We took a walk down the shopping street which was full of every designer name you can think of. We had the best German food for dinner and then turned in for an early evening.

The next morning we took the train to Koln (Cologne) to see the famous Koln Dom. It is the hugest cathedral I have every seen and the largest Gothic structure in Germany. I am not much for touring churches, but this one was worth the trip. We had some more yummy German food for lunch, hit The Lego Store and then headed home.

My family left this morning at 4:30 AM. I am sure they were ready to head home and sleep in their own beds. We made sure we packed their two week visit completely full. It was great to have them and we will miss them being here.