Last bit of 2009

From the start of December to the end of it! The end of 2009 in fact... I always find it funny waking up on the final day of the year. You can already hear lots of fireworks going off from the moment you wake up because of all the little kids letting off their firecrackers.

This morning it's snowing, just like it has been on and off since halfway through December. Had Christmas been a week earlier, we would have had the whitest Christmas in years! We had some crazy snowy weather that week... Instead the few days of no snow started around Christmas Eve, when most of the snow started melting, and didn't end until last night. That's what I call ironic, haha, all our dreams of a proper white christmas smashed!

Anyway, December has been nice, especially the second half of it. Of course my holidays starting on the 18th has something to do with that :) Before that, life was quite busy, with Sinterklaas and associated creativeness and poem writing at the very start of December and then pre-holiday deadlines to meet for uni. And inbetween still trying to keep up some sort of social life :) But Sinterklaas was nice, first with the roomies and then with my fam, and all the deadlines were met. Plus, my social life wasn't completely out the door. Always a nice bonus :)

So crazy snowy weather started just one day before Christmas holidays started. I was lucky to get to Hengelo from Utrecht on Friday night, coz starting from Saturday there was pretty much no public transport that was going because of the snow. When you don't have to go anywhere though, all that snow gives a nice cozy wintery feel to everything. I love it :)

Christmas itself was nice. Christmas Day was just me and my parents, starting with a Christmas breakfast, ending with a lovely Christmas dinner and playing lots of boardgames inbetween. Boxing Day we had the traditional big Stroet family Christmas Dinner with all my aunties, uncles and cousins. Lovely as always too! The arvo before Christmas was good fun too :) It's a Hengelo tradition to go into the city centre with friends and have a few drinks in one of the many pubs/cafes. So we thought we had to honour that tradition :) It was a very fun and slightly tipsy afternoon, haha. Good times :)

And so now it's almost 2010! I'll be celebrating New Years in Utrecht this year, so that should be fun :) Looking forward to tonight anyway... And then we'll see what the new year will bring! Hopefully by the end I'll have a finished degree and have done a few more travels. But most of all, I just hope 2010 will be another year filled with good times with friends and fam :) January already promises to be a good start with some special visitors from Down Under, so I'm excited about 2010. Wishing you all a happy new year too, and that it brings you all that you hope it will :) Looking forward to sharing good times with you all in the year ahead!
Love Carine
xx