December surprises

December always surprises me with how all of a sudden it's just there. It simply sneaks up on you at the end of the year, and before you know it Christmas and New Year's is just around the corner. It's probably because December is always filled with so many festivities. Here in Holland it starts with Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa. (Or actually, history fact of the day, Santa is the international version of Sinterklaas and not the other way around. We Dutch are trendsetters, haha ;)) For me that meant one night of way too many pepernoten and many many laughs shared with my (ex)housemates over the funny poems every one of us wrote for someone else in our group, and sharing just as many pepernoten and laughs with my family the next day over the creative surprises and poems made for that night.

Talking of surprises, a different kind of surprise that December brought was that my ex-housemate Maaike - the one who went to Peru for a full year this Summer - came back to Holland unexpectedly for a whole month! It was quite the last-minute thing (she booked her ticket and flew on the same day to give you an idea...) but I went to the airport anyway to surprise her so she wouldn't arrive at the airport all alone with no one to pick her up :) It was so lovely to see her again, and to have her as a temporary housemate again for a little while :)

Sinterklaas had only barely left the country and it was time to move in the Christmas tree. With snow falling in large amounts outside, my housemate Eva went on a hunt for the perfect Christmas tree and came home with a slightly crooked but lovely tree an hour or 2 later :) Which was a good excuse to buy some very kitsch Christmas tree decorations too, haha. Check the photo below to see the endresult :) A few days later I also helped set up the Christmas tree at my parents' place, again with a big white blanket of snow outside in the background.

In between spontaneous trips to the airport and setting up the various Christmas trees, I actually also managed to get some work done on my thesis. I am happy to report that there's some good progress in it, although it's still moving slower than I had hoped. It's sometimes hard to spend so much time behind my computer screen, but as long as I mix it up with enough fun stuff it's alright :) Fun stuff such as a long lovely night playing Risk and card games with the boys, dinner and movie with all the girls, half-assed snow fights, a beautiful and fun Christmas dinner with the roomies and random intercontinental convos over skype. So a whole lot of loveliness spread out over four different continents to break up the study routine :)

And now it's almost time for Christmas! It will be the traditional family thing for me again this year, but I kind of love the tradition of Christmas too. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas as well, and I hope you all enjoy this special time of the year with the people you love :)

Love Carine xx


PS. I seem to have some trouble uploading photos right now. I'll try again in the morning, but for now I need some sleep first! My apologies, as I know you're all dying to see the kitschy Christmas tree ;)