Guus Bosman

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with the Zane family.

Milan and Nadia left on Thursday morning to New York, so Sasha, Nora and I spent a few days alone and we drove to Secaucus on Sunday afternoon. Packing the luggage took a lot longer than we had expected -- Nora adds quite a few extra items to our packing list. We left around 4.30 pm and had dinner at a highway stop in Delaware. Nora slept most of the time. She was getting a little bored at times but we sang songs and Sasha played with her. We arrived in Secaucus around 10.00 pm.

Jonathan and Irena moved to a new house (in the same complex) and spent the last two months renovating it. The result is beautiful. It was fun to compare the new house to the old one, which has partially the same layout. Nora and her cousins loved spending time together and it was great to see the Zane family.

On Monday we prepared the budni vecher dinner. Nadia made a very delicious pitka -- a recipe I will have to borrow -- and it was a great evening. Nora had some trouble adjusting to sleep on a new bed.

The next morning there were presents under the tree. It was great to see the kids enjoying the gifts. Nora had her first Christmas present ever, and she enjoyed opening it -- although she was distracted by the Santa hat I was wearing. She got great presents, including a pink cuddle cushion, new clothes, beautiful wooden games and several Dutch books.

Nora showed off her new skills. Milan and Nadia have been teaching her: "Колко голяма ще станеш? Толкова голяма!" ("How tall will you be? THIS tall!") and Nora now raises her arms to show how tall. When Irena said "chao chao" to say goodnight, Nora duly waived her little arm. The next day at the dinner time I asked her "Kun jij al pappa zeggen?", and to much applause Nora then repeated "pappa"!

We drove back on Christmas day and there was little traffic. We left at 5.30 pm and arrive at 9.40 pm -- a record.