We celebrated the New Year the three of us. Nora's afternoon nap was unusually long and she woke up at 8.00 pm. We had a late dinner together and opened the champagne. Nora's "champagne" had bubbles in it also and she wasn't a big fan ("is scherp"). But she loved the oliebollen.

She had her first bite before dinner. In fact, her dinner consisted mainly of oliebollen and lukanka, haha.

We had made home-made banichka with Lelya Snezha and a shopska salad. After dinner we danced to welcome the New Year, on Abba's tunes.

We wish you all a happy 2015!

Christmas fell on a Thursday this year so I took today off to make an extra long weekend. Since we were working on Wednesday we started early with the budni vecher preparations -- I started the dough for the pitka on Tuesday night. When the Zanes arrived around 7.00 pm we had the table ready.

We had a great budni vecher although sadly some of our guests couldn't make it. The coins fell to Jonathan and to Sasha, a lucky sign. We made kadaif for the first time, that recipe needs some more work. But the zele surmichki were absolutely excellent and we had nice stuffed peppers with beans. Irena brought grape leaf surmichki and for dessert butternut squash with apples.

Nora was delighted to see Julian and Ilana again and they had a great evening together. Her English is getting better.

Tonight we got together with our neighbors for a round of Christmas caroling.

It was cold out but we had a nice time before dinner -- singing and talking and eating some cookies.

I greatly enjoyed the singing and aside from a little confusion with "Oh Christmas Tree" I think we did a fine job. Nora shook her Christmas bells.

Yes, yes, indeed. Дядо Мраз -- the Bulgarian name we use for Santa Claus -- was in Clarendon and he speaks English.

We had brunch at the Boulevard Woodgrill and then we went to the Clarendon Commons where we saw Santa Claus and a Snowman and we met Rado and Maria there also.

Дядо Мраз asked Nora: "What do you want for Christmas?" but she didn't really know what to say.

So Sinterklaas speaks Dutch and English, and Дядо Мраз speaks Bulgarian and English.

A few days ago Nora and I sang a few songs together, in Dutch.

Listen to it here.

Nora: Dat is het liedje.
Guus: Ja gaan we nog zingen.
Nora: Ja!
Nora: Nee nee!

Guus starts to sing.

Nora: Nee, niet nog zingen.
Guus: Nee, niet meer zingen?
Nora: Nee. Niet meer zingen!

Guus: Ken jij bijvoorbeeld het liedje, Sinterklaas Kapoentje?
Nora: Em, ik kan niet Sinterklaas Kapoentje.
Nora: Oh nee. Nora kan dat liedje niet.
Nora: Ik kan wel... 'en we zingen en we springen'.
Guus: Oh ja! Siiinterklaasje kom maar binnen.... etc

Nora: Oh, het is daar donker...

Guus: En kan jij ook wel het liedje 'Zie ginds komt de stoomboot'?

Nora: Eh ja!

Together:

Zie ginds komt de stoomboot
Uit Spanje weer aan.
Het brengt ons St Nicolaas
Ik zie 'm al staan.
Hoe... huppelt zijn paardje het dek op en neer
Hoe waaien de wimpels al heen en al weer.
Zijn knecht staat te lachen en roept reeds toe.
Wie zoet is krijgt lekkers
Wie stout is de roe
Oh lieve Sint Nicolaas kom ook eens bij mij
En rijdt toch niet stilletje ons huisje voorbij.