Merry christmas from Bronsbergen!

This picture was taken a few days ago. The snow is still there but it's not as white anymore.

Today we celebrate Christmas. I celebrate it in the Dutch snow with the kids and Marcel in the Australian sun. We're now at T-3 weeks before our departure to Oz. The count down can start.

The kids are still confused about Santa Claus and Sinterklaas. Sebastiaan keeps telling Julia: Santa Claus is dead! I hope they won't do that in their Australian school next year. It will upset a lot of kids and parents.

Today, they did not find any presents under the Christmas tree. After Sinterklaas and Sebastiaan's birthday, I've developed a strong allergy for shopping for presents. Hopefully this allergy will dissapear in 2010. Today and tomorrow, I'll give away my last presents from India. Amongst others, some books for my brother (books are ridiculously cheap in India).

Today we will make a 'count down tree' for Australia. We still have 20 days to go. For each day, the kids write on a piece of paper the date and draw an 'assignment'. For example, 'jump ten times in the air'. We hang these papers in the tree and each day the kids can open one piece of paper and do one 'assignment'. That's it. Very simple and that's how I like it!

The kids keep playing funny games. Yesterday, I went upstairs because it was very quiet. The kids were sitting on Julia's bed where they gathered all the stuff from the room. They played 'container ship'.

In the meantime, Marcel is preparing for our arrival in Sydney. He now bought a blue scooter for the busy Sydney traffic in the morning. Fun!