The Christmas trees

This is the Christmas tree in my street.

And this is the Christmas tree I bought for myself :-)

Nicole's farewell party

I setup my Christmas tree at work today.

Sylvester to the rescue! ;-)

Fini.

Close-up with twinkles.

Eva came over in the evening. I made us pancakes. This was the first one I baked. I must've been thinking about someone special...

After the pancakes we went to see Nicole in a pub close by where she had her farewell party. In this photo: Marjolein, Nicole, unknown dude, Suzanne and Jon.

Reading this pub's cash register's most left column made me happy ;-)

The things

I bought Christmas stamps today. I guess I'll send a few cards here and there.

Random desk scene. What do we see? A Christmas card from Ray and Joyce. My grandpa's old watch next to my little notebook. An empty pint glass. A pen. A 2 Euro "double head" coin. One of the light bulbs from my Mustang's right taillight. Black lipstick for when I go ninja ;-) Under the light is my broken thumb-ring. Oh and a cup of tea of course...

A shitload of lights.... everywhere!

Actually from yesterday... Marjolein has her tablet back and now we can play wordfeud again. My first word was totally seasonal!

Today was 11-12-'13. I took the screenie at 14:15. That's not gonna happen for another 100 years...

The tree in front of Central Station is looking great now :-)

I met my good friend Ruud in Mulligans. They put up the Christmas decorations. It always makes the place special to me. I love it there.

We also went to have dinner at St. James' gate. Had a lovely hot winter meal there. On the square they're put a big tree. Very nice.

Last year there was also a Christmas market but not now. I like it better like this.

I had a little bit of this...

... and a little bit of that.

And then it was time to walk home along the dark canals of Amsterdam. It was freezing cold but I love walking home along the canals. One day I will move away from the city and I will miss this very much...

Somebody made a Christmas display in their window.

My mom in the hospital

My colleagues have started hanging up Christmas lights in the office. I guess I should put my tree together soon...

The new Shell building looked nice in the light on my way home.

My mom got a new knee yesterday and I visited her tonight with Ilse. She's doing OK but it's still painful.

The toilet in the hospital had cheesy wallpaper.

Raymond and Joyce sent me my first Christmas card!

Loads of surgery

I made pizza. And I worked. Oh and I watched TV. And my mom received a new knee in hospital today. She's doing OK now. And my best friend's little boy had heart surgery which also went OK.

So I guess today was a good day.

Visiting Raymond & Joyce

After a good and long sleep Corinne and I went out for breakfast. We had a few hours before she had to catch her train back home and going out for breakfast is just an incredibly relaxing way to start the day.

This was my breakfast. Awesome! Bit much though ;-)

After dropping Cori off I took a train to see Raymond and Joyce. I see them only a few times a year but it's always fun! It's funny how effortless you can stay in touch with certain people. I've known them for ehmm.. 15 years now? Shees I'm getting old ;-)

This is their dog Amor. She's a doll. And very well behaved as well, for a girl ;-)

Raymond showed me a cooking device I hadn't seen before. This is to smoke your salmon in. It cooks the salmon as well but not very hot. You put some wood shavings in the bottom and it makes smoke. Was very nice! And I learned about a new cooking tool :-)

I brought a bottle of pink champagne with me.

All professional... ;-)

When I got back at Central Station they were just putting up this year's Christmas tree. It looks like somebody took a bite out of it!