Hubel Family!

Another year has gone.  I can't believe all that has happened since this time last year.  I have made a photo album of some pictures from 2006.  Here are my highlights for 2006:

 

January:  Starting the new year in Tunisia...visiting Carthage, troglodyte homes in Matmata (where part of Star Wars was filmed), spending new year's in an oasis in the Sahara desert and relaxing on the island of Djerba.  Having a wild birthday with the girls and lemon cello.  Flying to London to meet Olaf for my birthday weekend.

 

March:  Taking the train to Paris with the girls.

 

April:  Olaf gets the job!  We're moving to Seattle.

 

May:  Nice 4 day weekend away with Sara and Mars in our own little gite in France.

 

July: Finishing 3 great years at the International School of the Hague.  Our 1st anniversary.  A road trip through France to see two things I have always wanted to see:  cave paintings in the Dordogne Valley and the island of Mont St. Michel in Normandy.

 

August:  We become guardian parents to Anna Weter.  We move to Seattle, WA.

 

December:  We buy our first home! 

 

Sometime in the late spring, my friend Michelle cooked the single most tasty meal I have ever had:  Beef Wellington.  What seemed to be another fun girl's night, turned out to be heaven in our mouths.  It was the only time I saw my girlfriends fight over food; everyone wanted the last piece.  Michelle later provided us all with the recipe, which I recently tried out.  Olaf was very pleased with it, but I must admit that it wasn't as good as yours, Michelle.  Since I can't recreate it, I guess the memories will just have to do...

After finding out we were moving to the US, I thought I wouldn't see Sinterklaas again for a really long time, but I was wrong.  I was asked to help out at the Holland-America Club Sinterklaas party where there was over 100 Dutch kids (many expats, others living here permanently).  It was a bit weird to celebrate the holiday here, especially seeing Sinterklaas arrive on his boat with big, snow-capped mountains in the background along with the site of people water skiing; it just klopte niet helemaal.  The following day I was asked to volunteer as a Zwarte Piet for a gathering of 7 Dutch families.  I was a little nervous, as I don't know all the in's and out's of it and was afraid I would give it away when the children would ask me something that I couldn't answer.  That, being dressed up in black paint and a clown-sort costume, being on the spot and speaking Dutch the whole time was a little bit difficult, but turned out to be lots of fun!  The children were so sweet and excited and it was all worth it.  For those of you who don't know about Sinterklaas, you can look at this website:  http://www.dutchmarket.com/sklaas.html  It is actually from this Dutch holiday that we get Santa Claus, which, with the help of Coca Cola was commericalized here.  See if you can recognize me in the pictures.

This year Olaf and I hosted our first Thanksgiving dinner.  We were a little nervous hosting such a big a event, but had the help of our guests, as they each brought a dish or two.  That left just the turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and gravy and other little things up to us.  It was everyone's first Thanksgiving as all 3 couples have moved to the US this year.  Since they didn't know what the traditional dishes were, I supplied them with a website of recipes.  I also gave them some websites with the history of Thanksgiving and quizzed them on their knowledge before dessert.  It turned out to be a true feast and was actually fun to be the hostess!

On our 'day off,' a new friend, Rachel and I took a 6 mile hike along Snow Lake Trail.  It's 45 minutes from here, right next to some ski slopes.  It was a perfect autumn day with beautiful scenery.  Check out more pictures in my photo album.

After living in Kirkland, in the temporary housing that Microsoft provided for us for 2 months, we have now moved to the Seattle side.  The plan was to buy a house in the first 2 months, but since we didn't find anything, we decided to move to the west side of Lake Washington to see if we would like to live here.  So far, we like the city life and the view we wake up to every day, though Olaf's commute is much worse coming from this side.  We are living in Belltown, which is between the heart of downtown and Queen Anne.

Two new friends of mine, Marloes and Mirjam (both from the Netherlands), just experienced their first American Halloween by pumpkin carving.  I wanted to take them to a real pumpkin patch where we could choose our own pumpkins.  The one we went to was great!  It was about 45 minutes outside of Seattle and had 1,000's of pumpkins in a real patch to choose from.  We took a wheelbarrow and had fun choosing the right one.  At the pumpkin patch, they also had a corn maze, a hay maze, hayrides, petting zoo and a pig show.  That night, Marloes' neighbor had a pumpkin carving party and we carved to our hearts' content.  Lots of fun as an adult, after living out of the States for a while and doing it with people for their first time!

On August 8th our friends, Sara and Marcel had a baby girl, Anna Helen.  We were so honoured when they asked us to be her guardian parents and so excited that we got to meet her in the hospital 1/2 day before moving to the States.