Mike and Anita James

For Grace and me, this was our first white Christmas.  It started snowing on Thursday, 17 December and stayed over a week.

The view during our morning walk

It seemed like a lot of snow to us, but on Sunday, we had much more.  Grace was able to play in the snow before we went to church.  She even had a snowball fight with our neighbor, Dirk.

Grace gets a huge snowball for the fight

While we were at church, the snow was coming down so hard!  I said that it looked more like someone was shaking feathers out of a pillow than snow.  The flakes were huge!

The after-church snowball fight

We came home and made our own snowman.  Because the snow was the perfect consistency, it only took the three of us about 10 minutes to finish.

Our snowman for home

All the snow was beautiful, but it wasn’t always wonderful.  On Christmas day, we had just finished opening our presents.  I thought I heard our dog chewing a new bone he got, but the sound wasn’t him.  I followed the sound until I found our roof leaking.  All the ice and snow had blocked the drain.  As the snow started to melt, it was had nowhere to go.  One part of our roof is flat, so the water started coming through our skylight.  It wasn’t a drip, it was a constant stream.  It started in one place and ended up in about eight different leaks.  Mike had the very good idea to use the plastic tubs we had for moving.  Each bucket held about three leaks.

What a mess!

We felt awful but had to get our neighbor/landlord to come help us.  For now the leak has been stopped, but we’re leaving the buckets out for a little while longer.

It’s definitely that time of year again.  Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) is here in The Netherlands.  He comes on a steamboat every year from Spain and stays a few weeks.  Gifts are given on Saint Nicholas’ birthday, December 5.  The next morning, he leaves to go back to Spain.

Sinterklaas

While Sinterklaas is in The Netherlands, children put their shoes by the fireplace or front door and get small gifts.  One favorite is a chocolate letter that is the initial of their first name.  No, Grace doesn’t get to eat the entire thing in one sitting.

Chocolate "G"

Most Dutch people don’t decorate their homes for christmas until Sinterklaas goes back to Spain.  I’ve cheated a bit.  I have put everything out except our tree.

Earlier this week, both Grace and I were sick.  Fortunately, our fevers only lasted a day or two.  It came at a terrible time though.  I guess there’s never a good time to get sick, but we got sick when we had company coming.  Our friends were sick the week before, so they had no problem coming into the “sick house.”

The sickness kept me from editing videos.  I’ve finally started on it again today.  We are working on a curriculum for our church that has video segments.  It should make it much easier for the workers, but it does create much more work for us.  We converted our guest room into a studio of sorts.  We’ve shot the video for the first four weeks.  Now, I’m editing it all.  When I’m done with that, we’ve got to get subtitles on it.  Our church is international and it functions with two main languages: English and Dutch.  Het kost veel tijd om iets in twee talen te doen! (It takes a lot of time to do something in two languages!)

So, while I’m working on video editing today, Mike is at the VPE congress.  The VPE is the church organization we work with here in The Netherlands.  Today is their yearly meeting.  It actually started yesterday.  Mike went yesterday to teach a seminar on children’s ministry  It’s nice that we are a team and can keep working even when we’re apart.

No, we don’t have major changes in our lives.  It is feeling much more like autumn here though.  Schools here had an autumn break last week, and it was so nice to have a little bit of time to relax as a family.  We were able to go to a few museums.  Here is Grace after she finished making the button she’s wearing.  It’s made to look like a jewel found in the Viking’s time in The Netherlands.

Grace at the museum

Leaves are changing and falling to the ground.  It’s beautiful until I have to clean up the yard.

Front Yard

Our time changed last week.  That means that we leave for school in daylight now, but it won’t be long before we’ll be leaving in darkness again.  I really don’t like having to turn on lights or start candles at 4:30, but that’s how it is.  I honestly expected it to be colder than it has been by now.  There were a few days a few weeks ago that I had to scrape ice off the windshields before leaving in the morning, but it’s been pretty nice since then.

It has cooled off a little though.  You know it’s cold in the house when our dog likes to be covered up.  I guess it could be because of the cold or that he’s terribly spoiled or ridiculous.  You can take your pick.

We should've named this dog Linus

We’ve been pretty busy with several things here.  Yesterday I worked in children’s church at the International Church of Leiden.  We were learning about the gospels and how we can learn about Jesus from them.  The children got into groups and spelled out the names of the gospels with their bodies.  Can you tell which gospel these children are spelling?

Spelling the Gospels

In the past, American missionaries have taught English Composition at Azusa, the Bible school here.  They aren’t in the country at the time, so I was asked to teach it for the time being.  I taught junior high school English when we lived in America, so this isn’t totally out of the normal for me.

It takes a while to get to Amsterdam, where the school is.  First, I have to ride my bike to the train station.

Anita's bike parked at the train station

I get on the train and go to Leiden Centraal station and change trains there.  I change trains again at Schipol, the airport in Amsterdam.  When I get to my last train station, I walk to get to the school.

Looking out the window of my train

Taking the train gives me plenty of time to listen to music, read or prepare for my class.  Since we have one car, we are so happy to be able to have public transportation and bikes.  It’s like having a second car.

After having to have our things go through customs, we were really happy to have our things arrive in The Netherlands.  It seems like it’s been so long since we shipped it from America that I had forgotten many of the things we packed.  That’s why it felt a little like Christmas today.

Our crate in The Netherlands

We had our winter clothes, some of Grace’s toys, towels, kitchen items, office supplies and children’s ministry supplies.  I think that when I opened this, I giggled the most in excitement.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slow cooker for Europe, but we actually found one at a store in Dallas.

My slow cooker for Europe

Grace had many clothes that someone had handed down to her, so she got to have a bit of a fashion show.  As you can guess, she enjoyed that.  I think of all the things we had in our crate, this is what Mike was the most excited about.

Taco Bell hot sauce

The caption on the sauce said, “Ahhhh.  We meet again.”  Mike said that it was really appropriate.  You can see that he didn’t waste any time in using some of the packages.

On Friday and Saturday, Mike attended a leaders’ weekend here in The Netherlands.  He had a wonderful time and got to reconnect with many people who work with the VPE, the church organization we work with.

On Sunday morning, we led a family Sunday at ICL, the International Church of Leiden.  It was so great to be able to minister there again.  It’s been over a year, and we were amazed at how many of the children not only remembered the puppets but also things they would say and do.

On Sunday afternoon, we ministered in The Hague at Thousand Hills Church The Hague.  This was the church’s first core group meeting.

Playing a game in kids' church

We had a great time with the kids and are expecting to see great things happen through this church.  The core group meetings will take place every other week until the church officially launches on Easter.  We will continue to help with their children’s ministry and train leaders to work with children.

Kids at Thousand Hills Church The Hage

Many things are different in America than in The Netherlands.  Since we’ve already lived here, we know some of the things to expect.  I like some of the things about American stores better – mainly the prices.  And, I like some of the things about Dutch stores better.  There aren’t as many choices, and I actually like that better.  When we got back to America, I was overwhelmed with how many types of toothpaste and shampoo there are.

This is what the cereal aisle looks like in The Netherlands.  (It also includes oatmeal.)

Cereal Aisle in The Netherlands

This is what the cereal aisle looks like in America.

Cereal Aisle in America

There’s a slight difference, huh?

We’re adjusting back to life in The Netherlands, and we’ve noticed that it’s happening much quicker than the first time we moved here.  One of the things we’ve had to get used to is how much smaller everything is.  Here is a drink from Whataburger in America:

Large Drink at Whataburger

Now, you need to compare it to the size of a drink at a cafe here.

Drink at a Cafe in The Netherlands

In America, there are free refills, and his drink costs about $2.  In The Netherlands, there is no refill, and the drink costs about $3.  We’re learning to pace ourselves!